The gospel according to Matthew
Chapter 17
|
14. Καὶ ἐλθόντων αὐτῶν[1] πρὸς τὸν ὄχλον,
προσῆλθεν αὐτῷ ἄνθρωπος γονυπετῶν αὐτὸν[2] And when they came to the multitude, a
man came to him, kneeling before him |
|
15. Καὶ λέγων, Κύριε, ἐλέησόν μου τὸν υἱόν, ὅτι
σεληνιάζεται καὶ κακῶς πάσχει, πολλάκις γὰρ πίπτει εἰς τὸ πῦρ καὶ πολλάκις
εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ. and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my
son, for he is a lunatic and suffers terribly; for he often falls into the
fire, and often into the water. |
|
16. Καὶ προσήνεγκα αὐτὸν τοῖς μαθηταῖς σου, καὶ
οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν αὐτὸν θεραπεῦσαι. And I brought him to your disciples,
and they could not heal him.” |
|
17. Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς
εἶπεν, Ὦ γενεὰ ἄπιστος καὶ διεστραμμένη, ἕως πότε
ἔσομαι μεθʼ ὑμῶν; Ἕως πότε ἀνέξομαι ὑμῶν; Φέρετέ μοι αὐτὸν
ὧδε. And
answering, Jesus said, “O unbelieving
and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I bear
with you? Bring him here to me.” |
|
18. Καὶ ἐπετίμησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν
ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ τὸ δαιμόνιον, καὶ ἐθεραπεύθη ὁ παῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it
came out of him, and the child was healed from that hour. |
|
19. Τότε προσελθόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ κατʼ
ἰδίαν εἶπον, Διὰ τί ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἠδυνήθημεν ἐκβαλεῖν αὐτό; Then the disciples came to Jesus
privately, and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” |
|
20. Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν[3] αὐτοῖς, Διὰ τὴν ἀπιστίαν
ὑμῶν. Ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν ἔχητε πίστιν ὡς
κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐρεῖτε τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ, Μετάβηθι ἔντεῦθεν[4] ἐκεῖ, καὶ μεταβήσεται,
καὶ οὐδὲν ἀδυνατήσει ὑμῖν. And Jesus[5]
said to them, “Because
of your unbelief[6]. For truly I say to you,
if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this
mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be
impossible for you. |
|
21. Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ γένος οὐκ ἐκπορεύεται εἰ μὴ ἐν
προσευχῇ καὶ νηστείᾳ. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting.” [7] |
[1] NA-Text omits “αυτων”, likely a
scribal error caused by visual homoeoteleuton (ελθοντων
αυτων, thus missing “they”).
[2] NA-Text, P-Text, WPF35 and M-Text read “αυτον” (accusative) instead of “αυτω” (dative): The dative is
supported by codex Θ whereas the accusative is supported by codices א, B, D, the Byzantine manuscripts, Chrysostom and
Theophylact. Also, the same participial form of this verb appears in Mk 1:40
with the pronoun in the accusative. Greek text adjusted.
[3] NA-Text reads “λεγει” (present instead of second aorist).
[4] NA-Text reads “μεταβα ενθεν”,
which means nearly the same thing.
[5] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “Jesus” (NA-Text reads “λεγει” instead of “ειπεν”, aorist
instead of present): א B D Θ ƒ13 33 700 892 pc vgst syrs
syrc cop | TR: C L W (ƒ1 Ιησους λεγει) Byz vgcl syrp
syrh Diatessaron Jerome (Latin: “Dicit illis Jesus: Propter incredulitatem vestram”) Chrysostom Theophylact || Chrysostom
includes the proper noun before “because of your unbelief” but loosely, not
quoting from the gospel of Matthew. The proper noun was likely removed in some
codices so the text could flow better in the context of a lesson, given that “Jesus”
had been mentioned in the previous verse in the context of the private
conversation Jesus was having with his disciples.
[6] NA-Text reads “little faith”. The collective witness of the majuscules
and the minuscules is strong against “little faith”. Some patristic support is
cited in the apparatus in favor of the NA-Text, but they do not seem to be
accurate. The Arabic Diatessaron supports “unbelief”, not “little faith”. Also,
Chrysostom in homily 57, from which he expounds on Matthew 17:10-21 supports
the Byzantine, not the Alexandrian text. Origen is cited in the apparatus in
favor of the NA-Text but this does not seem to be correct either because in his
books on the gospel of Matthew, he quotes “little faith” from Matthew 14:31 and
16:8 and not from Matthew 17:20. I have not checked John of Damascus but those
3 are sufficient to conclude that the reading “little faith” here is also not
well supported among patristic writers. Augustine, Jerome and Theophylact also
support “unbelief”.
[7] NA-Text omits this verse entirely: א*
B Θ 0281 33 579 788 892* 1604 2680 ite itff1 syrc
syrs syrpal copsa copbo(pt) ethmss
geo1 geoA Eusebius | TR: C D E F G H K L O W X Y
Δ Π Σ ƒ1 ƒ13 22 28 (118 205 209 1505 l1074 εξερχεται) 157
180 565 597 700 892c 1006 1009 1010 1071 1079 (1195 omit δε) 1216 1230 1241
1242 1243 1253 1292 1342 1344 1365 1424 1546 1646 2148 2174 Byz Lect (l184)
(l514) ita itaur itb itc
itd itf itff2 itg1 itl
itn itq itr1 vg (syrp syrh)
(copmae) copbo(pt) arm ethpp ethTH
geoB slav Diatessaron Origen Asterius Hilary Basil Ambrose
Chrysostom Jerome Augustine Bede Theophylact || Hort posits that this is a
western interpolation from Mark, but the different wording between Matthew and
Mark militates against his theory. It is highly unlikely that scribes in
different transmission lines would have had the same idea of importing and
changing the Markan text the same way (compare: “can come out by nothing” (Gr.:
εν ουδενι δυναται εξελθειν) versus “does not go out” (Gr.: ουκ εκπορευεται). Tregelles included the verse within brackets. Scrivener posits that this is an accretion to the text but concludes that “the
omission is not imperatively demanded by the state of the evidence” (Six
Lectures on the Text of the New Testament and the Ancient Manuscripts, pg. 128). In fact, the Latin and Byzantine scriptures
do not omit this verse. The omission has not been preserved in any of the
scriptures of the two main branches of the church. Also, the collective witness
of the majuscules and minuscules is very strong against the omission. Only 0.6%
of the extant Greek manuscripts omit this verse. What may have happened with this verse is that
it was not included in some early manuscripts for the sake of a lesson that
wanted to emphasize the importance of having faith in verse 20 by concluding
the lesson there. Chrysostom’s homily 58 started at Matthew 17:22. Scribes noticed the absence of the verse in codex
Sinaiticus and minuscule 892 and corrected them by adding the verse to the
manuscripts.
----
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment