1
⸂Καταβάντος δὲ αὐτοῦ⸃ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄρους ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ ὄχλοι πολλοί.
And when he had come down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.
2
καὶ ἰδοὺ λεπρὸς ⸀προσελθὼν προσεκύνει αὐτῷ λέγων· Κύριε, ἐὰν θέλῃς δύνασαί με καθαρίσαι.
And look — a leper came and bowed before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3
καὶ ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα ἥψατο ⸀αὐτοῦ λέγων· Θέλω, καθαρίσθητι· καὶ εὐθέως ἐκαθαρίσθη αὐτοῦ ἡ λέπρα.
And stretching out his hand he touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” And at once his leprosy was made clean.
4
καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ὅρα μηδενὶ εἴπῃς, ἀλλὰ ὕπαγε σεαυτὸν δεῖξον τῷ ἱερεῖ, καὶ προσένεγκον τὸ δῶρον ὃ προσέταξεν Μωϋσῆς εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς.
And Jesus says to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
5
⸂Εἰσελθόντος δὲ αὐτοῦ⸃ εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ προσῆλθεν αὐτῷ ἑκατόνταρχος παρακαλῶν αὐτὸν
And when he had entered Capernaum, a commander of a hundred came to him, appealing to him
Why this rendering
Matt.8.5 Observation
Syntactic observation
**Two authors name the same rank with words from two languages.** Matthew uses the ἑκατόνταρχος family — ἑκατόνταρχος at 8:5, 8:8 and 27:54, ἑκατοντάρχης at 8:13, differing only in ending, all four Greek (ἑκατόν, hundred, plus ἄρχω, to rule). Luke is on the Greek side too, using ἑκατοντάρχης three times (7:2, 7:6, 23:47). Mark never uses this family at all, only κεντυρίων, the Latin centurio in Greek letters (15:39, 44, 45); Matthew and Luke, conversely, never use κεντυρίων. **Of the four Gospels, Mark alone chose the Latin.** Lists this exactly complementary make it look like a settled habit of each author rather than a chance choice. And three places mirror one another: Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39 and Luke 23:47 are the same man at the cross, and Matthew and Luke name him in Greek while only Mark names him in Latin. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸂Εἰσελθόντος αὐτοῦ⸃).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “commander of a hundred” — kept distinct from Mark's centurion
Basis Matthew's word is Greek, so it is rendered by sense and given a rendering distinct from Mark's Latin transliteration. The ground for transliterating κεντυρίων at Mark 15 was that the author chose the Latin; keeping that ground requires rendering Matthew's Greek as Greek.
centurion in both places
Basis One rank, one rendering.
Rejected Merged, the fact that the two authors chose words from different languages disappears. What this corpus can show is exactly what differs when Matt 27:54 and Mark 15:39 are set side by side; one rendering over both leaves nothing to show.
Lost in translation
the choice of language One author brings the Roman word in as it stands; the other names the rank in Greek. Either way the reader gets only a rank, and that a choice was made survives only in the analysis.
6
καὶ λέγων· Κύριε, ὁ παῖς μου βέβληται ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ παραλυτικός, δεινῶς βασανιζόμενος.
and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, terribly tormented.”
7
⸀καὶ λέγει ⸀αὐτῷ· Ἐγὼ ἐλθὼν θεραπεύσω αὐτόν.
And he says to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8
⸂καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς⸃ ὁ ἑκατόνταρχος ἔφη· Κύριε, οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς ἵνα μου ὑπὸ τὴν στέγην εἰσέλθῃς· ἀλλὰ μόνον εἰπὲ λόγῳ, καὶ ἰαθήσεται ὁ παῖς μου·
And the commander answered, “Lord, I am not fit for you to come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9
καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπός εἰμι ὑπὸ ⸀ἐξουσίαν, ἔχων ὑπ’ ἐμαυτὸν στρατιώτας, καὶ λέγω τούτῳ· Πορεύθητι, καὶ πορεύεται, καὶ ἄλλῳ· Ἔρχου, καὶ ἔρχεται, καὶ τῷ δούλῳ μου· Ποίησον τοῦτο, καὶ ποιεῖ.
