Matthew 15:29-39 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 15

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29. Καὶ μεταβὰς ἐκεῖθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἦλθεν παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας. Καὶ ἀναβὰς εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἐκάθητο ἐκεῖ. And departing from there, Jesus came near the sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat there.

30. Καὶ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ ὄχλοι πολλοὶ ἔχοντες μεθʼ ἑαυτῶν χωλούς, τυφλούς, κωφούς, κυλλούς, καὶ ἑτέρους πολλούς, καὶ ἔρριψαν αὐτοὺς παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτούς, And great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, crippled, and many others, and they put them down at the feet of Jesus[1], and he healed them,

31. ὥστε τοὺς ὄχλους θαυμάσαι βλέποντας κωφοὺς λαλοῦντας, κυλλοὺς ὑγιεῖς, χωλοὺς περιπατοῦντας, καὶ τυφλοὺς βλέποντας. Καὶ ἐδόξασαν τὸν θεὸν Ἰσραήλ. so that the multitudes[2] wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled whole [3], the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

32. Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς προσκαλεσάμενος τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν, Σπλαγχνίζομαι ἐπὶ τὸν ὄχλον, ὅτι ἤδη ἡμέραι[4] τρεῖς προσμένουσίν μοι καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσιν τί φάγωσιν. Καὶ ἀπολῦσαι αὐτοὺς νήστεις οὐ θέλω, μήποτε ἐκλυθῶσιν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ. And summoning his disciples, Jesus said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away fasting, lest they faint on the way.”

33. Καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταί αὐτοῦ, Πόθεν ἡμῖν ἐν ἐρημίᾳ ἄρτοι τοσοῦτοι ὥστε χορτάσαι ὄχλον τοσοῦτον; And his[5] disciples said to him, “Where could we get so many loaves in a deserted place as to satisfy so great a multitude?”

34. Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Πόσους ἄρτους ἔχετε; Οἱ δὲ εἶπον[6], Ἑπτά, καὶ ὀλίγα ἰχθύδια. And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”

35. Καὶ ἐκέλευσεν[7] τοῖς ὄχλοις ἀναπεσεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. And he commanded the multitudes[8] to sit down on the ground,

36. καὶ λαβὼν[9] τοὺς ἑπτὰ ἄρτους καὶ τοὺς ἰχθύας, εὐχαριστήσας ἔκλασεν, καὶ ἔδωκεν[10] τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ τῷ ὄχλῷ. and[11] taking the seven loaves and the fish, he gave thanks[12], broke them and gave to his[13] disciples, and the disciples to the multitude[14].

37. Καὶ ἔφαγον πάντες καὶ ἐχορτάσθησαν. Καὶ ἦραν τὸ περισσεῦον τῶν κλασμάτων ἑπτὰ σπυρίδας πλήρεις. And they all ate and were filled. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over.

38. Οἱ δὲ ἐσθίοντες ἦσαν τετρακισχίλιοι ἄνδρες χωρὶς γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων. And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

39. Καὶ ἀπολύσας τοὺς ὄχλους ἐνέβη εἰς τὸ πλοῖον καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅρια Μαγδαλά. And sending away the multitudes, he got into the boat and came to the borders of Magdala[15].

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[1] NA-Text and Vg-St read “his” in the place of “Jesus”, thus rendering “at his feet”: א B D Chrysostom Jerome | C K P W Γ Δ ƒ¹ 565 1010 1241 Byz it^f it^q syr^p syr^h Diatessaron Theophylact || The proper noun was probably omitted in some Greek manuscripts because the name Jesus had been mentioned in the previous verse, so that saying it again might sound redundant and unnecessary for the proper flow of the narrative in a lesson. Therefore, the TR remains with no correction for this verse.

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

[3] NA-Text adds “and” after “the crippled whole”.

[4] NA-Text, P-Text and M-Text read “ημεραι” (nominative instead of accusative): B D Byz^pt Chrysostom | TR: א Θ ƒ¹³ 1241 1424 Byz^pt Theophylact. The same instability is found in the parallel passage in Mark 8:2 with both variants found in the Byzantine text. The evidence shows that both variants are acceptable, but the nominative has been adopted in the text.

[5] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “his” and renders “the disciples”: א B Γ ƒ¹³ 700 892 1010 1241 pc vg cop^sa(mss) cop^bo | TR: C D L W Θ ƒ¹ Byz it^c it^f it^q syr Diatessaron Jerome Bede Theophylact || The context offers opportunity for harmonizations both with the pronoun in verse 32 and without the pronoun twice in verse 36. Given that “his” is more widespread and better attested across all text-types, it is then safer to keep the pronoun in the text. The constant change between “his disciples” and “the disciples” in the gospels might have created enough memory so as to distract scribes from what was strictly written in their exemplars.

[6] NA-Text reads “ειπαν”, same word spelled differently.

[7] NA-Text reads “παραγγειλας”, which can also mean “to command”.

[8] NA-Text reads “the multitude”.

[9] NA-Text reads the verb “to take” in the indicative mood (ελαβεν) instead of participle (λαβων).

[10] NA-Text reads “εδιδου” (imperfect instead of aorist).

[11] NA-Text omits “and”.

[12] NA-Text adds “and”.

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

[14] NA-Text and P-Text read “the multitudes”: א B K L ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 33 700 892 1241 al it^e it^f it^ff1 syr^s syr^c syr^p cop^sa(mss) cop^bo | TR: C D N P W Γ Δ Θ 565 1424 Byz vg syr cop^sa(mss) cop^mae Theophylact || The support for the Byzantine reading is excellent and has been maintained in the text. Matthew uses both the singular and plural of “multitude” interchangeably in the same context (see verses 30 and 31 of this chapter).

[15] NA-Text reads “Magadan”. There is some support for a city with this name in codices א, B, D, the Arabic Diatessaron that reads “Magadu”, the Vulgate that reads “Magedan” and reflected in Augustine and Bede’s Latin copies along with a similar reading in the Sahidic Coptic version and variants in Syriac reading “Magadon” (Curetonian) and “Magadin” (Palestine), but, according to Wieland Willker, nothing is known about a city with this name in Israel. On the other hand, the collective witness of the Greek majuscules and minuscules is overwhelmingly against identifying this city as “Magadan”. “Magdala” or “Magdalan” is supported by codices C, E, F, G, H, K, L, N, O, X, W, Δ, Σ, Θ, Π, family of manuscripts ƒ¹ and ƒ¹³, minuscules 22, 33, 157, 180, 205, 565, 579, 597, 700, 892, 1006, 1009, 1010, 1071, 1079, 1195, 1216, 1230, 1241, 1242, 1243, 1253, 1292, 1342, 1344, 1365, 1424, 1505, 1546, 1646, 2174, the host of the Byzantine manuscripts, the Coptic Bohairic, the middle Ӕgyptian, the Harklean Syriac, the Armenian, the Georgian, the Slavic version, Chrysostom and Theophylact. Wieland Willker’s insight is relevant here. The name “Magadan” and its variants is likely the product of a scribal misreading of the original name Magdala that can become Magadan if “MAΓΔAΛA” (or “MAΓΔAΛAN” as it appears in some copies) is misread into “MAΓAΔAN” which is very similar when looked from the perspective of a scribe reading the capital letters of a Greek majuscule.

---- 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-TextRP - Majority Text compiled by Maurice Robinson & William Pierpont; 6. M-TextHF - 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.   --- To God all the glory for the preservation of the scriptures! He reigns!