1
Τότε προσέρχονται τῷ ⸀Ἰησοῦ ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων ⸂Φαρισαῖοι καὶ γραμματεῖς⸃ λέγοντες
Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem come to Jesus, saying,
2
Διὰ τί οἱ μαθηταί σου παραβαίνουσιν τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν πρεσβυτέρων; οὐ γὰρ νίπτονται τὰς χεῖρας ⸀αὐτῶν ὅταν ἄρτον ἐσθίωσιν.
“Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
3
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Διὰ τί καὶ ὑμεῖς παραβαίνετε τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τὴν παράδοσιν ὑμῶν;
And answering he said to them, “And why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
4
ὁ γὰρ θεὸς ⸀εἶπεν· Τίμα τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα, καί· Ὁ κακολογῶν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα θανάτῳ τελευτάτω·
For God said, ‘Honour your father and mother,' and, ‘The one speaking evil of father or mother, let him end in death.'
5
ὑμεῖς δὲ λέγετε· Ὃς ἂν εἴπῃ τῷ πατρὶ ἢ τῇ μητρί· Δῶρον ὃ ἐὰν ἐξ ἐμοῦ ὠφεληθῇς,
But you say: whoever says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever of mine might profit you is a gift' —
Why this rendering
Matt.15.5 Observation
Syntactic observation
Mark 7:11 has Κορβᾶν, ὅ ἐστιν Δῶρον — the Aramaic kept and glossed, which is, Gift. **Matthew 15:5 has no Κορβᾶν.** Only Mark's gloss-word, Δῶρον, remains; the Aramaic is gone. A reader of Matthew therefore has no way of knowing the term was a vow-formula and sees only the word gift. Where one author kept a strange word and translated it himself, the other kept only the translation. δῶρον is a common word in Matthew, nine times (the magi's gifts at 2:11, the altar gift of 5:23-24, the gift Moses commanded at 8:4), and twice in Luke, while in Mark it stands only at 7:11 — in Mark the word exists to render Korban; in Matthew it is a word of his own, used repeatedly. The ἠκυρώσατε of v.6, you annulled, shares its root with the ἀκυροῦντες of Mark 7:13.
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “a gift” — no Korban supplied
Basis No word is supplied that Matthew's text lacks; Mark 7:11 reads Korban — which is, Gift, so the two places stand apart.
Supply Korban from Mark
Basis Lets the reader see it is a vow-formula.
Rejected Matthew did not keep the word. Showing what is missing is what this corpus does; supplying it makes the two books alike.
6
⸀οὐ μὴ ⸀τιμήσει τὸν πατέρα ⸀αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἠκυρώσατε ⸂τὸν λόγον⸃ τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τὴν παράδοσιν ὑμῶν.
he need not honour his father. And so you annulled the word of God because of your tradition.
7
ὑποκριταί, καλῶς ἐπροφήτευσεν περὶ ὑμῶν Ἠσαΐας λέγων·
Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8
⸂Ὁ λαὸς οὗτος⸃ τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ, ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ·
‘This people honours me with the lips, but their heart is far distant from me;
9
μάτην δὲ σέβονταί με, διδάσκοντες διδασκαλίας ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων.
and in vain they revere me, teaching as teachings the commandments of men.'”
10
Καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τὸν ὄχλον εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ἀκούετε καὶ συνίετε·
And calling the crowd to himself he said to them, “Hear and understand.
11
οὐ τὸ εἰσερχόμενον εἰς τὸ στόμα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐκπορευόμενον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦτο κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
What goes into the mouth does not make a person common; but what comes out of the mouth, this makes a person common.”
12
Τότε προσελθόντες οἱ ⸀μαθηταὶ ⸀λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· Οἶδας ὅτι οἱ Φαρισαῖοι ἀκούσαντες τὸν λόγον ἐσκανδαλίσθησαν;
Then the disciples came and say to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were made to stumble when they heard the saying?”
13
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· Πᾶσα φυτεία ἣν οὐκ ἐφύτευσεν ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ οὐράνιος ἐκριζωθήσεται.
And answering he said, “Every planting that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.
