Luke 2:1-7 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Luke

Chapter 2

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1. εγενετο δε εν ταις ημεραις εκειναις εξηλθεν δογμα παρα καισαρος αυγουστου απογραφεσθαι πασαν την οικουμενην And it happened in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2. αυτη η[1] απογραφη πρωτη εγενετο ηγεμονευοντος της συριας κυρηνιου This census was first made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3. και επορευοντο παντες απογραφεσθαι εκαστος εις την ιδιαν[2] πολιν And all went to be registered, each to his own city. 4. ανεβη δε και ιωσηφ απο της γαλιλαιας εκ πολεως ναζαρεθ[3] εις την ιουδαιαν εις πολιν δαυιδ ητις καλειται βηθλεεμ δια το ειναι αυτον εξ οικου και πατριας δαυιδ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5. απογραψασθαι συν μαριαμ τη μεμνηστευμενη[4] αυτω γυναικι ουση εγκυω to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife [5], being pregnant. 6. εγενετο δε εν τω ειναι αυτους εκει επλησθησαν αι ημεραι του τεκειν αυτην And while they were there, the day had come for her to give birth. 7. και ετεκεν τον υιον αυτης τον πρωτοτοκον και εσπαργανωσεν αυτον και ανεκλινεν αυτον εν [6] φατνη διοτι ουκ ην αυτοις τοπος εν τω καταλυματι And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. [1] NA-Text omits the definite article “η”. [2] NA-Text reads “εαυτου”. Those can be used interchangeably in this context. [3] NA-Text reads “ναζαρετ”. [4] NA-Text reads “εμνηστευμενη”. See footnote in Luke 1:27. [5] NA-Text omits “wife”. This omission is supported by codices א, B, C*, D, L, W, Ξ, 0177, family of manuscripts ƒ1, minuscules 565, 700, old Latin, the Coptic versions, the Diatessaron and Eusebius. The inclusion is supported by codices A, Cc, Δ, Θ, Ψ, 053, family of manuscripts ƒ13, minuscule 28, the Byzantine manuscripts, the Harklean Syriac version, Cyril of Alexandria and Theophylact. The Syriac Sinaiticus manuscript and the old Latin codices itaur, itb and itc replace “betrothed” by “wife”. It is hard to imagine that scribes would add the qualifier “wife” for Mary in this context, especially between the words “betrothed” and “pregnant”. Even harder is the fact that scribes in three different transmission lines plus the Latin scriptures had all the same idea of adding the same word, in the same place in this context. What may have happened here was actually the removal of the word to rule out any misconception on the part of listeners of this portion of the gospel. Also, looking at the related passages in Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:27, scribes would have noticed that whenever the term betrothed is used for Mary, it was never accompanied by the word “wife”. Therefore, it is not prudent to remove this word from the Greek text and the translation.  [6] NA-Text omits the definite article “τη”, which is supported by codices א, A, B, D, L, W, Θ, Ξ, minuscule 700 and Eusebius. The inclusion is supported by codices Ψ, 053, both family of manuscripts ƒ1 and ƒ13, the Byzantine manuscripts and Theophylact. This article is a natural addition to the text and has been removed, following the NA-Text.

 

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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. Vg-St: 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!