Matthew 1:18-25 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew Chapter 1

18. Τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ ἡ γέννησις[1] οὕτως ἦν. Μνηστευθείσης γὰρ[2] τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ Μαρίας τῷ Ἰωσήφ, πρὶν ἢ συνελθεῖν αὐτοὺς, εὑρέθη ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. While his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19. Ἰωσὴφ δὲ ὁ ἀνὴρ αὐτῆς, δίκαιος ὢν καὶ μὴ θέλων αὐτὴν παραδειγματίσαι[3], ἐβουλήθη λάθρᾳ ἀπολῦσαι αὐτήν. And Joseph her husband, being just and not willing to make her a public example, resolved to put her away secretly. 20. Ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐνθυμηθέντος, ἰδοὺ, ἄγγελος κυρίου κατʼ ὄναρ ἐφάνη αὐτῷ, λέγων, Ἰωσὴφ, υἱὸς Δαυίδ, μὴ φοβηθῇς παραλαβεῖν Μαριὰμ[4] τὴν γυναῖκά σου, τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἁγίου. But as he was thinking about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21. Τέξεται δὲ υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν, αὐτὸς γὰρ σώσει τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν. And she will give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22. Τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ [5] κυρίου διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, λέγοντος, Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23. Ἰδοὺ, ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσουσιν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ, ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον, Μεθʼ ἡμῶν ὁ θεός. “Behold, the virgin[6] will conceive and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel,” which means, “God with us.” 24. Διεγερθεὶς[7] δὲ ὁ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕπνου ἐποίησεν ὡς προσέταξεν αὐτῷ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου καὶ παρέλαβεν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife 25. καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως οὗ ἔτεκεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. but did not know her until she had given birth to her firstborn[8] son, and he called his name Jesus. [1] NA-Text reads “γενεσις” that could be translated as genesis, origin or birth || Even though several important majuscules appear on the side of the Alexandrian text, the Byzantine “γεννησις” is in line with the earlier witnesses Irenaeusgr in the 100’s and Origen in the 200’s. Griesbach, Wordsworth, Lachmann, Alford, Tishendorf, Tregelles, Hort, Baljon and von Soden have all sided with the Alexandrian reading for this variant. Nevertheless Hort, noticing the antiquity of this reading, classified it as “pre-Syrian” within his paradigm of the transmission of the text. Scholz maintained this reading in his compilation, which has preserved a more ancient text and is attested by early Byzantine witnesses like Chrysostom and Epiphanius and has been maintained with no change in the text.  [2] NA-Text omits “γαρ”. [3] NA-Text reads “δειγματισαι”, which can be more or less interchangeable in this context. [4] NA-Text reads “μαριαν”. [5] NA-Text omits “του”: א B C D W Z Δ 071 ƒ1 ƒ13 33. This omission is very well supported and has been adopted in the Greek text. [6] Matthew follows the LXX which uses the word “virgin” instead of the ambiguous Hebrew word “almah” that refers primarily to a young woman that can be a virgin depending on the context (e.g. Deut. 22:25-29). Jerome commenting on Isaiah 7:14 says that this Hebrew word is used to describe a young woman hidden in secret from the sight of men, guarded by her parents with great care. [7] NA-Text reads “εγερθει”, literally “having awakened”. [8] NA-Text omits “her firstborn” and renders “a son”:  א B Z 071vid ƒ1 ƒ13 33 (1182 copsa υιον αυτης) 1192 pc itb itc itg1 itk syrs syrc syrpal(mss) (copbo τον υιον) copmae geo Ambrose Chromatius | TR: C Dc (D* L itd itq omit αυτης) E K N W Δ Π Σ 087 28 157 180 205 565 579 597 700 828 892 1006 1009 1010 1071 1079 1195 1216 1230 1241 1242 1243 1292 1365 1505 (1546 υιον αυτοις) 1646 2148 2174 Byz itaur itf itff1 vg syrp syrh syrpal(mss) arm eth nub slav Diatessaron Athanasius Cyril-Jerusalem Didymus Didymusdub Epiphanius Chrysostom Jerome Augustine Proclus Ps-Athanasius || The TR reading is supported by 98.6% of all extant Greek manuscripts containing the passage, including Alexandrian, Byzantine and Western text-types found collectively in the vast majority of majuscules and minuscules along with a strong Patristic witness. This is the harder reading from the perspective of sacred tradition. In this scenario, harmonization to Luke 2:7 in less unlikely. If that was the case, we would certainly see a resistance against this intrusion in the text in patristic witnesses such as Epiphanius, Basil and Jerome. Luke 2:7 can be easily read in a way that does not imply the loss of virginity on the part of Mary after the birth of Jesus, but authors like Ambrose, Epiphanius and Basil felt particularly challenged by the statement in Matthew 1:25. Jerome himself was aware of this textual variant as he wrote his treatise against Helvidius, but the most ancient Greek manuscripts available to him did not allow him to drop “her firstborn” in the vulgate. And the fact that “her firstborn” was steadfastly preserved in the scriptures of the two main branches of the church leads us to conclude that “her firstborn” should remain in the text.

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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!