Matthew 1:25

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New Testament Matthew 1

(Textus Receptus, Theodore Beza, 1598)

(King James Version, Pure Cambridge Edition)

(Textus Receptus Version)

Contents

Commentary

Matthew 1:25 is the twenty-fifth and last verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Joseph has awakened from a dream in which an angel gave him instructions about the birth of Jesus. He has taken Mary into his home, completing their marriage, and this verse explains what occurs once the couples are united.

This passage is the center of much controversy in the debate over the perpetual virginity of Mary. To many Protestants this verse is one of the central reasons for rejecting the Perpetual Virginity. The author of Matthew only states that sexual relations did not occur prior to the birth of Jesus, implying that they occurred afterwards. Those who support the perpetual virginity argue that the passage is far vaguer in the original Greek than it is in English. In English a negation until implies that the event in question did happen afterwards.

Greek

Textus Receptus

See Also Matthew 1:25 Complutensian Polyglot 1514

Desiderius Erasmus

Colinæus

Stephanus (Robert Estienne)

Theodore Beza

See Also Matthew 1:25 Beza 1598 (Beza)

  • 1604 (Beza Octavo 5th)

Elzevir

Scholz

Scrivener

  • 1894 (Η ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ)

Other Greek

  • 1857 (Tregelles' Greek New Testament)
  • (Tischendorf 8th Ed.)
  • 1881 (Westcott & Hort)
  • (Greek orthodox Church)

Anglo Saxon Translations

English Translations

Matthew 1:25 in the 1611 King James Version
Matthew 1:25 in the 1611 King James Version
  • 1535 (Coverdale Bible)
  • 1745 (Mr. Whiston's Primitive New Testament)
  • 1770 (Worsley Version by John Worsley)
  • 1790 (Wesley Version by John Wesley)
  • 1795 (A Translation of the New Testament from the Original Greek by Thomas Haweis)
  • 1835 (Living Oracles by Alexander Campbell)
  • 1851 (Murdock Translation)
  • 1865 (The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 1865 by American Bible Union)
  • 1869 (Noyes Translation by George Noyes)
  • 1885 (Revised Version also called English Revised Version - Charles Ellicott editor)
  • 1902 (The Emphasised Bible Rotherham Version)
  • 1902 (Translation of the New Testament from the Original Greek by William Godbey)
  • 1904 (Twentieth Century New Testament by Ernest Malan and Mary Higgs)
  • 1911 (Syrus Scofield)
  • 1912 The Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Weymouth New Testament)
  • 1918 (The New Testament Translated from the Sinaitic Manuscript by Henry Anderson)
  • 1923 (Edgar Goodspeed)

Other Greek

  • 1869 καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως οὗ ἔτεκεν υἱόν· καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. Tischendorf 8th Edition
  • 1881 καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως [οὗ] ἔτεκεν υἱόν· καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. Westcott and Hort

Modern Versions

Modern versions bring confusion about Mary being a Virgin:

If it is only 'a son' rather than a 'firstborn son' Mary may have had other children before Jesus to someone else. So the Textus Receptus solves two errors by stating the fact that Jesus was Mary's firstborn:

1) a firstborn implys that there was a secondborn later on (otherwise it would say 'only begotten')
2) A firstborn implys that Mary had previously had no other children.

The inclusion of firstborn here makes it impossible for these to heretical doctrines to survive.

See Also Psalm 69:8, Matthew 12:46; 13:55; Mark 3:31, 6:3; John 2:12; 7:3,5; 1 Corinthians 9:5, Galatians 1:19.

The Greek - πρωτότοκον (firstborn) appears in the vast majority of Manuscripts except for 2 Papyrus (B and Aleph) and 3 minuscule mss. It is the reading found in the Majority of all remaining Greek manuscripts and many uncial copies (capital letters) including C, D, E, K, L, M, S, U, V, W, Gamma, Delta, Pi, Sigma and Omega. It is also the reading found in numerous early church Lectionaries, the Old Latin copies of aur, d, f, ff1, g2, q, the Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, Harkelian, Armenian, Slavonic and Ethiopic ancient versions. It is also so quoted by many early church witnesses including the Diatessaron, Cyril of Jerusalem, Didymus, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Proclus, Jerome and Augustine.



