Major Critical Texts of the New Testament

Byz RP: 2005 Byzantine Greek New Testament, Robinson & Pierpont
TR1550: 1550 Stephanus New Testament
Maj: The Majority Text (thousands of minuscules which display a similar text)
Gries: 1774-1775 Johann Jakob Griesbach Greek New Testament
Treg: 1857-1879 Samuel Prideaux Tregelles Greek New Testament
Tisch: 1872 Tischendorf’s Greek New Testament
WH: 1881 Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament
NA28: 2012 Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament
UBS5: 2014 Greek New Testament
NU: Both Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Society
SBLGNT: 2010 Greek New Testament 
THGNT: 2017 The Greek New Testament by Tyndale House
GENTI: 2022 Greek-English New Testament Interlinear

Matthew 15:6a

WH NU οὐ μὴ τιμήσει τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ [CE]
“he need not honor his father”
א B D ita,e syrc copsa

Variant 1/TR add η την μητερα αυτου (“or his mother”)
C L W Θ 0106 f1 Maj

Variant 2 add η την μητερα (“or the [his] mother”)
073 f13 33

Variant 3 add και την μητερα αυτου (“and his mother”)
Φ 565 copbo

Matthew 15:5 2022 Greek-English New Testament Interlinear

5 ὑμεῖςyou δὲbut λέγετεare saying ὋςWho ἂνlikely εἴπῃmight say τῷto the πατρὶfather ἢor τῇto the μητρίmother ΔῶρονGift ὃwhich ἐὰνif ever ἐξout of ἐμοῦme ὠφεληθῇς,you might get benefit, 

Matthew 15:6 2022 Greek-English New Testament Interlinear

 6 οὐnot μὴnot τιμήσειhe shall honor τὸνthe πατέραfather αὐτοῦ·of him; καὶand ἠκυρώσατεyou invalidated τὸνthe λόγονword τοῦof the θεοῦGod διὰthrough τὴνthe παράδοσινtradition ὑμῶν.of you. 

Matthew 15:5-6 Updated American Standard Version (UASV) 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother: “Whatever I have that could benefit you is a gift dedicated to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So you have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.

Matthew 15:5-6 New American Standard Bible (NASB2020) 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” 6 he is not to honor his father or mother.’ And by this you have invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Philip Comfort Comments

This verse is difficult to interpret because it literally reads, “But you say, whoever says to his father and mother, ‘it is a gift,’ whatever from me you might have benefited from.” Something has to be added to the end of the statement for it to make sense. The scribe of א* added ουδεν εστιν (“it is nothing”). This yields the sense, “because I have given it as a gift to God, what you might have benefited from me is now nothing.” In other words, the statement says that a child was allowed, by religious tradition, to forego taking care of his or her parents in lieu of making an offering to God (see comments on 15:6a). Most English translations expand the text to provide the reader with a meaning similar to this. The first part of 15:6 completes the statement begun in 15:5. The shorter reading has the best testimony, and all the variants are expansions attempting to achieve parallelism with 15:4–5, which mention both father and mother. – Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the Variant Readings of the Ancient New Testament Manuscripts and How They Relate to the Major English Translations (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008), 42.

It seems clear that the copyists added the phrase “or his mother” because they simply stayed with this repetition (3x in VSS. 4-5) of referring to both father and mother. It should be mentioned that there could have been an accidental omission because of similarity. Then, maybe the scribe went in the other direction and purposely skipped the fourth mention of mother and Father because it was redundant. The superiority of the manuscripts for the shorter reading increases the unlikeliness that the latter two possibilities took place. Therefore, the original reading was (οὐ μὴ τιμήσει τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ) “he need not honor his father.”

TERMS AS TO HOW WE SHOULD OBJECTIVELY VIEW THE DEGREE OF CERTAINTY FOR THE READING ACCEPTED AS THE ORIGINAL

The modal verbs are might have been (30%), may have been (40%), could have been (55%), would have been (80%), must have been (95%), which are used to show that we believe the originality of a reading is certain, probable or possible.

The letter [WP] stands for Weak Possibility (30%), which indicates that this is a low-level proof that the reading might have been original in that it is enough evidence to accept that the variant might have been possible, but it is improbable. We can say the reading might have been original, as there is some evidence that is derived from manuscripts that carry very little weight, early versions, or patristic quotations.

The letter [P] stands for Plausible (40%), which indicates that this is a low-level proof that the reading may have been original in that it is enough to accept a variant to be original and we have enough evidence for our belief. The reading may have been original but it is not probably so.

The letter [PE] stands for Preponderance of Evidence (55%), which indicates that this is a higher-level proof that the reading could have been original in that it is enough to accept as such unless another reading emerges as more probable.

The letter [CE] stands for Convincing Evidence (80%), which indicates that the evidence is an even higher-level proof that the reading surely was the original in that the evidence is enough to accept it as substantially certain unless proven otherwise.

The letter [BRD] stands for Beyond Reasonable Doubt (95%), which indicates that this is the highest level of proof: the reading must have been original in that there is no reason to doubt it. It must be understood that feeling as though we have no reason to doubt is not the same as one hundred percent absolute certainty.

NOTE: This system is borrowed from the criminal just legal terms of the United States of America, the level of certainty involved in the use of modal verbs, and Bruce Metzger in his A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London; New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), who borrowed his system from Johann Albrecht Bengel in his edition of the Greek New Testament (Tübingen, 1734). In addition, the percentages are in no way attempting to be explicit, but rather they are nothing more than a tool to give the non-textual scholar a sense of the degree of certainty. However, this does not mean the percentages are not reflective of certainty.

SOURCES

• Edward D. Andrews, FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS: Introduction-Intermediate New Testament Textual Studies (Cambridge, Ohio), 2021.
• B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek: Appendix (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1882)
• Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006)
• Bruce Manning Metzger, United Bible Societies, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition a Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (4th Rev. Ed.) (London; New York: United Bible Societies, 1994),
• Eberhard Nestle and Erwin Nestle, Nestle-Aland: NTG Apparatus Criticus, ed. Barbara Aland et al., 28. revidierte Auflage. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012).
• Dirk Jongkind, ed., The Greek New Testament: Apparatus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017).
• Dirk Jongkind, ed., The Greek New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), Matt. 6:8.
• Eberhard Nestle and Erwin Nestle, Nestle-Aland: Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. Barbara Aland et al., 28. revidierte Auflage. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012)
• Philip Wesley Comfort, A COMMENTARY ON THE MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2015).
• Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the Variant Readings of the Ancient New Testament Manuscripts and How They Relate to the Major English Translations (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008).
• Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts: Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, 2 Volume Set The (English and Greek Edition) (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2019)
• Rick Brannan and Israel Loken, The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).
• Roger L. Omanson and Bruce Manning Metzger, A Textual Guide to the Greek New Testament: An Adaptation of Bruce M. Metzger’s Textual Commentary for the Needs of Translators (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006).
• Wallace B., Daniel (n.d.). Retrieved from The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: http://csntm.org/
• Wilker, Wieland (n.d.). Retrieved from An Online Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels: http://www.willker.de/wie/TCG/index.html

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