Matthew 19
Questioned about divorce, he says it was not so from the beginning. He blesses the children, and a young man of great wealth goes away grieved.
When Jesus had finished these words — the formula of 7:28, closing the fourth great speech.
He healed them there — Mark 10:1 says he taught them. The two are left as they stand.
For any cause — only this book has the question put in that form.
Have you not read — the answer goes behind Moses to the beginning, as at Mark 10:6.
He said — the Greek does not name the speaker of the quotation.
Yoked together renders συζεύγνυμι (syzeugnymi), built on the word for a yoke.
Command — they say command where Mark 10:4 says allowed, and verse 8 corrects it.
Permitted — the answer changes their word back.
Not for immorality — this exception stands in this book (also at 5:32) and not in Mark 10:11 or Luke 16:18.
Why this rendering
Matt.19.9 Observation
Syntactic observation
Matthew and Mark each hold something the other lacks in this sentence. Matthew has an exception, Mark none — μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ, not for sexual immorality. Mark has a clause for the woman, Matthew none — Mark 10:12: and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. The two books miss each other exactly. Luke 16:18 has neither — no exception and no clause for the woman, just two unconditioned sentences. Three ways, then: Matthew the exception only, Mark the woman's clause only, Luke neither. Within Matthew the exception is worded twice and differently: 5:32 has παρεκτὸς λόγου πορνείας, outside a matter of immorality, and 19:9 μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ — the word πορνεία is the same, the phrase around it is not. πορνεία occurs three times in Matthew (5:32, 15:19, 19:9), once in Mark (7:21), once in John (8:41). ἀποστάσιον, a certificate of divorce, twice in Matthew (5:31, 19:7) and once in Mark (10:4). Matthew 19:7 and Mark 10:4 name Moses; 5:31 says only ἐρρέθη, it was said, naming no one — it keeps the you have heard frame of the Sermon on the Mount. And the verb of the quotation at v.5 diverges: Matthew κολληθήσεται, he shall be joined; Mark 10:7 προσκολληθήσεται, with one prefix more.
Rendering options · 2
Basis πορνεία is one word at both places and is fixed as immorality; the phrase around it differs, so the renderings differ with it.
Basis They state the same exception, so the reading is evened out.
Rejected That Matthew words it twice and differently is the datum; matching removes it from the translation and prevents setting it beside the fact that Mark has no such clause at all.
It is better not to marry — only this book records the disciples' reaction.
Holds (χωρέω, chōreō) is to make room for — the same verb closes verse 12.
Eunuchs (εὐνοῦχοι, eunouchoi) — the word stands four times in one verse, in three senses, and this edition does not soften any of them.
Why this rendering
Matt.19.12 Observation
Syntactic observation
εὐνοῦχος stands three times in this one verse and the verb εὐνουχίζω twice, and neither recurs anywhere in the four Gospels. The three kinds divide by voice: the first ἐγεννήθησαν, were born so, passive; the second εὐνουχίσθησαν, were made so, passive, ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, by men; the third εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτούς, made themselves so, active with a reflexive. The voice runs passive, passive, active, and only at the end is the agent the man himself. Only that third carries a purpose — διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. The closing ὁ δυνάμενος χωρεῖν χωρείτω answers οὐ πάντες χωροῦσιν of v.11. χωρέω stands at eight places in the four Gospels (Matt 15:17, 19:11, 12 twice; Mark 2:2; John 2:6, 8:37, 21:25) and the picture differs at each — how much a jar holds, no room at the door, a word finding no place, the world not containing the books. This place belongs to that line.
Rendering options · 2
Basis εὐνοῦχος is Greek, not a loanword, so it is not transliterated (transliteration is reserved for Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew place names). χωρέω is held to hold, joining it to John 21:25.
Basis Takes the third as figurative and puts that reading into the text.
Rejected The text uses one word for all three kinds and changes only the voice. Rendering the third differently breaks that construction and decides for the reader whether it is figurative — a decision we leave to them.
Lost in translation
Across eight places the one word carries jars, a doorway, a word, books, and this saying; no single English word carries all seven. Different renderings are used at different places, and only the binding of vv.11-12 by one word is preserved.
And pray — only this book adds the praying.
Do not prevent them — Mark 10:14 records his indignation; this book does not.
Laying his hands on them — the blessing of Mark 10:16 is told in one clause.
What good thing shall I do — only this book puts the question about a deed; Mark 10:17 has “Good Teacher”.
One is the good — this book turns the exchange from “why do you call me good” to a question about the good itself.
Why this rendering
Matt.19.17 Observation
Syntactic observation
The same exchange is built differently at Mark 10:17-18 and Matthew 19:16-17. In Mark the address is διδάσκαλε ἀγαθέ, good teacher, and the answer τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός — why do you call me good? no one is good except one, God. In Matthew ἀγαθέ drops from the address, leaving διδάσκαλε, and attaches instead to the question: τί ἀγαθὸν ποιήσω, what good thing shall I do. So the answer shifts too, τί με ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, why do you ask me about the good — and ὁ θεός drops from the sentence that follows, leaving εἷς ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθός, one is the good. The word ἀγαθός does not disappear; it moves — from address to object, from a person to a thing. Luke 18:19 agrees with Mark — Τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός. Of the three, then, only Matthew has a different sentence. SBLGNT marks three points of variation here (⸀⸂⸃), and the Textus Receptus reads Matthew with the other two.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders the base text as it stands without drawing it toward Mark; the shift of the word is visible only with both books side by side.
Basis Follows the Textus Receptus and matches Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19.
Rejected By our base-text decision we follow SBLGNT; and the direction runs one way — the odd one of three being conformed to the other two is common, three that agreed coming apart at one point is not.
Which? — the man asks for a list, and gets one.
Love your neighbour as yourself — only this book adds it to the list here.
The young man — only this book calls him young, and no book calls him a ruler; Luke 18:18 calls him a ruler and not young.
Complete renders τέλειος (teleios) — brought to its end, the word of 5:48. Only this book has it here.
Went away grieving — Mark 10:22 adds that his face darkened.
With difficulty (δυσκόλως, dyskolōs) — the adverb, used three times in the three books at this place.
A needle's hole — the three books use three different pairs of words for the needle and its hole, and this edition keeps them apart.
Why this rendering
Matt.19.24 Observation
Syntactic observation
Matthew writes kingdom of the heavens thirty-two times and kingdom of God four (12:28, 19:24, 21:31, 43). Mark runs the other way: kingdom of God fourteen times, kingdom of the heavens never; and Luke has kingdom of God thirty-one times and kingdom of the heavens never. One of those four places is here — and the verse immediately before it, v.23, has kingdom of the heavens. The two phrases of Matthew stand against each other in consecutive verses: v.23 εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, v.24 εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ. The parallels at Mark 10:23-25 and Luke 18:24-25 have kingdom of God throughout. The camel's half diverges too. Mark has διὰ τῆς τρυμαλιᾶς τῆς ῥαφίδος διελθεῖν, to pass through the hole of the needle; Matthew διὰ τρυπήματος ῥαφίδος εἰσελθεῖν, to enter through a needle's hole — the word for the hole differs, τρυμαλιά against τρύπημα; Matthew has no articles where Mark has two; and the verb differs, pass through against enter. Only ῥαφίς, needle, is shared. Luke 18:25 does not even share that — διὰ τρήματος βελόνης: the needle is βελόνη and the hole τρῆμα, both different again. So all three books differ in both the needle and the hole, and only the verb aligns — εἰσελθεῖν in Matthew and Luke against Mark's διελθεῖν. βελόνη, τρῆμα, τρύπημα and τρυμαλιά each occur once in the four Gospels. And Matthew's enter is not repeated for the rich man at the end — one verb carries both camel and rich man.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Matthew changes the phrase between the two verses, so the rendering changes with it. Collapsing them would make Matthew's four places uncountable and hide the inverted distribution against Mark.
Basis They name the same thing, so the reading is evened out.
Rejected That Matthew divides them thirty-two to four is itself the datum; matching here erases it, and erases precisely the one place where the two phrases touch.
Who then can be saved? — the disciples read wealth as a sign of favour.
With God all things are possible — the answer does not deny the difficulty.
What then will there be for us — only this book has Peter ask it.
Regeneration renders παλιγγενεσία (palingenesia), “born again” as a noun — used once in the four Gospels, and built from πάλιν (again) + γένεσις (genesis).
Why this rendering
Matt.19.28 Observation
Syntactic observation
παλιγγενεσία is unique in the four Gospels. It is πάλιν, again, joined to γένεσις, birth or coming-to-be, and the text does not unpack it — it merely puts the article: in the παλιγγενεσία. The difficulty here is that rendering the word imports a picture the text does not have: new world brings in a κόσμος that is not there, renewal of all things a πάντα that is not there. This is why the versions compared divide. And the whole paragraph is built differently from Mark's — Matthew 19:29 puts γυναῖκα, wife, in the list of things left, Mark 10:29 does not; Mark 10:30 has the hundredfold now in this time, with persecutions, a double frame Matthew lacks. Matthew has for my name's sake, Mark for my sake and the gospel's. The twelve thrones and the twelve tribes of Israel at vv.27-28 are not in Mark — and not merely absent here: neither θρόνος, throne, nor φυλή, tribe, occurs anywhere in Mark. Matthew has five thrones (5:34, 19:28 twice, 23:22, 25:31) and two tribes (19:28, 24:30); Luke has three thrones and two tribes. Luke 22:30 carries the same promise with two differences — it stands at the last supper rather than here, and the thrones bear no number (ἐπὶ θρόνων, without article or δώδεκα). Only the tribes are counted at twelve.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders πάλιν plus γένεσις and adds nothing about what it is, so the translation does not settle what the text leaves open.
Basis Unpacks it so the reader knows what is meant.
Rejected Neither κόσμος nor πάντα is in the text; unpacking turns one word into a clause and hides from the translation that this word occurs only once in the four Gospels.
Lost in translation
The word does not explain itself even to a Greek reader; any rendering leaves the English reader knowing either more or less than they did.
Or wife — only this book has the wife in the list. Mark 10:30 adds “with persecutions”; this book does not.
Many who are first will be last — the saying that the parable of chapter 20 will take up and repeat at 20:16.