Matthew 9:9-13 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

 The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 9

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9. Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Ματθαῖον[1] λεγόμενον. Καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ, Ἀκολούθει μοι. Καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed him.

10. Καὶ ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ ἀνακειμένου ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, καὶ ἰδοὺ πολλοὶ τελῶναι καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἐλθόντες συνανέκειντο τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ. And it happened, as he sat at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.

11. Καὶ ἰδόντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι εἶπον[2] τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, Διὰ τί μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐσθίει ὁ διδάσκαλος ὑμῶν; And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12. Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀκούσας εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ ἀλλ᾽ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες. When Jesus[3] heard it, he said to them[4], “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

13. Πορευθέντες δὲ μάθετε τί ἐστιν· Ἔλεον[5] θέλω, καὶ οὐ θυσίαν, οὐ γὰρ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους, ἀλλὰ[6] ἁμαρτωλούς But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners [7].”

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[1] NA-Text reads “μαθθαιον”: א B D | TR (“ματθαιον”): Θ Byz Chrysostom Theophylact. Tregelles thinks that the Alexandrian “μαθθαιον” is the original reading on the authority of codices B and D || Scrivener agrees that the Alexandrian form of this proper noun is to be preferred, but this conclusion is not compelling, because Matthew 9:9 is the opening verse for Chrysostom 30^th homily and it reads “ματθαιον”. Codex B and Chrysostom are both in the 300’s. The evidence is not conclusive here. Both forms are acceptable. The Byzantine “ματθαιον” found in the TR has been maintained in all five occurrences of this proper noun in the New Testament (Mt. 9:9, 10:3, Mk. 3:18, Lk. 6:15 and Acts 1:13).

[2] NA-Text reads “ελεγον” (imperfect instead of aorist).

[3] NA-Text omits “Jesus”.

[4] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “to them”: א B C* D 892 1424 syr^s cop^sa | TR: C³ K L N W Γ Δ Θ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 33 565 579 700 syr^p syr^h cop it^a it^f it^h it^q Theophylact. Risk of harmonization in the Byzantine text to the parallel passage in Mark 2:17 is weakened by the fact that those clauses are slightly different and have been fully preserved as such in each gospel. This is not a safe correction to the text in virtue of the strong support for the inclusion of the pronoun from a diversity of witnesses.

[5] NA-Text reads “ελεος” (neuter instead of masculine).

[6] NA-Text, P-Text, WPF³⁵ and M-text read “αλλα”, which is based on a broader array of evidence and has been adopted in the Greek text.

[7] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “to repentance”: א B D N W Γ* Δ 0233 ƒ¹ 22 33 174 372 565 vg syr^p syr^h cop^bo(pt) Jerome Bede | TR: C L Θ f13 700 Byz it^c it^g1 syr^s syr^h(mg) cop^sa cop^mae copbo^(pt) Fortunatianus Hilary Fulgentius of Ruspe (The truth about predestination and grace, book 2:2:3) Chrysostom Epiphanius (specifically referring to Matthew, Panarion, 51:4:1) Theophylact || The phrase “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” was one that the early church fathers appreciated and it shows up in their writings right from the 100’s in the epistle of Barnabas, the Diatessaron and the writings of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Augustine liked to quote this verse in his writings. “to repentance” here and in Mark 2:17 are likely an interpolation from Lk 5:32, since the sentence became familiar to them. Scrivener also thinks that this is an interpolation in the traditional text. The text has then been adjusted by dropping these words from it. As a side note, both the Greek and the Latin text in the Complutensian Polyglot read “to repentance”.

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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. VgSt: Vulgate of Stuttgart;  

7. WPF³⁵: Wilbur Pickering-family 35;

8. PT: Patriarchal Text, also known as Patriarchal Greek New Testament, published by the ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

9. 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!