Luke 8:1-8 - Revision of the Textus Receptus

The gospel according to Luke

Chapter 8

---

1. και εγενετο εν τω καθεξης και αυτος διωδευεν κατα πολιν και κωμην κηρυσσων και ευαγγελιζομενος την βασιλειαν του θεου και οι δωδεκα συν αυτω And it happened afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the gospel of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,

2. και γυναικες τινες αι ησαν τεθεραπευμεναι απο πνευματων πονηρων και ασθενειων μαρια η καλουμενη μαγδαληνη αφ ης δαιμονια επτα εξεληλυθει and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;

3. και ιωαννα γυνη χουζα επιτροπου ηρωδου και σουσαννα και ετεραι πολλαι αιτινες διηκονουν αυτοις εκ[1] των υπαρχοντων αυταις and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who ministered to them[2] out of their possessions.

4. συνιοντος δε οχλου πολλου και των κατα πολιν επιπορευομενων προς αυτον ειπεν δια παραβολης And when a great multitude came together and those from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable:

5. εξηλθεν ο σπειρων του σπειραι τον σπορον αυτου και εν τω σπειρειν αυτον ο μεν επεσεν παρα την οδον και κατεπατηθη και τα πετεινα του ουρανου κατεφαγεν αυτο “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

6. και ετερον επεσεν[3] επι την πετραν και φυεν εξηρανθη δια το μη εχειν ικμαδα And other fell on the rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it had no moisture.

7. και ετερον επεσεν εν μεσω των ακανθων και συμφυεισαι αι ακανθαι απεπνιξαν αυτο And other fell amidst thorns, and springing up with the thorns, they choked it.

8. και ετερον επεσεν εις[4] την γην την αγαθην και φυεν εποιησεν καρπον εκατονταπλασιονα ταυτα λεγων εφωνει ο εχων ωτα ακουειν ακουετω And other fell into the good ground, and growing, bore fruit a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

---

[1] NA-Text and Vg-St read “εκ” (Latin equivalent: “de”), which is supported by codices א, A, B and D. The TR is supported by codex Θ, the Byzantine manuscripts and Theophylact. The Alexandrian preposition has been adopted in the Greek text.

[2] NA-Text, Vg-St and M-Text read “to them”, which is supported by codices B, D, E, F, G, H, K, W, Γ, Δ, Θ, family of manuscripts ƒ¹³, minuscules 28, 157, 180, 597, 700, 892, 1006, 1009, 1010, 1071, 1230, 1242, 1344, 1424, 1505, 1646, part of the Byzantine manuscripts, the old Latin codices it^c, it^d, (it^e), it^f, it^ff2 and it^r1, the Curetonian Syriac, the Sinaiticus Syriac, the Peshitta, the Gothic and the Georgian² version, some manuscripts of the Palestinian Syriac version, a marginal note in the Harklean Syriac version, the Diatessaron, (Origen), Ambrosiaster and Augustine. “to him” is supported by codices א, A, L, X, Π, Ψ, family of manuscripts ƒ¹, minuscules 33, 205, 565, 579, 1079, 1195, 1216, 1241, 1243, 1253^vid, 1292, 1342, 1365, 1546, 2148, 2174 and 2542, part of the Byzantine manuscripts, the old Latin codices it^a, it^aur, it^b, it^l, it^q, the Harklean Syriac version, the Sahidic Coptic, the Bohairic Coptic, the Armenian, the Sahidic and Bohairic Coptic versions, the Ethiopic, the Georgian¹, the Slavic version, Marciom according to Tertullian and Theophylact. The witnesses are divided. Matthew 27:55 and Mark 15:40-41 record the fact that women provided for his ministry, saying specifically that they ministered “to him”. But in those passages the names of the women are not all the same and they are not direct parallels, so we cannot be quick to infer that scribes transferred the pronoun from those two passages to Luke 8:3. Another possibility is that scribes noticed the sentence “and the twelve were with him” in the first verse and changed the original “to him” to “to them”. Nevertheless, it is prudent to go with the pronoun that makes more sense in the context. It also cannot be ruled out that scribes altered the pronoun to make a point that these women had devoted themselves to Jesus and his ministry. Besides, the support is better for “to them”. Therefore, the pronoun “to them” has been adopted in the Greek text against the reading in the TR, the P-Text, WPF³⁵ and the Clementine vulgate. As a sidenote, both the Greek and the Latin columns in the Complutensian Polyglot read “to him”.

[3] NA-Text reads “κατεπεσεν”, which is supported by codex B. “επεσεν” is supported by codices א, D, Θ, the Byzantine manuscripts and Theophylact. External support for the reading in the TR is very strong. “κατεπεσεν” was pprobably an accidental copyist error induced by the same built-in preposition in the two precending verbs “κατεπατηθη” and “κατεφαγεν”.

[4] NA-Text, Vg-St, WPF³⁵, P-Text and M-Text read “εις” (Latin equivalent “in”), which is supported by codices א, B, Θ, the Byzantine manuscripts and Theophylact. Codex D supports the TR. The preposition in the Greek text has been adjusted following the NA-Text and the M-Text.

----

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. P-Text: 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.

 

---

To God all the glory for the preservation of the scriptures! He reigns!