14
ἄφετε αὐτούς· ⸂τυφλοί εἰσιν ὁδηγοὶ τυφλῶν⸃· τυφλὸς δὲ τυφλὸν ἐὰν ὁδηγῇ, ἀμφότεροι εἰς βόθυνον πεσοῦνται.
Leave them; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
15
Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Πέτρος εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Φράσον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν ⸀ταύτην.
And Peter answered him, “Explain this parable to us.”
16
ὁ ⸀δὲ εἶπεν· Ἀκμὴν καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀσύνετοί ἐστε;
And he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
17
⸀οὐ νοεῖτε ὅτι πᾶν τὸ εἰσπορευόμενον εἰς τὸ στόμα εἰς τὴν κοιλίαν χωρεῖ καὶ εἰς ἀφεδρῶνα ἐκβάλλεται;
Do you not perceive that everything going into the mouth passes into the belly and is thrown out into the latrine?
Why this rendering
Matt.15.17 Observation
Syntactic observation
**The last phrase of Mark 7:19 is not in Matthew.** Mark attaches to the same sentence καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα, cleansing all foods — the phrase we treated in Mark 7, where a masculine participle on a neuter noun makes it read as the narrator's comment — and Matthew 15:17 stops just before it. The declaration about food laws is therefore in Mark and not in Matthew. Instead Matthew adds a different conclusion at v.20: τὸ δὲ ἀνίπτοις χερσὶν φαγεῖν οὐ κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, eating with unwashed hands does not make a person common — returning to the washing of hands and answering the opening question of v.2. Mark widens to food in general; Matthew narrows back to the question asked. The vocabulary is shared: κοινόω five times in Matthew (15:11 twice, 18, 20 twice) and five in Mark (7:15 twice, 18, 20, 23), and never in Luke or John, with ἀφεδρών once in each of the two — the whole vocabulary of this dispute lives inside these two books. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀οὐ).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted End at “goes out into the latrine?” — nothing supplied
Basis Follows the base text; since Mark 7:19 was rendered with the phrase set off by a dash, the difference stays visible.
Supply Mark's phrase
Basis Harmonises the gospels.
Rejected It is not in Matthew's text — and since Matthew draws his own conclusion at v.20, inserting Mark's would give the passage two.
18
τὰ δὲ ἐκπορευόμενα ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ἐκ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχεται, κἀκεῖνα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
But the things coming out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those make a person common.
19
ἐκ γὰρ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, ψευδομαρτυρίαι, βλασφημίαι.
For out of the heart come evil reasonings — murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
20
ταῦτά ἐστιν τὰ κοινοῦντα τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὸ δὲ ἀνίπτοις χερσὶν φαγεῖν οὐ κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
These are what make a person common; but eating with unwashed hands does not make a person common.”
21
Καὶ ἐξελθὼν ἐκεῖθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὰ μέρη Τύρου καὶ Σιδῶνος.
And going out from there Jesus withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon.
22
καὶ ἰδοὺ γυνὴ Χαναναία ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρίων ἐκείνων ἐξελθοῦσα ⸀ἔκραζεν λέγουσα· Ἐλέησόν με, κύριε ⸀υἱὸς Δαυίδ· ἡ θυγάτηρ μου κακῶς δαιμονίζεται.
And look — a Canaanite woman from those borders came out and was crying out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is badly demon-possessed.”
Why this rendering
Matt.15.22 Observation
Syntactic observation
How the woman is named diverges completely. Matthew has γυνὴ Χαναναία, a Canaanite woman; Mark 7:26 has Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει, a Greek, Syrophoenician by birth. All three occur once each in the whole corpus (Χαναναῖος once in Matthew; Ἑλληνίς and Συροφοινίκισσα once each in Mark). Luke and John do not have the story at all, so these two namings are everything the corpus holds. Mark names language-and-culture (Greek) and region of birth (Syrophoenician) in two words; Matthew names her with one old scriptural name. And Matthew has more that Mark lacks — her address κύριε υἱὸς Δαυίδ, Lord, Son of David; the silence of v.23 (οὐκ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῇ λόγον, he answered her not a word); and v.24, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Mark the exchange begins as soon as she asks; in Matthew two further stages — silence and refusal — stand in between. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀ἔκραζεν ⸀υἱὸς).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “a Canaanite woman” — kept apart from Mark's Greek, Syrophoenician by birth
Basis Renders the name each book chose; which is more accurate the text does not settle, and neither does the translation.
