The gospel according to Matthew
Chapter 11
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16. Τίνι δὲ ὁμοιώσω τὴν γενεὰν ταύτην; Ὁμοία ἐστὶν παιδίοις[1] ἐν [2] ἀγοραῖς καθημένοις καὶ
προσφωνοῦσιν τοῖς ἑτέροις αὐτῶν[3] “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is
like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling[4] to their companions[5]. |
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17. καὶ λέγουσιν, Ηὐλήσαμεν ὑμῖν, καὶ οὐκ
ὠρχήσασθε. Ἐθρηνήσαμεν ὑμῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἐκόψασθε. and[6] say, ‘We played the flute
for you, and you did not dance. We mourned for you[7], and you did not lament.’ |
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18. Ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε
ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, Δαιμόνιον ἔχει. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
say, ‘He has a demon.’ |
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19. Ἦλθεν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου
ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, Ἰδοὺ, ἄνθρωπος φάγος καὶ οἰνοπότης, τελωνῶν
φίλος καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν. Καὶ ἐδικαιώθη ἡ σοφία ἀπὸ τῶν τέκνων αὐτῆς. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they
say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and
sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children[8].” |
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20. Τότε ἤρξατο ὀνειδίζειν τὰς πόλεις ἐν αἷς
ἐγένοντο αἱ πλεῖσται δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ, ὅτι οὐ μετενόησαν. Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his mighty
works had been done, because they did not repent. |
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21. Οὐαί σοι, Χοραζίν. Οὐαί σοι, Βηθσαϊδά. Ὃτι εἰ ἐν Τύρῳ καὶ Σιδῶνι ἐγένοντο αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ
γενόμεναι ἐν ὑμῖν, πάλαι ἂν ἐν σάκκῳ καὶ σποδῷ μετενόησαν. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if
the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. |
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22. Πλὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, Τύρῳ καὶ Σιδῶνι ἀνεκτότερον
ἔσται ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως ἢ ὑμῖν. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. |
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23. Καὶ σύ, Καπερναοὺμ[9] ἡ ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ
ὑψωθεῖσα, ἕως ᾅδου καταβιβασθήσῃ; ὅτι εἰ ἐν Σοδόμοις ἐγένοντο αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ
γενόμεναι ἐν σοί, ἔμειναν[10] ἂν μέχρι τῆς σήμερον. And You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven[11], you will be brought down[12] to hell; for if the mighty
works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained
until this day. |
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24. Πλὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι γῇ Σοδόμων ἀνεκτότερον
ἔσται ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως ἢ σοί. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for
the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” |
[1] NA-Text, P-Text, WPF35 and M-Text read “παιδιοις” (children instead of
little children): א B Chrysostom
Theophylact || Greek text adjusted.
[2] NA-Text adds the definite article “ταις” before “marketplaces”, which goes together with the
following variant.
[3] NA-Text omits “αυτων” (their).
[4] Or: “who call” (NA-Text and Vg-St) instead of “and calling”: א B ƒ1 Jerome Bede | TR: Byz Hilary Theophylact || The Diatessaron seems to have conflated the
reading of Matthew and Luke and by doing so, it became an early witness to the
Alexandrian reading “who call” which is not found in Luke. The Alexandrian
reading has also internal evidence in its favor once it is possible to posit harmonization
to Luke 7:32 in the Byzantine text. This is a strong variant.
[5] NA-Text and M-TextHF read “others” (ετεροις) instead of “companions” (εταιροις): א B C D L W Zvid Θ 28 892 ƒ1 ƒ13
Byzpt | TR: G 565 700 1010 itaur itff1 itl Byzpt.
This is likely the case of an itacism that ended up changing the sense of the
word. Scrivener thinks that it was caused by “ex ore dictantis”, when a scribe writes from dictation, without
having a copy before him. Be that as it may, it is more prudent here to side
with the strength of the agreement between codices א, B, C, D, W and Θ. Text adjusted.
[6] NA-Text, P-Text and Vg-St omit “and”: א B Jerome Bede | TR: C L W Byz
Chrysostom Theophylact || It is possible that the early translators of the
Latin copies decided to not add “and” in the translation as it can be silent in
some contexts depending on the interpretation of the translator. The support for
the inclusion of the conjunction is strong.