For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go,' and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,' and he does it.”
10
ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐθαύμασεν καὶ εἶπεν τοῖς ἀκολουθοῦσιν· Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ⸂παρ’ οὐδενὶ τοσαύτην πίστιν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ⸃ εὗρον.
And hearing it Jesus marvelled and said to those following, “Amen I say to you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
11
λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι πολλοὶ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δυσμῶν ἥξουσιν καὶ ἀνακλιθήσονται μετὰ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν·
And I say to you that many will come from east and west and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens;
12
οἱ δὲ υἱοὶ τῆς βασιλείας ἐκβληθήσονται εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον· ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων.
but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer dark. There there will be the weeping and the grinding of teeth.”
Why this rendering
Matt.8.12 Observation
Syntactic observation
τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον — the outer dark. The word for darkness here is σκότος, not σκοτία (the word at 4:16). ἐξώτερος, the comparative of ἔξω, outside, occurs three times in the whole corpus (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30) and never in the other three books, and all three form the same phrase, τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον. What follows, ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων, the weeping and the grinding of teeth, is likewise a formula — six times in Matthew (8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30) and once in Luke (13:28), never in Mark. κλαυθμός alone stands once more, at Matthew 2:18. So the back half of this verse is where two of Matthew's recurring phrases stand joined. And what they are attached to is οἱ υἱοὶ τῆς βασιλείας, the sons of the kingdom, while v.11 just before has people from east and west reclining in that kingdom — those inside going out, those outside coming in.
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “into the outer dark” — kept distinct from the darkness of 4:16
Basis Applies the corpus decision separating σκότος from σκοτία (Matthew 4), and fixes the three-place formula to one wording.
“into the outer darkness”
Basis Uses the settled rendering.
Rejected This corpus decided to render σκοτία and σκότος apart (Matthew 4:16). Collapsing them back into one darkness undoes that decision and blurs σκοτία (eight times in John, twice in Matthew) with the σκότος here.
13
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῷ ἑκατοντάρχῃ· Ὕπαγε, ⸀ὡς ἐπίστευσας γενηθήτω σοι· καὶ ἰάθη ὁ ⸀παῖς ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ.
And Jesus said to the commander, “Go; as you believed, let it be done for you.” And the servant was healed in that hour.
14
Καὶ ἐλθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν Πέτρου εἶδεν τὴν πενθερὰν αὐτοῦ βεβλημένην καὶ πυρέσσουσαν·
And Jesus, coming into Peter's house, saw his mother-in-law lying down and feverish;
15
καὶ ἥψατο τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀφῆκεν αὐτὴν ὁ πυρετός, καὶ ἠγέρθη καὶ διηκόνει αὐτῷ.
and he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and was serving him.
16
Ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ δαιμονιζομένους πολλούς· καὶ ἐξέβαλεν τὰ πνεύματα λόγῳ, καὶ πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας ἐθεράπευσεν·
And when evening came they brought him many who were demon-possessed; and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill,
17
ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος· Αὐτὸς τὰς ἀσθενείας ἡμῶν ἔλαβεν καὶ τὰς νόσους ἐβάστασεν.
so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: “He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.”
18
Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ⸂πολλοὺς ὄχλους⸃ περὶ αὐτὸν ἐκέλευσεν ἀπελθεῖν εἰς τὸ πέραν.
And seeing large crowds around him, Jesus gave orders to go away to the other side.
19
καὶ προσελθὼν εἷς γραμματεὺς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Διδάσκαλε, ἀκολουθήσω σοι ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ.
And one scribe came and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20
καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσιν καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκηνώσεις, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἔχει ποῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν κλίνῃ.
And Jesus says to him, “The foxes have dens and the birds of the sky nesting places, but the Son of Man has nowhere to incline his head.”
