Matthew 2
Men from the east follow a star and bow down. Herod kills the children of Bethlehem; the family flees to Egypt and settles at Nazareth.
Magi (μάγοι, magoi) names a class of eastern learned men, not kings, and the text does not count them.
Why this rendering
Matt.2.1 Observation
Syntactic observation
μάγοι — a foreign word inside Greek that the lexica describe as designating a Persian priestly class. Matthew has it four times, all in this chapter (1, 7, 16, 16). The text does not say how many they were, whether they were kings, or what their names were — the count of three comes from the three gifts of v.11, not from a number in the text. The versions compared split evenly: those that transliterate (Magi, magi, mages — NASB, NIV, BSB, LSV, YLT) and those that render by sense (wise men, 박사 — KJV, ESV, NET, WEB, 개역한글). This edition has transliterated praetorium, Legion, Korban, Gehenna, kodrantes and centurion, and that principle reaches here. The opening phrase Τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ γεννηθέντος is a genitive absolute with the passive participle of γεννάω — the verb that ran actively thirty-nine times in ch. 1 arrives passive here too.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Keeps the transliteration, applying the four Gospels rule (praetorium, Legion, Gehenna, centurion) to a foreign word of the same kind.
Basis Renders the word by sense.
Rejected 박사 or wise men lets the translation decide in advance what these people were. The Greek names a specific class and says no more, and that strangeness is a condition of the scene.
Lost in translation
To a Greek reader μάγος sounded like a word from the east, so the word itself repeats the phrase from the east. Transliterated or not, that doubling does not reach an English reader.
At its rising renders ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ (en tē anatolē), which is also the word for “the east” in verse 1 — the same word twice, read two ways.
Why this rendering
Matt.2.2 Observation
Syntactic observation
Verses 1 and 2 use the same word in different numbers. v.1 has ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν — genitive plural; vv.2 and 9 have ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ — dative singular. The plural is the idiom for the compass point (the east); the singular can be read as the rising of a star (when it rose). Matthew switches number within a verse of himself, and the switch divides the sense: did the magi see the star while in the east, or did they see it rising? The versions split exactly here — ESV, NIV, NET and NLT take when it rose; the rest take in the east. And in v.9 the star προῆγεν, went ahead — the verb used of Jesus at Mark 10:32, 14:28 and 16:7. τεχθείς, born, is the passive participle of τίκτω, of the same root as τέξεται and ἔτεκεν at 1:21, 23, 25.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Keeps the number-shift visible: plural as the compass point, singular as the rising.
Basis Fixes one word to one rendering.
Rejected This edition holds one word to one rendering, but here the text itself changes number — where the form differs, rendering it differently is what keeps that same rule. Merging the two fixes where the magi saw the star as their own location.
Lost in translation
Greek holds direction and rising in one word, so both ring at once. Either rendering loses the other, and blurs the fact that vv.1 and 2 use the same word.
All Jerusalem with him — the city is put on Herod's side.
Where the Christ is born — the question is put in the present tense.
The scribes answer from a scroll, and Herod acts on it.
By no means least — Micah 5:2 says Bethlehem is little; the quotation turns it around. The text is left as it stands.
Why this rendering
Matt.2.6 Observation
Syntactic observation
The quotation carries a negation — οὐδαμῶς ἐλαχίστη εἶ, you are by no means least. Micah 5:2 is understood to say that Bethlehem is small, so Matthew's citation stands with the sense reversed. The text does not explain the reversal; it puts it in the scribes' mouths as it is. Every version compared renders the negative as it stands — here the versions do not divide. Within the quotation the words shift too: ἡγεμόσιν, rulers, and ἡγούμενος, one who leads, stand in one sentence, and the last verb is ποιμανεῖ, he will shepherd — the sentence speaks of ruling and ends in a shepherd. Verse 5 introduces the citation as διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, through the prophet, without a name; v.17 names Jeremiah; v.23 says prophets, plural.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders the form Matthew quotes. That it differs from the prophet's own text is recorded in the analysis, not corrected in the body.
Basis Harmonises with the source of the quotation.
Rejected It would amend Matthew's text. This project renders Matthew, not the prophet Matthew cites, and the divergence of the citation is itself worth recording.
Ascertained exactly — the same care will be turned to killing at verse 16.
So that I too may come and worship him — the reader knows what the magi do not.
Stood over where the child was — the text says the star moved and stopped, and does not explain it.
Rejoiced with very great joy keeps a Greek doubling — the verb and its own noun.
Into the house — not a stable, and the text does not say how long after the birth.
Instructed (χρηματίζω, chrēmatizō) is a word for a divine direction; it returns at verse 22.
Appears stands in the present tense, as at verse 19 — the writer tells the dreams as if they are happening.
By night — only this verse gives the hour of the flight.
Out of Egypt I called my son is Hosea 11:1, where the son is Israel. The book applies it to one child and does not argue for it.
Tricked (ἐμπαίζω, empaizō) is the mocking-word used of the soldiers at 27:29.
Was fulfilled — the formula is used here of a killing.
Why this rendering
Matt.2.17 Observation
Syntactic observation
Matthew introduces fulfilment citations with a set formula, and in this chapter the three instances of it differ. v.15: τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ κυρίου διὰ τοῦ προφήτου — what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, with two prepositions kept apart: ὑπό for the speaker (the Lord), διά for the channel (the prophet). v.17: τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ Ἰερεμίου τοῦ προφήτου — through Jeremiah the prophet, with no ὑπὸ κυρίου. v.23: τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν — through the prophets, plural and unnamed. And what v.17 is attached to is Herod's killing of the children. That this is where the formula lacks by the Lord is a fact that emerges from counting; what it means the text does not say. The governing verb differs too — vv.15 and 23 have ἵνα πληρωθῇ (so that it might be fulfilled, purpose), v.17 has τότε ἐπληρώθη (then was fulfilled, a statement of fact). SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀διὰ).
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders distinctly what the text distinguishes, fixing ὑπό as by and διά as through.
Basis Makes a recurring formula read consistently.
Rejected That the formula appears three times differently is the datum. Levelling it removes from the translation the fact that by the Lord is missing at v.17, and makes countable what could be counted uncountable.
Lost in translation
Greek separates speaker from channel by preposition; English has by for both, and only the word order hints that there are two relays.
Because they are not — the Greek is bare, and this edition keeps it bare.
Appears in the present again — the fourth dream.
Those seeking the child's life have died — the plural is used though only Herod is named.
The obedience is told in the same words as verse 14 — the writer repeats rather than summarises.
Archelaus is named once in the four Gospels. Instructed is the word of verse 12 — the fifth dream.
He will be called a Nazorean — no such line stands in the prophets, and the writer says “prophets”, plural. The text is left as it stands.
Why this rendering
Matt.2.23 Observation
Syntactic observation
The introduction is plural — διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, through the prophets. Matthew's other fulfilment citations name a prophet or use the singular (1:22, 2:15, 2:17); only here is it plural and unnamed. And the sentence quoted, Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται, he will be called a Nazorean, is not found as such in any prophetic book. Matthew introduces it in a way that specifies no source, attaching only ὅτι as a quotation marker. The word divides too: Ναζωραῖος occurs in Matthew (2:23, 26:71) and John, while Mark uses Ναζαρηνός for the same thing (1:24, 10:47, 14:67, 16:6). The town is Ναζαρέτ, but the adjective for a man of it has two forms, and the three authors split between them.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Keeps the plural and supplies no source. Mark's Ναζαρηνός and Matthew's and John's Ναζωραῖος are held apart in English as Nazarene and Nazorean; where a locale cannot hold them apart (Korean, Chinese) the difference is recorded in the analysis instead.
Basis Matches the form of the other fulfilment citations.
Rejected That Matthew uses the plural only here is the datum. The singular makes it sound as though there is one source, and hides that no such single source can be found.
Lost in translation
Ναζωραῖος and Ναζαρηνός are different words in Greek, and English can keep them apart — this translation uses Nazorean for the one and Nazarene for the other, so the choice each gospel made shows on the page. Of the nine locales, two cannot split them at all, and there it does not show. What no locale can supply is the reason for the choice.