Matthew 15:21-28 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 15

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21. Καὶ ἐξελθὼν ἐκεῖθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὰ μέρη Τύρου καὶ Σιδῶνος. And going out from there, Jesus withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22. Καὶ ἰδοὺ γυνὴ Χαναναία ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρίων ἐκείνων ἐξελθοῦσα ἐκραύγασεν[1] αὐτῷ, λέγουσα, Ἐλέησόν με, κύριε υἱὲ[2] Δαυίδ. Ἡ θυγάτηρ μου κακῶς δαιμονίζεται. And behold, a Canaanite woman coming out from those borders, cried out to him[3], saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David! My daughter is badly demon-possessed!” 23. Δὲ οὐκ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῇ λόγον. Καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ἠρώτων[4] αὐτὸν, λέγοντες, Ἀπόλυσον αὐτήν, ὅτι κράζει ὄπισθεν ἡμῶν. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24. Ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν, Οὐκ ἀπεστάλην εἰ μὴ εἰς τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ. But answering, he said, “I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25. Ἡ δὲ ἐλθοῦσα προσεκύνει[5] αὐτῷ λέγουσα, Κύριε, βοήθει μοι. But she came and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26. Δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν, Οὐκ ἔστιν καλὸν λαβεῖν τὸν ἄρτον τῶν τέκνων καὶ βαλεῖν τοῖς κυναρίοις. But answering, he said, “It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the little dogs.” 27. Ἡ δὲ εἶπεν, Ναί, κύριε, καὶ γὰρ τὰ κυνάρια ἐσθίει ἀπὸ τῶν ψιχίων τῶν πιπτόντων ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης τῶν κυρίων αὐτῶν. But she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters.” 28. Τότε ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῇ, Ὦ γύναι, μεγάλη σου ἡ πίστις. Γενηθήτω σοι ὡς θέλεις. Καὶ ἰάθη ἡ θυγάτηρ αὐτῆς ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης. Then answering, Jesus said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that hour. [1] NA-Text reads “εκραζεν” (imperfect instead of aorist). [2] NA-Text reads “υιος”. Codices Sinaiticus and Ephraemi agree with the Byzantine reading here. [3] NA-Text omits “to him”. The Latin translators interpreted that the pronoun should be placed after “saying”, which is a possibility for this Greek construction, provided that the pronoun be not omitted. [4] NA-Text reads “ηρωτουν”. Same word spelled differently. [5] M-Text, P-Text and WPF35 read “προσεκυνησεν” (aorist instead of imperfect): א2 C L W 0106 Byz copmae copbo | TR:  א* B D Θ ƒ1 ƒ13 33 700 1241 1424 Chrysostom (Gr.: προσκυνει, homily 52 on the gospel of Matthew) || The most natural construction for Matthew is to use an aorist after a participle to describe a reaction of one person interacting with another, but there are exceptions in which a participle/imperfect tense is used and they are especially found in the context of one who came to worship God incarnate with a participial form of the verb “to come” followed by an imperfect tense of “to worship”  (see Matt. 8:2 and 9:18). The Byzantine text may be showing a scribal conformation to what would have seem a more natural phraseology to a scribe working on a copy of the gospel of Matthew. Therefore, the TR remains unchanged here. It is worth noting that the first and the fifth editions of Erasmus read “προσεκυνησεν”. Stephanus then changed the Byzantine majority reading to “προσεκυνει” probably based on what he read in codex Bezae (D).

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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!