Matthew 11:7-15 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 11

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7. Τούτων δὲ πορευομένων ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγειν τοῖς ὄχλοις περὶ Ἰωάννου, Τί ἐξήλθετε[1] εἰς τὴν ἔρημον θεάσασθαι; κάλαμον ὑπὸ ἀνέμου σαλευόμενον; As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

8. Ἀλλὰ τί ἐξήλθετε ἰδεῖν; Ἄνθρωπον ἐν μαλακοῖς ἱματίοις[2] ἠμφιεσμένον; Ἰδοὺ, οἱ τὰ μαλακὰ φοροῦντες ἐν τοῖς οἴκοις τῶν βασιλέων[3] εἰσίν. But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.

9. Ἀλλὰ τί ἐξήλθετε; Ἰδεῖν προφήτην; ναί, λέγω ὑμῖν, καὶ περισσότερον προφήτου. But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.

10. Οὗτός γάρ ἐστιν περὶ οὗ γέγραπται, Ἰδοὺ, ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου. For[4] this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ [5]

11. Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐκ ἐγήγερται ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν μείζων Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ. Ὁ δὲ μικρότερος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν μείζων αὐτοῦ ἐστιν. Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

12. Ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἕως ἄρτι ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται, καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

13. Πάντες γὰρ οἱ προφῆται καὶ ὁ νόμος ἕως Ἰωάννου προεφήτευσαν[6]. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John

14. Καὶ εἰ θέλετε δέξασθαι, αὐτός ἐστιν Ἠλίας ὁ μέλλων ἔρχεσθαι. and if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.

15. Ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω. He who has ears to hear[7], let him hear.

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[1] NA-Text reads “εξηλθατε”. Same word spelled differently also in verses 8 and 9. Scrivener thinks that the Alexandrian spelling is more correct, but the evidence does not confirm this. Origen in the 200’s in Egypt quoted this verse verbatim using the Byzantine spelling (Origen's Commentary on John, book 6, ch.8).

[2] NA-Text omits “clothing” leaving it implied in the text.

[3] M-Text and WPF³⁵ read “βασιλειων”, a genitival form of “kings” that was never used anywhere else in the New Testament. This is probably a minor copyist error found in some Greek copies such as K, L, 565^c and the Byzantine manuscripts. Both Chrysostom and Theophylact Greek texts support the correct reading in the TR, P-Text and NA-Text.

[4] NA-Text omits “for”.

[5] Jerome commenting on this prophecy that is found in Malachi 3:1 says that Matthew decided not to quote in his gospel the Greek translation commonly known as the Septuagint. He then goes on to say that: “the apostles, the evangelists and the Lord himself have not followed the authority of the seventy interpreters; they had no need for it for they knew the Hebrew language and so they translated what they had read in Hebrew, not so much concerned about syllables, points and commas as long as the sense was faithfully translated” (Commentary on Malachi 3:1, Jerome)  

[6] NA-Text reads “επροφητευσαν”. Same verbal tense spelled differently.

[7] NA-Text omits “to hear” and renders “he who has ears, let him hear”: B D 174 700 pc it^d it^k syr^s | TR: א C E F G K L N W X Z Δ Θ Π Σ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 28 33 157 180 205 565 579 597 892 1006 1009 1010 1071 1079 1195 1216 1230 1242 1243 1253 1292 1342 1365 1424 1505 1546 1646 2148 2174 Byz it^a it^aur it^b it^c it^f it^ff1 it^g1 it^h it^l it^q vg syr^c syr^p syr^h syr^pal cop^sa cop^mae cop^bo goth^vid arm eth geo slav Diatessaron^arm Justin (Matthew 11:12-15 in his dialog with Trypho, chapter 51) Hyppolitus (refutation of all heresies 8:3) Docetists^{according to Hippolytus} Clement Origen^gr Origen^lat Chrysostom (homily 37) Jerome (Latin: “Qui habet aures audienti audiat”, Commentary on the gospel of Matthew 11:15) Bede Thomas Aquinas Theophylact || The Greek manuscripts, the versions and patristic witnesses are overwhelmingly against this Alexandrian reading from the 100’s all the way up to the 1200’s. This portion of scripture might have been accidentally lost in those few Greek copies through visual homoeoarcton (ακουειν ακουετω, thus missing “to hear”), but it has been preserved in all Byzantine compilations, the TR and the vulgate. Lachmann noticed the strength of the evidence against this omission in codex Vaticanus and did not omit “to hear” in his Alexandrian compilation. Tregelles also with all his appreciation for codices B and D, included this word in the text within brackets.

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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!