Matthew 2:13-23 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew Chapter 2

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13. Ἀναχωρησάντων δὲ αὐτῶν, ἰδοὺ, ἄγγελος κυρίου φαίνεται κατʼ ὄναρ τῷ Ἰωσὴφ, λέγων, Ἐγερθεὶς παράλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ φεῦγε εἰς Αἴγυπτον, καὶ ἴσθι ἐκεῖ ἕως ἂν εἴπω σοι, μέλλει γὰρ Ἡρῴδης ζητεῖν τὸ παιδίον τοῦ ἀπολέσαι αὐτό. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him.”

14. Ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς παρέλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ νυκτὸς καὶ ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, Then he arose, took the child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt,

15. καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ ἕως τῆς τελευτῆς Ἡρῴδου, ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ[1] κυρίου διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, λέγοντος, Ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐκάλεσα τὸν υἱόν μου. and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

16. Τότε Ἡρῴδης ἰδὼν ὅτι ἐνεπαίχθη ὑπὸ τῶν μάγων, ἐθυμώθη λίαν, καὶ ἀποστείλας ἀνεῖλεν πάντας τοὺς παῖδας τοὺς ἐν Βηθλέεμ καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτῆς, ἀπὸ διετοῦς καὶ κατωτέρω, κατὰ τὸν χρόνον ὃν ἠκρίβωσεν παρὰ τῶν μάγων. When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was exceedingly angry, and sending out, he killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.

17. Τότε ἐπληρώθη τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ[2] Ἰερεμίου τοῦ προφήτου, λέγοντος, Then was fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

18. Φωνὴ ἐν Ῥαμὰ ἠκούσθη, [θρῆνος καὶ] κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὀδυρμὸς πολύς, Ῥαχὴλ κλαίουσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς καὶ οὐκ ἤθελεν παρακληθῆναι, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσίν. “A voice was heard in Ramah, [lamentation and][3] weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and she would not be comforted, because they are no more.”

19. Τελευτήσαντος δὲ τοῦ Ἡρῴδου, ἰδοὺ, ἄγγελος κυρίου κατʼ ὄναρ φαίνεται τῷ Ἰωσὴφ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

20. λέγων, Ἐγερθεὶς παράλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ πορεύου εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ, τεθνήκασιν γὰρ οἱ ζητοῦντες τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ παιδίου. saying, “Arise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the life of the child are dead.”

21. Ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς παρέλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἦλθεν[4] εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ. And he arose, took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel.

22. Ἀκούσας δὲ ὅτι Ἀρχέλαος βασιλεύει ἐπὶ[5] τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἀντὶ Ἡρῴδου τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, ἐφοβήθη ἐκεῖ ἀπελθεῖν, χρηματισθεὶς δὲ κατʼ ὄναρ, ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὰ μέρη τῆς Γαλιλαίας, But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee,

23. καὶ ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς πόλιν λεγομένην Ναζαρέθ[6] ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν ὅτι Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται. 2and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets that he will be called a Nazarene[7].

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[1] NA-Text omits “του”.

[2] NA-Text and Vg-St read “δια” (“through”, Latin equivalent “per”) instead of “by” (Gr.: υπο): א B C D Z Chrysostom Jerome (Latin: “dictum est per Jeremiam prophetam, Jerome’s commentary on Matthew 2:17) | TR: K L Γ Δ Π Theophylact support “υπο” || The Alexandrian preposition is very well supported and has been adopted in the Greek text.

[3] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “lamentation and”: א B Z 0250 ƒ¹ 22 279 372 1491 it^a it^aur it^b it^c it^f it^ff1 it^g1 it^k it^l it^q syr^p syr^pal cop^sa cop^mae cop^bo Hilary Macarius/Symeon Jerome Augustine Hesychius Bede Justin (Gr. “Φωνη εν Ραμα ηκουσθη κλαυθμος και οδυρμος πολυς”, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 78) Diatessaron^a. | TR: C D E K L W Δ Π Σ 0233 ƒ¹³, 28 33 157 180 205 565 579 597 700 892 1006 1009 1010 1071 1079 1195 1216 1230 1241 1242 1243 1253 1292 1365 1424 1505 1546 1646 2148 2174 Byz (it^d) syr^c syr^s syr^h arm eth geo slav (Diatessaron^arm) Origen Proclus Chrysostom Theophylact || 99% of all extant Greek manuscripts include this clause. Harmonization to Jeremiah 38:15 (LXX) could explain the inclusion in the Byzantine text or the loss of “lamentation and” reflected in Alexandrian manuscripts could be the result of visual homoeoteleuton (θρηνος και κλαυθμος, thus missing “lamentation and”). Jerome commenting on Jeremiah 31:15 says that Matthew did not follow the LXX in his citation, which included these two words. But because visual homoeoteleuton is still a real possibility as a scribal error to account for the omission of “lamentation and” and there is still a strong collective witness of Alexandrian, Byzantine and Western text types in favor of the inclusion along with most of the versions, it is more prudent to bracket it in the text and the translation. As a side note, the Greek text in the Complutensian Polyglot, which is Byzantine, contained “lamentation and” that was omitted in the parallel column containing the Latin text.

[4] NA-Text reads “εισηλθεν” (entered).

[5] NA-Text omits “επι”.

[6] NA-Text, P-Text, WPF³⁵ and M-Text read “ναζαρετ”: א B D L 33 700 892 1241 Byz Theophylact | TR: C K N W Γ Δ 0233^v.r. 0250 ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 28 565 it Byz^mss cop || There are two more occurrences of “Nazareth” in the gospel of Matthew. The one in Matthew 4:13 is strongly supported by all text types, including the original reading in codex Sinaiticus. And the other one in Matthew 21:11. The good support here and the excellent support in Matthew 4:13 indicates that “ναζαρεθ” is more aligned with Matthew’s writing style.

[7] Jerome observes that the reading “I called your sons” of Hoseah 11:1 in the LXX is incorrect. He then adds that Matthew is quoting this verse from the original in Hebrew.

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Notes:

1. Text in red letters are places where the original reading in the Textus Receptus has been revised and corrected;

2. The English translation used as a reference is the WEB brought to conformity as literal as possible to the Textus Receptus. The end product though is not the WEB or a revised WEB and it should not be called WEB. The content of this post is freely available to everyone and it is not supposed to be copyrighted;

3. TR: Textus Receptus. This text is not copyrighted;

4. NA-Text: Nestle-Aland text commonly known as critical text;

5. M-Text: Majority Text; 

6. M-Text^RP - Majority Text compiled by Maurice Robinson & William Pierpont;

6. M-Text^HF - Majority Text compiled by Zane Hodges & Arthur Farstad; 

7. Vg-St: Vulgate of Stuttgart;  

8. WPF³⁵: Wilbur Pickering-family 35;

9. P-Text: Patriarchal Text, also known as Patriarchal Greek New Testament, published by the ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

10. The creator of the variant apparatus available in the VarApp kindly gave me permission to freely use the information contained in the material he put together.

 

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To God all the glory for the preservation of the scriptures! He reigns!