Major Mistakes in the Bible - Matthew 19:9 - Latest Research
12 June, 2021
by Robert Crawford
Now that Images of Greek New Testament Manuscripts are beginning to be available online, research into these ultimate source materials will - without a doubt - uncover mistakes in our Bibles. As Christians, we need to be prepared for what we find, whether it confirms our core beliefs or contradicts them.
Over the past three years, I have been conducting this type of research on Matthew 19:9, which is a keystone text used to support the Protestant Doctrine allowing Divorce and Remarriage after a Divorce. This verse has always been controversial - from the very beginnings of Protestantism.
My results show that there continues to be two major errors in Matthew 19:9 - the Protestant Greek New Testament (commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus) contains one error, and the Catholic Greek New Testament (The Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament) contains a different error. These errors need to be corrected, especially since they represent the words of Jesus.
I have written a Theological Article presenting my study and results, but there was no room for it in the few Academic Theological Journals that deal with this branch of study, so I published it myself and placed it in the Public Domain. If you are interested in the details, you can read/download it for free from Archive.org. You can search for it by title or ISBN.
Title: A Word-Frequency Study of Matthew 19:9 using all Available Greek New Testament Manuscripts
ISBN: 978-1-5136-8273-0
Synopsis:
The Greek New Testament of Erasmus (1516) ‒ the Textus Receptus ‒ copies the second and last phrases, respectively, of Matthew 19:9, thus: "ει μη επι πορνεια . . . και ο απολελυμενην γαμησασ μοιχαται". The following variances exist: First, neither the Complutensian Polyglot Bible (1514), nor the Nestle‒Aland Greek New Testament (2016) (NA28) contain the Greek word ει. Second, the NA28 does not contain the last phrase, while the other two include it. This research is based on 1623 Greek New Testament Manuscripts, which represents about 90% of all manuscripts known to contain Matthew 19:9. The major results were: 1. the Greek word ει was present in only 19 (1.2%) manuscripts, and 2. the last phrase was present in 1510 (93%) manuscripts. The conclusion is that, based on word-frequency percentages, the inclusion of the Greek word ει in modern versions of the Greek New Testament, should be considered to be an error, and, likewise, the exclusion of the last phrase should also be considered an error. The natural consequence of ‘the Greek word ει is an error’ is that the translation of the two-word idiom, ει μη (in Matthew 19:9) as "except" is illegitimate and therefore, Matthew 19:9 does not contain an explicitly stated exception.
Keywords: Christian; Bible; textual criticism; Matthew 19:9; Strong's 1508; ει μη
I welcome discussion/debate about the results of this study. Robert Crawford
12 June, 2021
by Robert Crawford
Now that Images of Greek New Testament Manuscripts are beginning to be available online, research into these ultimate source materials will - without a doubt - uncover mistakes in our Bibles. As Christians, we need to be prepared for what we find, whether it confirms our core beliefs or contradicts them.
Over the past three years, I have been conducting this type of research on Matthew 19:9, which is a keystone text used to support the Protestant Doctrine allowing Divorce and Remarriage after a Divorce. This verse has always been controversial - from the very beginnings of Protestantism.
My results show that there continues to be two major errors in Matthew 19:9 - the Protestant Greek New Testament (commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus) contains one error, and the Catholic Greek New Testament (The Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament) contains a different error. These errors need to be corrected, especially since they represent the words of Jesus.
I have written a Theological Article presenting my study and results, but there was no room for it in the few Academic Theological Journals that deal with this branch of study, so I published it myself and placed it in the Public Domain. If you are interested in the details, you can read/download it for free from Archive.org. You can search for it by title or ISBN.
Title: A Word-Frequency Study of Matthew 19:9 using all Available Greek New Testament Manuscripts
ISBN: 978-1-5136-8273-0
Synopsis:
The Greek New Testament of Erasmus (1516) ‒ the Textus Receptus ‒ copies the second and last phrases, respectively, of Matthew 19:9, thus: "ει μη επι πορνεια . . . και ο απολελυμενην γαμησασ μοιχαται". The following variances exist: First, neither the Complutensian Polyglot Bible (1514), nor the Nestle‒Aland Greek New Testament (2016) (NA28) contain the Greek word ει. Second, the NA28 does not contain the last phrase, while the other two include it. This research is based on 1623 Greek New Testament Manuscripts, which represents about 90% of all manuscripts known to contain Matthew 19:9. The major results were: 1. the Greek word ει was present in only 19 (1.2%) manuscripts, and 2. the last phrase was present in 1510 (93%) manuscripts. The conclusion is that, based on word-frequency percentages, the inclusion of the Greek word ει in modern versions of the Greek New Testament, should be considered to be an error, and, likewise, the exclusion of the last phrase should also be considered an error. The natural consequence of ‘the Greek word ει is an error’ is that the translation of the two-word idiom, ει μη (in Matthew 19:9) as "except" is illegitimate and therefore, Matthew 19:9 does not contain an explicitly stated exception.
Keywords: Christian; Bible; textual criticism; Matthew 19:9; Strong's 1508; ει μη
I welcome discussion/debate about the results of this study. Robert Crawford