Matthew 23:31-39 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 23

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31. ωστε μαρτυρειτε εαυτοις οτι υιοι εστε των φονευσαντων τους προφητας Therefore, you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32. και υμεις πληρωσατε το μετρον των πατερων υμων Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

33. οφεις γεννηματα εχιδνων πως φυγητε απο της κρισεως της γεεννης You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of hell[1]?

34. δια τουτο ιδου εγω αποστελλω προς υμας προφητας και σοφους και γραμματεις και εξ αυτων αποκτενειτε και σταυρωσετε και εξ αυτων μαστιγωσετε εν ταις συναγωγαις υμων και διωξετε απο πολεως εις πολιν For this reason, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes. And[2] some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,

35. οπως ελθη εφ υμας παν αιμα δικαιον εκχυνομενον[3] επι της γης απο του αιματος αβελ του δικαιου εως του αιματος ζαχαριου υιου βαραχιου ον εφονευσατε μεταξυ του ναου και του θυσιαστηριου that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah[4], whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

36. αμην λεγω υμιν [5] ηξει ταυτα παντα επι την γενεαν ταυτην Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

37. ιερουσαλημ ιερουσαλημ η αποκτεινουσα[6] τους προφητας και λιθοβολουσα τους απεσταλμενους προς αυτην ποσακις ηθελησα επισυναγαγειν τα τεκνα σου ον τροπον επισυναγει ορνις τα νοσσια εαυτης[7] υπο τας πτερυγας και ουκ ηθελησατε “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!

38. ιδου αφιεται υμιν ο οικος υμων ερημος Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

39. λεγω γαρ υμιν ου μη με ιδητε απ αρτι εως αν ειπητε ευλογημενος ο ερχομενος εν ονοματι κυριου For I say to you, you will not see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

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[1] Greek: Gehenna.

[2] NA-Text and VgSt omit “And”. The omission is supported by codices א, B, W, Δ, Θ, 0102, both family of manuscripts ƒ¹ and ƒ¹³, minuscules 33, 565, two old Latin codices, the Syriac Sinaiticus and the Peshitta. The inclusion is supported by codices C, D, L, 0133, the Byzantine minuscules, the Old Latin version, the Harklean Syriac and the Bohairic Coptic version, the Diatessaron, Jerome which is reflected in the Clementine vulgate, Chrysostom and Theophylact. A scribe might have accidentally added one more “και” in a string of 6 or lost just one in the middle of many. But if there was a tendency to miss a “και” in this verse, we would have other witnesses with a missing “και” in other positions, which we don’t have, unless there was something particular about the surrounding text of this “και” that made it more prone to be missed. And I submit there is such a thing here. A phonetic homoieoteleuton with a short word carrying the entirety of a similar vocalic sound of the preceding ending in the noun “scribes”, which may have distracted a scribe from what was between them (γραμματεις και εξ, thus missing “και”). It might have happened extremely early though to have affected virtually all transmission lines. There is a high degree of probability that this conjunction was missed during the early stages of the copying process because Matthew never used an “εξ αυτων” without the coordinating conjunctions “και” or “δε” preceding it with or without a verb/pronoun between them (Matt. 10:29, 18:12, 22:35, 23:34, 25:2, 26:21, 26:73, 27:7 and 27:48). An early copyist error is still a copyist error, nonetheless and the inclusion of “and” is equally early and spread across multiple locations and different text-types. Therefore, the omission here is not something expected to have been originally written by Matthew.

[3] NA-Text reads “εκχυννομενον”, same verbal tense with a different spelling.

[4] Jerome commenting on the identity of this Zachariah, son of Barachiah says the following: “Because we read about so many Zechariahs in Scripture, we need to inquire into the identity of this particular Zechariah, the son of Barachiah. Lest we mistake him for another, the Savior specifies “whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.” Yet there remains a variety of diverse opinions on this question, each of which ought to be considered. Some say that this Zechariah the son of Barachiah is the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. Although their fathers share the same name, however, they cannot be the same persons because the prophet Zechariah was never said to have been killed between the sanctuary and the altar and especially because the temple had just recently been destroyed in the prophet’s time. Others want us to believe that this Zechariah is the father of John the Baptist, killed because he proclaimed the advent of the Savior based on reveries from the apocrypha. Because this theory doesn’t have the authority of Scripture, however, it can be disproven as easily as it can be proven. Still others maintain that this is the Zechariah who was killed between the sanctuary and the altar by Joash the king of Judah, as is chronicled in the book of Kings. But that Zechariah was the son of Jehoida the priest, not Barachiah, as the Scripture relates: “Joash did not remember the good which Jehoida, Zechariah’s father, had done for him.” (2Ch 24:20-22). Given that we have Zachariah on one side and the place where he was put to death on the other, let’s dig into the reason why he is called “son of Barachiah” and not “son of Jehoiada”. Barachiah in our language means “blessed of the Lord” and the “righteousness” of the high-priest Jehoiada is demonstrated by this Hebrew word. We also find in the gospel of the Nazarenes “son of Jehoiada” in the place of “son of Barachiah”. Some of our brethren, especially the naïve ones, show that between the ruins of the sanctuary and the altar, through those doors that lead to Siloam, there are red stones whose color is attributed to the blood of Zachariah (commentary on the gospel of Matthew, 23:35, Jerome).

[5] M-Text adds “οτι”, which is supported by codices B, E, F, G, K, W, Y, Γ, Δ, Π, 0102, family of manuscripts ƒ¹, minuscules 33, 700, 892, the Byzantine minuscules, the old Latin codex it^d Chrysostom and Theophylact. The omission is supported by Paryrus⁷⁷, codices א, C, D, L, M, S, Θ, Φ, family of manuscripts ƒ¹³, minuscules 28, 565, 579, 1010, 1241 and 1424 the Diatessaron and Jerome. Matthew uses both forms in his gospel. The external support for the TR is slightly better, spread across all text-types and more ancient.

[6] M-Text reads “αποκτενουσα”. Same verbal tense spelled differently.

[7] NA-Text reads “αυτης”. In this context, both can be used more or less interchangeably.

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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!