Matthew 14:1-12 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 14

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1. Ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ ἤκουσεν Ἡρῴδης ὁ τετράρχης[1] τὴν ἀκοὴν Ἰησοῦ, At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus,

2. καὶ εἶπεν τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ, Οὗτός ἐστιν Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστής. Αὐτὸς ἠγέρθη ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αἱ δυνάμεις ἐνεργοῦσιν ἐν αὐτῷ. and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead, and for this reason these powers are working in him.”

3. Ὁ γὰρ Ἡρῴδης κρατήσας τὸν Ἰωάννην ἔδησεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἔθετο[2] ἐν φυλακῇ διὰ Ἡρῳδιάδα τὴν γυναῖκα Φιλίππου τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ, For Herod had arrested John, bound him[3], and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.

4. Ἔλεγεν γὰρ αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰωάννης, Οὐκ ἔξεστίν σοι ἔχειν αὐτήν. For John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

5. Καὶ θέλων αὐτὸν ἀποκτεῖναι ἐφοβήθη τὸν ὄχλον, ὅτι ὡς προφήτην αὐτὸν εἶχον. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they regarded him as a prophet.

6. Γενεσίων δὲ ἀγομένων[4] τοῦ Ἡρῴδου ὠρχήσατο, ἡ θυγάτηρ τῆς Ἡρῳδιάδος ἐν τῷ μέσῳ καὶ ἤρεσεν τῷ Ἡρῴδῃ, But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced among them and pleased Herod,

7. ὅθεν μετὰ ὅρκου ὡμολόγησεν αὐτῇ δοῦναι ὃ ἐὰν αἰτήσηται. so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

8. Ἡ δὲ, προβιβασθεῖσα ὑπὸ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῆς, Δός μοι, φησίν, ὧδε ἐπὶ πίνακι τὴν κεφαλὴν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ. And she, being prompted by her mother, said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

9. Καὶ ἐλυπήθη[5] ὁ βασιλεύς, διὰ δὲ τοὺς ὅρκους καὶ τοὺς συνανακειμένους ἐκέλευσεν δοθῆναι, And the king was grieved, but[6] because of the oaths and of those who sat at the table with him, he commanded it to be given,

10. καὶ πέμψας ἀπεκεφάλισεν τὸν[7] Ἰωάννην ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ. and he sent and beheaded John in the prison.

11. Καὶ ἠνέχθη ἡ κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ πίνακι καὶ ἐδόθη τῷ κορασίῳ, καὶ ἤνεγκεν τῇ μητρὶ αὐτῆς. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

12. Καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ἦραν τὸ σῶμα[8], καὶ ἔθαψαν αὐτό[9]. Καὶ ἐλθόντες ἀπήγγ ειλαν τῷ Ἰησοῦ. And his disciples came, took the body, and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

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[1] NA-Text reads “τετρααρχης”. Codex Vaticanus agrees with the Byzantine text.

[2] NA-Text reads “απεθετο”, thus rendering literally “and put him away in prison”.

[3] NA-Text brackets “him”. The collective witness of the Greek majuscules and minuscules of all text-types is overwhelmingly against the omission of this pronoun. It was possibly lost in codices א and B by visual homoeoteleuton (εδησεν αυτον, thus missing “him” after “bound”). A scribe noticed the error in codex Sinaiticus and corrected it in the 500’s or 600’s.

[4] NA-Text reads “γενεσιοις δε γενομενοις”, Herod’s birthday “came” instead of “was celebrated”.

[5] NA-Text reads “λυπηθεις” (participle instead of indicative). Codices Sinaiticus and Ephraemi agree with the Byzantine tense.

[6] NA-Text omits “but”, possibly missed by homoeoarcton (δια δε, thus missing “but”). The collective witness of the majuscules, including codex Sinaiticus, the minuscules and the versions is against this omission.

[7] NA-Text brackets the definite article “τον”, possibly missed by homoeoteleuton (απεκεφαλισεν τον, thus missing “τον”). The collective witness of the majuscules and the Byzantine manuscripts is against the omission of this article.

[8] NA-Text reads “πτωμα” (corpse).

[9] NA-Text adds “ν” within brackets, giving a masculine alternative for the pronoun “it” after buried. The collective witness of the Greek majuscules and minuscules is against a masculine pronoun here.

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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!