[7] NA-Text omits “for you”
[8] NA-Text reads “works”: א B* W 202 1319 2145 syrp syrh copbo ethro | TR: B2 C D E F G K L N X Δ Θ Π Φ Σ ƒ1
22 28 33 157 174 180 205 565 579 597 700 892 1006 1009 1010 1071 1079 1195 1216
1230 1242 1243 1253 1292 1342 1344 1365 1424 1505 1546 1646 2148 2174 Byz ita
itaur itc itd itf itff1
itg1 ith itl itq syrs
syrc copmae goth arm ethpp geo Diatessaron
Irenaeus Origen Hilary Ambrose Epiphanius Chrysostom Jerome Augustine Bede Theophylact
|| Even though Jerome found “in some gospels… the wisdom is justified by her
works”, the evidence did not allow him to adopt this as the primary reading for
his commentary on Matthew or his Latin translation of the gospels. Internal
evidence does not suggest harmonization to Luke 7:35, otherwise we would see
the reading “all her children”, not “her children” in Matthew 11:19. Works was
possibly an application of the word “children” in the early church that ended
up accidently creeping into the text of a very small minority of Greek
manuscripts (0.4%). Looking at the mass of Greek manuscripts in favor of “her
children” along with the Latin witnesses Scrivener concluded that this is
“undoubtedly the only true reading”. Codex Vaticanus was corrected in the 500’s
or 600’s when scribes realized that the reading was not aligned with the
overwhelming majority of Greek copies
[9] NA-Text and Vg-St read “καφαρναουμ”. See footnote in Matthew 4:13.
[10] NA-Text and Vg-St read “εμεινεν”
(singular instead of plural, Latin equivalent: mansissent): א B | TR: D Chrysostom
Theophylact || The TR has preserved the harder reading that would have been
subject to scribal adjustment. If
that was an error, the Greek church would be the first to notice that there was
a copyist error in this text and would have corrected it at some point from
Chrysostom in the late 300's all the way up to Theophylact in the middle-ages.
But they received and preserved this reading in the church.
[11] NA-Text and Vg-St read “will you be exalted to heaven?” (Gr.: μη εως ουρανου υψωθηση,
Latin: numquid usque in caelum exaltaberis): א B C1 D Y W Θ 372
1253 || TR: E F G K L M N S U V X Y Γ Π* Σ Δ 33 ƒ1
Byz Diatessaron Chrysostom Maximus the confessor Caesarius Nazianzus Theophylact
|| Jerome reports that he had access to a manuscript that read the verse as a
positive statement. Book 4 of Irenaeus’ work “against heresies” reads it as
question (4:36:3) but as this portion of his work survived only in Latin, the
translator may have adjusted the verse to read it as a question like his Latin
copy of the bible, once no Greek father appeared to have ever quoted this verse
as a question. Internal evidence strongly suggests that the “μη” at the beginning of the question is a scribal
error once Capernaum ends with “μ”. Given that the early manuscripts were written without spaces between
the letters, an early scribe may have accidentally merged the “μ” at the end of word “Capernaum” with the “η” of the relative pronoun from which flow the rest of the sentence, thus creating the
negative statement that is interpreted as a question (καφαρναουμη). A scribe noticed the error in codex Vaticanus and corrected it in the
500-600’s.
[12] Or: “go down” (Gr.: καταβηση,
NA-Text; Latin: descendes, Vg-St): B D W lat syrs syrc Diatessaronarab
Jerome Bede | TR: א C E F G K L N X Y Δ Θ Π Σ Φ ƒ1
ƒ13 28 33 157 700 892 Byz Chrysostom Theophylact || Internal
evidence through the canon of the harder reading can go both ways. The word “καταβιβαζο” (bring down) occurs only here and in the parallel passage in Luk 10:15
whereas the word “καταβαίνω” (go down) occurs 81 times in the New Testament.
It is possible that a scribe adjusted the word here to the more common “go
down” as reflected in codices Vaticanus, Bezae and Washingtonianus or that
“bring down” in Mt 11:23 is a harmonization to Luke 10:15.
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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-TextRP - Majority Text compiled by Maurice Robinson & William Pierpont;
6. M-TextHF - 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!
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