Matthew 23:14 KJV
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye devour widows’ houses,
and for a pretence make long prayer:
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
The New American Standard Bible puts this verse between brackets and has a footnote saying that early manuscripts do not contain this verse.
Matthew 23:14 NASB
[Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
because you devour widows’ houses,
and for a pretense you make long prayers;
therefore you will receive greater condemnation.]
The Revised Version omits this verse, but informs us in a footnote that some authorities insert here, or after verse 12 the text of verse 14, followed by the text of the verse.
This verse is very similar to Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47.
This verse is lacking altogether in early manuscripts, Ethiopic, Armenian, several Italic, Syrian and Coptic manuscripts, and the writings of several early Church Fathers.
It appears before verse 13 in two, not so ancient manuscripts, and several minuscules.
It appears after verse 13 in one not so ancient manuscript, some Italic and Syriac and Coptic manuscripts.
The fact that it is absent from the most ancient sources of multiple text types, and that the sources that do contain the verse disagree about its placement, as well as the fact that it is a repetition of verses found elsewhere, show “that verse 14 is an interpolation derived from the parallel in Mark 12:40 or Luke 20:47 is clear.”
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