Use a covering term, e.g. “a gentile woman”
Basis The books point to one person, so a common term is used.
Rejected That the books chose different names is the datum. A covering term erases that Matthew uses an ancient name and Mark two contemporary ones.
23
ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῇ λόγον. καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ⸀ἠρώτουν αὐτὸν λέγοντες· Ἀπόλυσον αὐτήν, ὅτι κράζει ὄπισθεν ἡμῶν.
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and were asking him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out behind us.”
24
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· Οὐκ ἀπεστάλην εἰ μὴ εἰς τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ.
And answering he said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Why this rendering
Matt.15.24 Observation
Syntactic observation
τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ — this phrase occurs twice in Matthew (10:6, 15:24) and not at all in Mark or John. Sheep and lostness stand together in one verse at four places in the corpus; the other two are Luke 15:4 and 6, the parable of going after the one lost sheep. **The picture of a lost sheep is Luke's too, then; the qualifier of the house of Israel is Matthew's alone.** At 10:6 it was an instruction to the disciples: do not go on a road of the gentiles… go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. At 15:24 it applies to himself: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. One phrase, once as the sender's instruction and once as the sent one's limit. And the sentence stands in front of the Canaanite woman. Neither this verse nor the silence before it is in Mark 7. ἀπεστάλην is aorist passive — it does not say who sent. ἀπολωλότα is a perfect participle: the lostness stands and continues.
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” — matching 10:6
Basis Renders both places with one phrase so instruction and limit read as one saying, and keeps the passive.
Turn active: “God sent me only to…”
Basis Names the sender for clarity.
Rejected The text does not name the sender; supplying one adds information and blurs the symmetry with 10:6, where the one sending the disciples is Jesus.
25
ἡ δὲ ἐλθοῦσα ⸀προσεκύνει αὐτῷ λέγουσα· Κύριε, βοήθει μοι.
But she came and bowed before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26
ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· Οὐκ ἔστιν καλὸν λαβεῖν τὸν ἄρτον τῶν τέκνων καὶ βαλεῖν τοῖς κυναρίοις.
And answering he said, “It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
27
ἡ δὲ εἶπεν· Ναί, κύριε, καὶ γὰρ τὰ κυνάρια ἐσθίει ἀπὸ τῶν ψιχίων τῶν πιπτόντων ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης τῶν κυρίων αὐτῶν.
And she said, “Yes, Lord — for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs falling from their masters' table.”
28
τότε ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Ὦ γύναι, μεγάλη σου ἡ πίστις· γενηθήτω σοι ὡς θέλεις. καὶ ἰάθη ἡ θυγάτηρ αὐτῆς ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης.
Then answering, Jesus said to her, “Woman, great is your faith; let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
29
Καὶ μεταβὰς ἐκεῖθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἦλθεν παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἀναβὰς εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἐκάθητο ἐκεῖ.
And moving on from there Jesus came beside the Sea of Galilee; and going up on the mountain he sat there.
30
καὶ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ ὄχλοι πολλοὶ ἔχοντες μεθ’ ἑαυτῶν ⸂κωφούς, τυφλούς, χωλούς, κυλλούς⸃, καὶ ἑτέρους πολλούς, καὶ ἔρριψαν αὐτοὺς παρὰ τοὺς πόδας ⸀αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτούς·
And large crowds came to him, having with them the mute, the blind, the lame, the crippled and many others; and they flung them at his feet, and he healed them,
31
ὥστε ⸂τὸν ὄχλον⸃ θαυμάσαι βλέποντας κωφοὺς λαλοῦντας ⸂κυλλοὺς ὑγιεῖς⸃ ⸀καὶ χωλοὺς περιπατοῦντας καὶ τυφλοὺς βλέποντας· καὶ ἐδόξασαν τὸν θεὸν Ἰσραήλ.
so that the crowd marvelled, seeing the mute speaking, the crippled sound, the lame walking and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
32
Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς προσκαλεσάμενος τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν· Σπλαγχνίζομαι ἐπὶ τὸν ὄχλον, ὅτι ἤδη ἡμέραι τρεῖς προσμένουσίν μοι καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσιν τί φάγωσιν· καὶ ἀπολῦσαι αὐτοὺς νήστεις οὐ θέλω, μήποτε ἐκλυθῶσιν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ.
And Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I am moved with compassion for the crowd, because they have stayed with me three days already and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away fasting, lest they give out on the way.”
33
καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ⸀μαθηταί· Πόθεν ἡμῖν ἐν ἐρημίᾳ ἄρτοι τοσοῦτοι ὥστε χορτάσαι ὄχλον τοσοῦτον;
And the disciples say to him, “Where in a desolate place would we get loaves enough to satisfy so great a crowd?”
34
καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Πόσους ἄρτους ἔχετε; οἱ δὲ εἶπαν· Ἑπτά, καὶ ὀλίγα ἰχθύδια.
And Jesus says to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven — and a few small fish.”
35
καὶ ⸀παραγγείλας ⸂τῷ ὄχλῳ⸃ ἀναπεσεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν
And directing the crowd to recline on the ground,
36
⸀ἔλαβεν τοὺς ἑπτὰ ἄρτους καὶ τοὺς ἰχθύας ⸀καὶ εὐχαριστήσας ἔκλασεν καὶ ⸀ἐδίδου τοῖς ⸀μαθηταῖς οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ⸂τοῖς ὄχλοις⸃.
he took the seven loaves and the fish, and giving thanks he broke them and was giving them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.
Why this rendering
Matt.15.36 Observation
Syntactic observation
The verb of thanks divides between the two feeding stories — and **the two books divide the same way.** Matthew 14:19 (five thousand) has εὐλόγησεν, blessed; 15:36 (four thousand) has εὐχαριστήσας, having given thanks. Mark is identical: 6:41 (five thousand) εὐλόγησεν, 8:6 (four thousand) εὐχαριστήσας. Four places interlocking in two pairs. Luke 9:16 also has εὐλόγησεν for the five thousand. **John 6:11, however, has εὐχαριστήσας for the five thousand** — and says εὐχαριστήσαντος again at 6:23, looking back on it. So the three synoptics bless at the five thousand and John alone gives thanks, while giving thanks is, for the other three, the word of the four-thousand story. The basket-word runs more evenly: after the five thousand all four books have twelve κόφινοι (Matt 14:20, Mark 6:43, Luke 9:17, John 6:13), and the seven σπυρίδες belong only to the four-thousand story, which only Matthew and Mark have. The place-name, though, diverges: Matthew has Μαγαδάν, Mark 8:10 Δαλμανουθά, each occurring once in its own book. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀ἔλαβεν ⸀καὶ ⸀ἐδίδου ⸀μαθηταῖς ⸂τοῖς ὄχλοις⸃.).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “having given thanks” — kept apart from 14:19's blessed; and basket, not hamper
Basis Applies the distinctions fixed at Mark 8 (bless/give thanks, hamper/basket) to Matthew as well, so the four places can be seen interlocking in pairs.
Level both to gave thanks
Basis One action, one word.
Rejected Both authors split the two feedings between two verbs, and the splits interlock. Levelling destroys the whole pattern across the four places.
37
καὶ ἔφαγον πάντες καὶ ἐχορτάσθησαν, καὶ ⸂τὸ περισσεῦον τῶν κλασμάτων ἦραν⸃ ἑπτὰ σπυρίδας πλήρεις.
And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up what was left over of the pieces — seven baskets full.
38
οἱ δὲ ἐσθίοντες ἦσαν τετρακισχίλιοι ἄνδρες χωρὶς γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων.
And those eating were four thousand men, apart from women and children.
39
καὶ ἀπολύσας τοὺς ὄχλους ἐνέβη εἰς τὸ πλοῖον, καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅρια ⸀Μαγαδάν.
And having sent the crowds away, he got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan.