Matthew 8:14-22 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 8

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14. Καὶ ἐλθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν Πέτρου, εἶδεν τὴν πενθερὰν αὐτοῦ βεβλημένην καὶ πυρέσσουσαν. And when Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.

15. Καὶ ἥψατο τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀφῆκεν αὐτὴν ὁ πυρετός, καὶ ἠγέρθη καὶ διηκόνει αὐτῷ. And He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and served him[1].

16. Ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ δαιμονιζομένους πολλούς· καὶ ἐξέβαλεν τὰ πνεύματα λόγῳ, καὶ πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας ἐθεράπευσεν, When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,

17. ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος, Αὐτὸς τὰς ἀσθενείας ἡμῶν ἔλαβεν καὶ τὰς νόσους ἐβάστασεν. that it might be fulfilled what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.

18. Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς πολλοὺς ὄχλους περὶ αὐτὸν, ἐκέλευσεν ἀπελθεῖν εἰς τὸ πέραν. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes[2] around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.

19. Καὶ προσελθὼν εἷς γραμματεὺς εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Διδάσκαλε, ἀκολουθήσω σοι ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

20. Καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσιν καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκηνώσεις, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἔχει ποῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν κλίνῃ. And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

21. ἕτερος δὲ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ[3] εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Κύριε, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθεῖν καὶ θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου. And another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

22. ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν[4] αὐτῷ, Ἀκολούθει μοι, καὶ ἄφες τοὺς νεκροὺς θάψαι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς. But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

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[1] NA-Text, M-Text, P-Text, WPF³⁵ and Vg-St read “him” (Gr. “αυτω”) instead of “them” (Gr. “αυτοις”): א*^vid B W Θ 700 Byz it^k cop^sa Chrysostom Jerome Bede | TR: א¹ L Δ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 33 565 892 1424 pm vg syr^s syr^c cop^bo Theophylact || Internal evidence suggests that scribes harmonized Matt. 8:15 with the parallel passages in Mk 1:31 and Lk 4:39 that read “them”. Bengel agrees that that was the case here. This tendency can be seen in codex Sinaiticus that was corrected from the original “him” to “them” in the 4^th or 5^th century. The text has been adjusted accordingly.

[2] NA-Text reads “a multitude”. The shorter reading in the NA-Text is most certainly a copyist error probably caused initially by visual homoeoteleuton (πολλους οχλους, thus missing “great”) and a later adjustment to make “οχλους” read better in context in the absence of “πολλους”. The first textual loss can be clearly seen in codex Sinaiticus whose original reading before the correction in the 7^th century was simply “οχλους”. The overwhelming weight of the collective witness of the majuscules, minuscules, patristic witnesses and the versions is in favor of the TR, strongly suggesting a local error reflected in codex Vaticanus and some manuscripts of the Sahidic Coptic version.

[3] NA-Text brackets “αυτου” rendering “the disciples” instead of “his disciples”. WPF³⁵ omits the pronoun: א B 33 2148 it^a (it^b) (it^c) (it^h) (it^q) cop^sa slav | TR: C E G K L N W X Δ Θ Π Σ 0250 ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 157 180 205 565 579 597 700 892 1006 1009 1010 1071 1079 1195 1216 1230 1242 1243 1253 1292 1342 1365 1424 1505 1546 1646 2174 Byz it^aur it^ff1 it^g1 (it^k) it^l syr^c syr^s syr^p syr^h syr^pal cop^mae cop^bo goth arm eth geo Jerome Chrysostom || The agreement of very good witnesses in different transmission lines, the Latin scriptures, the collective witness of the versions and two important early fathers in the 300’s confirm that this pronoun belongs in the text.

[4] NA-Text reads “λεγει” (present instead of aorist).

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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!