Does it matter? Does Matthew 23.14 belong in your Bible?

AV/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.

ESV: [missing]

It does matter … Because every word of God matters (Proverbs 30.5). But also because there is overwhelming documentary evidence since the earliest times for this reading. They are in the majority of manuscripts and they are quoted by early Christian writers from the second century onwards. This omission in the ESV is serious because it is the only instance in Scriptures of denouncing this particular sin.

Background

The omission of these words by the modern Critical Text is supported by Codices Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Bezae. The inclusion of the words, which are universally cited in the Byzantine Text, is supported by Tatian’s Diatessaron in the second century AD, and by an entire sermon of Chrysostom on this very verse in the fourth century.

Doctrinal Difference

Given the fallen nature of man, it is cardinally important that all verses in the time-proven Byzantine Text denouncing a particular sin be retained in the Holy Writ.