Matthew 21:1-11 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 21

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1. Καὶ ὅτε ἤγγισαν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ ἦλθον εἰς Βηθφαγὴ,[1] πρὸς[2] τὸ Ὄρος τῶν Ἐλαιῶν, τότε ὁ[3] Ἰησοῦς ἀπέστειλεν δύο μαθητὰς, And when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,

2. λέγων αὐτοῖς, Πορεύεσθε[4] εἰς τὴν κώμην τὴν κατέναντι[5] ὑμῶν, καὶ εὐθέως εὑρήσετε ὄνον δεδεμένην, καὶ πῶλον μετʼ αὐτῆς. Λύσαντες ἀγάγετέ μοι. saying to them, “Go into the village that is over against you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.

3. Καὶ ἐάν τις ὑμῖν εἴπῃ τι, ἐρεῖτε ὅτι Ὁ κύριος αὐτῶν χρείαν ἔχει, εὐθέως[6] δὲ ἀποστέλλει[7] αὐτούς. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

4. Τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, λέγοντος, All[8] this was done that it might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet, saying,

5. Εἴπατε τῇ θυγατρὶ Σιών, Ἰδοὺ, ὁ βασιλεύς σου ἔρχεταί σοι, πραῢς, καὶ ἐπιβεβηκὼς ἐπὶ ὄνον, καὶ πῶλον, υἱὸν ὑποζυγίου. “Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, and [9] a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

6. Πορευθέντες δὲ οἱ μαθηταὶ καὶ ποιήσαντες καθὼς προσέταξεν[10] αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς, And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them,

7. ἤγαγον τὴν ὄνον καὶ τὸν πῶλον καὶ ἐπέθηκαν ἐπάνω[11] αὐτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπεκάθισεν[12] ἐπάνω αὐτῶν. and they brought the donkey and the colt and laid their[13] garments on them, and he sat on them.

8. Ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ὄχλος ἔστρωσαν ἑαυτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ἄλλοι δὲ ἔκοπτον κλάδους ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων καὶ ἐστρώννυον ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ. And a very great multitude spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

9. Οἱ δὲ ὄχλοι οἱ προάγοντες καὶ οἱ ἀκολουθοῦντες ἔκραζον, λέγοντες, Ὡσαννὰ τῷ υἱῷ Δαυίδ. Εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου. Ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις. And the multitudes who went before [14] and those who followed cried out, saying, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

10. Καὶ εἰσελθόντος αὐτοῦ εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, ἐσείσθη πᾶσα ἡ πόλις, λέγουσα, Τίς ἐστιν οὗτος; And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”

11. Οἱ δὲ ὄχλοι ἔλεγον, Οὗτός ἐστιν Ἰησοῦς ὁ προφήτης ὁ ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲθ[15] τῆς Γαλιλαίας. And the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

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[1] M-Text, P-Text and WPF³⁵ read “βηθσφαγη” (Bethsphage). Codex א, C, D, Θ, family of manuscripts ƒ¹³ and part of the Byzantine manuscripts read Bethphage. In codex B there is a small “c” superscript to Θ, which seems to be a scribal correction to the text. I just can’t tell when the correction was added to the codex. The texts of Origen in the 200’s (Commentary on the gospel of John quoting Matt. 21:1, Book 10:15), Chrysostom in the 300’s (Homily 66) and Theophylact do not confirm the reading in the majority text. The Greek text in the TR then stands without correction.

[2] NA-Text reads “εις”. The collective witness of the majuscules and the minuscules is overwhelmingly against this reading.

[3] NA-Text omits the definite article before “Jesus”.

[4] NA-Text and Vg-St read “πορευεσθε” (present imperative instead of aorist subjunctive, Latin equivalent: “ite”): א B D L Z Θ ƒ¹³ 33 892 1010 1241 1424 Chrysostom | TR: C K N W Γ Δ ƒ¹ 565 579 700 Byz Theophylact || The support for the NA-Text is very good here and the imperative makes sense as the primary verb in the context of the first sentence. Text adjusted.

[5] NA-Text and Vg-St read “κατεναντι” (Latin equivalent: “contra”). א B C D L Z Θ ƒ¹³ 28 33 700 892 1010 Chrysostom | TR: K N W Γ Δ ƒ¹ 565 700 1241 1424 Byz Theophylact || The support for the NA-Text is excellent, but the caveat here is that the parallel passages in Mark 11:2 and Luke 19:30 utilized “κατεναντι”, which increases the risk of scribal harmonization on the side of the NA-Text. But it is not safe to impose potential harmonization against a robust and widespread external evidence without an element in the text itself pointing decidedly in that direction. Therefore, the Greek text has been adjusted following the NA-Text.

[6] NA-Text reads “ευθυς”, same word spelled differently. The collective witness of the majuscules is against this reading.

[7] M-Text, P-Text and WPF³⁵ read “αποστελλει” (present instead of future): C L W Z Θ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ Byz two it^d it^h Diatessaron Chrysostom Theophylact | TR: א B D 700*cop^sa cop^bo | The evidence is very strong in favor of the majority text. The parallel passage in Mark 11:2 reads the verb in the future, which is a possible sign of scribal harmonization in the TR and the NA-Text here. Besides, the present tense is certainly the harder reading in this context. Greek text adjusted. The translation remains the same for the present does not make good sense translated into English.

[8] NA-Text and Vg-St omit “all”: א C* D L Z Θ 892 pc it syr^c syr^p cop^bo | TR: B C K N W Γ Δ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 28 33 157 556 565 579 700 788 1424 1582 2358 2372 Byz it^q vg^cl syr^h cop^sa cop^mae cop^bo(mss) Diatessaron Theophylact || Matthew uses “that it might fulfilled…” with variations 12-14 times in his gospel. Sometimes with “all” (e.g. Matt. 1:22 and Matt. 26:56) and sometimes without it (e.g. Matt. 2:23 and Matt. 4:14). Most of the time, Matthew went without the “all”, which may have created a memory in the scribe that could have made him inattentive as he copied this verse. Another possibility is that this word was missed due to visual homoeoteleuton (ολον γεγονεν, thus missing “all”). Therefore, it is not safe to remove “all” from the text here.

[9] NA-Text adds “on” a second time (Gr.: επι).

[10] NA-Text reads “συνεταξεν”, which is translated as “directed” or “appointed” instead of “commanded”.

[11] NA-Text reads “επ”, which can mean the same thing.

[12] NA-Text, WPF³⁵, P-Text and M-Text read “επεκαθισεν” (“he sat on them” instead of “they set him on them”): B D Θ it Byz Diatessaron Chrysostom Theophylact | TR: א Jerome. The reading in codices D and Θ are slightly different. Also, the Latin portion of codex D also reads in the singular (et sedebat super eum). The singular form is the reading found in the Byzantine compilations. Also, the singular was the reading in Stephanus’ text in 1550. Therefore, the text has been adjusted accordingly.

[13] NA-Text omits “their” and renders “the clothes”.

[14] NA-Text adds “him”.

[15] M-Text, P-Text and WPF³⁵ read “ναζαρετ”, which is supported by the Byzantine manuscripts and Theophylact. The TR is supported by codices א, B, D and Θ. No need of correction.

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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!