Matthew 15:10-20 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 15

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10. Καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τὸν ὄχλον εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Ἀκούετε καὶ συνίετε. And summoning the multitude, he said to them, “Hear, and understand.

11. Οὐ τὸ εἰσερχόμενον εἰς τὸ στόμα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐκπορευόμενον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦτο κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles the man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

12. Τότε προσελθόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἶπον[1] αὐτῷ, Οἶδας ὅτι οἱ Φαρισαῖοι ἀκούσαντες τὸν λόγον ἐσκανδαλίσθησαν; Then his[2] disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13. Ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν, Πᾶσα φυτεία ἣν οὐκ ἐφύτευσεν ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ οὐράνιος ἐκριζωθήσεται. And answering, he said “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.

14. Ἄφετε αὐτούς, ὁδηγοί εἰσιν τυφλοὶ τυφλῶν. Τυφλὸς δὲ τυφλὸν ἐὰν ὁδηγῇ, ἀμφότεροι εἰς βόθυνον πεσοῦνται. Leave them alone! They are blind guides of the blind[3]. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15. Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Πέτρος εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Φράσον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολήν ταύτην. And answering, Peter said to him, “Explain this[4] parable to us.”

16. Ὁ δὲ εἶπεν, Ἀκμὴν καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀσύνετοί ἐστε; And he[5] said, “Are you also still without understanding?

17. Οὔπω νοεῖτε ὅτι πᾶν τὸ εἰσπορευόμενον εἰς τὸ στόμα εἰς τὴν κοιλίαν χωρεῖ καὶ εἰς ἀφεδρῶνα ἐκβάλλεται; Do you not yet[6] understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is cast out into the latrine?

18. Τὰ δὲ ἐκπορευόμενα ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ἐκ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχεται, κἀκεῖνα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. But the things which come out of the mouth proceed from the heart, and they defile the man.

19. Ἐκ γὰρ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, ψευδομαρτυρίαι, βλασφημίαι. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.

20. Ταῦτά ἐστιν τὰ κοινοῦντα τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὸ δὲ ἀνίπτοις χερσὶν φαγεῖν οὐ κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. These are the things that defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”

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[1] NA-Text reads “λεγουσιν” (present instead of aorist). Codices Sinaiticus and Ephraemi agree with the Byzantine reading here.

[2] NA-Text omits “his” and renders “the disciples”.

[3] NA-Text brackets “of the blind”. The collective witness of the majuscules, minuscules, patristic witnesses and the versions are overwhelmingly against this omission suggested as a possibility in the NA-Text, which is the result of either visual homoeoarcton (τυφλων τυφλος, thus missing “of the blind” or a scribal misunderstanding by seeing 4 similar words in the same verse and thinking that something there was redundant and unnecessary “τυφλοι τυφλων τυφλος τυφλον”.

[4] NA-Text brackets “this”, thus rendering “the parable” as a possibility, which is likely a scribal error caused by visual homoeoteleuton (παραβολην ταυτην, thus missing “this”). The collective witness of the Greek majuscules, the minuscules and the versions are overwhelmingly against questioning the pronoun “ταυτην” as part of this text.

[5] NA-Text and Vg-St omit the proper noun “Jesus” and renders “he said”: א B D Z 33 892 1424 pc vg syr^s syr^c syr^p cop Jerome Chrysostom Augustine (Reply to Faustus the Manichean, Book 16, Ch. 31) | TR: C K L W Γ Δ Θ 0106 ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 565 700 1241 Byz it^f it^q syr^h Theophylact || The proper noun was probably added to clarify that Peter spoke in verse 15 and now Jesus responds in verse 16. Proper noun dropped.

[6] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “yet” (Gr.: “ου”): B D Z Θ ƒ¹³ 33 565 syr^s syr^c syr^p cop^sa cop^mae | TR:  א C L W 0106 ƒ¹ 700 Byz it^f it^q syr^h cop^bo Chrysostom Theophylact || The omission of “yet” is probably the result of scribal harmonization to the parallel passage in Mk 7:18 with 9 words in Greek reading exactly the same in both gospels, having the “ουπω” exactly in the middle, which increased the potential for harmonization.

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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!