Why this rendering
Matt.8.20 Observation
Syntactic observation
Three words appear here for the first time — ἀλώπηξ, fox; φωλεός, den; κατασκήνωσις, nesting place. The three come together at two places in the corpus and nowhere else (8:20 and Luke 9:58), and not at all in Mark or John. The two verses are **word-for-word identical in Greek** — Αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσιν καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκηνώσεις. φωλεός and κατασκήνωσις occur at those two places only; ἀλώπηξ once more, at Luke 13:32, where Herod is called a fox. The animals' dwellings are both concrete nouns, while the Son of Man is given no such noun, only a clause: where he might lay his head. κλίνῃ is the subjunctive of κλίνω, to incline — the verb of John 19:30, where on the cross Jesus κλίνας τὴν κεφαλήν, inclined his head. Within this corpus the word for having nowhere to incline a head returns at the end as the inclining of that head. κλίνω stands at six places (8:20; Luke 9:12, 9:58, 24:5, 24:29; John 19:30): Luke 24:5 inclines faces to the ground, and 9:12 and 24:29 have the day inclining — one verb spanning a body and a day. And this is the first place in Matthew where υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, Son of Man, appears.
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “Foxes have dens and the birds of the sky nesting places, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”
Basis Keeps nouns for the animals and a clause for the Son of Man, preserving the asymmetry; κλίνω is rendered with the root used at John 19:30.
Shorten to “the Son of Man has no place to rest”
Basis Condenses the long clause.
Rejected Shortened, it falls into symmetry with the animals. The asymmetry is the shape of the sentence, and dropping head cuts the link to John 19:30.
21
ἕτερος δὲ τῶν ⸀μαθητῶν εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Κύριε, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθεῖν καὶ θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου.
And another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
22
ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ⸀λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἀκολούθει μοι, καὶ ἄφες τοὺς νεκροὺς θάψαι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς.
But Jesus says to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Why this rendering
Matt.8.22 Observation
Syntactic observation
νεκρός comes twice in one sentence, the same word for two different things — the first τοὺς νεκρούς are those who bury, the second τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς those who are buried. Grammatically nothing marks the difference; both are the same word in the same form. Read the first literally and the dead do the burying; read it figuratively and the two senses part — and the text does not say which. θάπτω, to bury, occurs three times in Matthew: twice here (vv.21, 22) and once at 14:12, where John the Baptist's disciples bury his body. It occurs three times in Luke as well — 9:59 and 60 are the parallel to this very exchange, and 16:22 is the rich man and Lazarus. And θάπτω never occurs in Mark at all — at Mark 6:29 John's disciples only laid (ἔθηκαν) his πτῶμα in a tomb. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀λέγει).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “let the dead bury their own dead” — one word in both places
Basis Renders with one word what the text keeps as one word, and does not decide which side is figurative.
“let the spiritually dead bury their physically dead”
Basis Names both senses to make the sentence tractable.
Rejected Neither spiritually nor physically is in the text. That one word stands identically in both places is the stumbling block of the sentence, and a translation that clears it leaves only a commentary.
23
Καὶ ἐμβάντι αὐτῷ ⸀εἰς πλοῖον ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.
And when he had got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
24
καὶ ἰδοὺ σεισμὸς μέγας ἐγένετο ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, ὥστε τὸ πλοῖον καλύπτεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν κυμάτων, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐκάθευδεν.
And look — a great shaking arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but he was sleeping.
25
καὶ ⸀προσελθόντες ἤγειραν αὐτὸν λέγοντες· Κύριε, ⸀σῶσον, ἀπολλύμεθα.
And they came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save — we are perishing.”
26
καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· Τί δειλοί ἐστε, ὀλιγόπιστοι; τότε ἐγερθεὶς ἐπετίμησεν τοῖς ἀνέμοις καὶ τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καὶ ἐγένετο γαλήνη μεγάλη.