The modern versions that omit the word “firstborn” and merely say something like: “But but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.” are the NIV, ESV, RSV, NRSV, NASB, NET, Holman and the Common English Bible.

Scripture mentions that Mary had up to at least at least 6 other children. Matthew 13:55-56 “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are then not ALL (not ‘both’) with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” The Roman Catholic church teaches "Immaculate Conception" which is the belief that the virgin Mary was perpetually a virgin and had not other children.

The Catholic St. Joseph New American Bible 1970, which also omits the word “firstborn” from Matthew 1:25, has a footnote in reference to the brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus. They tell us:

“The question about the brothers of Jesus and his sisters cannot easily be decided on linguistic grounds. Greek-speaking Semites used the terms adelphos and adelphe, not only in the ordinary sense of blood brother or sister, but also for nephew, niece, half-brother, half-sister, and cousin. The question of meaning here would not have arisen but for the faith of the church in Mary’s perpetual virginity.” page 48 St. Joseph NAB.



The Catholic bibles have continued to change their underlying texts from one edition to the next. The previous Douay-Rheims of 1582 as well as the Douay version of 1950 both included the phrase “firstborn,” however the Douay-Rheims gives a footnote to try to explain away the clear meaning of the verse.

“Till she brought forth her firstborn son: From these words Helvidius and other heretics most impiously inferred that the blessed Virgin Mary had other children besides Christ; but St. Jerome shews, by divers examples, that this expression of the Evangelist was a manner of speaking usual among the Hebrews, to denote by the word until, only what is done, without any regard to the future...St. Jerome also proves by Scripture examples, that an only begotten son, was also called firstborn, or first begotten: because according to the law, the firstborn males were to be consecrated to God; Sanctify unto me, saith the Lord, every firstborn that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, etc. Ex. 13. 2.”



The Jerusalem bible of 1968, the St. Joseph NAB of 1970 and the New Jerusalem bible of 1985 simply omit the word “firstborn” altogether as also do the other versions like the NIV, ESV, NASB, ISV, NET, Holman, etc. They now read: “he had not had intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son.” (New Jerusalem bible 1985)



The 2009 The Sacred Bible Catholic Public Domain Version has now put the word back into their text! It now reads: “And he knew her not, yet she bore her son, the firstborn. And he called his name JESUS.”

Versions that include have firstborn are: Latin Vulgate of 382 A.D. - “et non cognoscebat eam donec peperit filium suum primogenitum et vocavit nomen eius Iesum.”, the Anglo-Saxon gospels by Aelfric Manuscript 140 dated to about 1000 A.D. - "hyre frum-cennedan sunu", Lamsa's translation of the Syriac Peshitta - "And he did not know her until she gave birth to her first-born son; and she called his name Jesus.", Wycliffe 1395 - "til she hadde borun her firste bigete sone", Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, Cranmer's bible 1540, the Bishops' Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1587 - "til she had broght forth her first borne sonne, & he called his name Iesus.", Mace's N.T. 1729, Wesley's translation 1755, Webster's translation 1833, Darby, Youngs, the NKJV 1982, the Amplified Bible 1997, Hebrew Names Bible, and the Third Millenium Bible 1998.

Among foreign language bibles that read like the King James Bible with "her FIRSTBORN son" are the following: the Chinese Union Traditional bible, the French Martin 1744 and the French Ostervald 1996 - "ce qu'elle eût enfanté son fils premier-né", Luther's German Bible 1545 and the German Schlachter of 2000 - "erstgeborenen Sohn", the Italian Diodati 1649 and Nuovo Diodati of 1991 - "il suo figliuol primogenito" the the Dutch Staten Vertaling Bible, the Spanish Sagradas Escrituras of 1569, Spanish Reina Valera of 1909, 1960, 1995 and the 2010 Reina Valera Gómez - "hasta que parió á su hijo primogénito", the Portuguese Almeida Corregida E Fiel and the Portuguese A Biblia Sagrada deu à luz seu filho, o primogénito", the Russian Synodal Version and the Modern Greek N.T. as well as the Greek texts used by the Orthodox Churches all over the world today - "εγεννησε τον υιον αυτης τον πρωτοτοκον".

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