And he says to them, “Why are you cowardly, you of little faith?” Then rising he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
27
οἱ δὲ ἄνθρωποι ἐθαύμασαν λέγοντες· Ποταπός ἐστιν οὗτος ὅτι καὶ οἱ ἄνεμοι καὶ ἡ θάλασσα ⸂αὐτῷ ὑπακούουσιν⸃;
And the people marvelled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”
28
Καὶ ⸂ἐλθόντος αὐτοῦ⸃ εἰς τὸ πέραν εἰς τὴν χώραν τῶν ⸀Γαδαρηνῶν ὑπήντησαν αὐτῷ δύο δαιμονιζόμενοι ἐκ τῶν μνημείων ἐξερχόμενοι, χαλεποὶ λίαν ὥστε μὴ ἰσχύειν τινὰ παρελθεῖν διὰ τῆς ὁδοῦ ἐκείνης.
And when he had come to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so exceedingly fierce that no one was able to pass by that road.
Why this rendering
Matt.8.28 Observation
Syntactic observation
The two books count the same story differently. Matthew 8:28 has δύο δαιμονιζόμενοι, two demon-possessed men; Mark 5:2 has ἄνθρωπος ἐν πνεύματι ἀκαθάρτῳ, a man with an unclean spirit. Luke 8:27 has one man too — ἀνήρ τις ἐκ τῆς πόλεως ἔχων δαιμόνια. **Only Matthew counts two.** The place-name divides likewise: Matthew Γαδαρηνῶν, Mark Γερασηνῶν, and Luke Γερασηνῶν as well (8:26, 37) — here too Matthew stands alone. Γαδαρηνός occurs once in the whole corpus. SBLGNT marks all three with ⸀ — the copying tradition moved to reconcile these names. Since we render both books we cannot harmonise the number or the name, and the text gives no ground for doing so. The rest of the vocabulary overlaps — coming out of the tombs, the herd of pigs, rushing down the steep bank into the sea; though Luke 8:33 says λίμνη, a lake, not a sea. Matthew's account is shorter than Mark's, and Mark's exchange about Legion (5:9) and the man sitting clothed (5:15) are not in Matthew. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸂ἐλθόντος αὐτοῦ⸃ ⸀Γαδαρηνῶν).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “two demon-possessed men” in “the country of the Gadarenes” — Mark left as Mark
Basis Renders each book as printed; the divergence in number and name is recorded in the analysis, not evened out in the text.
Harmonise the place-names between the books
Basis One event, one place-name.
Rejected The base text prints different names in the two books, and SBLGNT's marks at both show that copyists already tried to reconcile them. A translation repeating that keeps the divergence from reaching the reader.
29
καὶ ἰδοὺ ἔκραξαν λέγοντες· Τί ἡμῖν καὶ ⸀σοί, υἱὲ τοῦ θεοῦ; ἦλθες ὧδε πρὸ καιροῦ βασανίσαι ἡμᾶς;
And look — they cried out, saying, “What to us and to you, Son of God? Have you come here before the time to torment us?”
30
ἦν δὲ μακρὰν ἀπ’ αὐτῶν ἀγέλη χοίρων πολλῶν βοσκομένη.
Now far off from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.
31
οἱ δὲ δαίμονες παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν λέγοντες· Εἰ ἐκβάλλεις ἡμᾶς, ⸂ἀπόστειλον ἡμᾶς⸃ εἰς τὴν ἀγέλην τῶν χοίρων.
And the demons were appealing to him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ὑπάγετε. οἱ δὲ ἐξελθόντες ἀπῆλθον εἰς ⸂τοὺς χοίρους⸃· καὶ ἰδοὺ ὥρμησεν πᾶσα ἡ ⸀ἀγέλη κατὰ τοῦ κρημνοῦ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ ἀπέθανον ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν.
And he said to them, “Go.” And coming out they went into the pigs; and look — the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and died in the waters.
33
οἱ δὲ βόσκοντες ἔφυγον, καὶ ἀπελθόντες εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἀπήγγειλαν πάντα καὶ τὰ τῶν δαιμονιζομένων.
And those feeding them fled, and going away into the city they reported everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed.
34
καὶ ἰδοὺ πᾶσα ἡ πόλις ἐξῆλθεν εἰς ⸀ὑπάντησιν τῷ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν παρεκάλεσαν ὅπως μεταβῇ ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρίων αὐτῶν.
And look — the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and seeing him they appealed to him to move away from their borders.