Saturday, March 8, 2025

Matthew 14 in the Unitarian Standard Version

 

Introducing the Unitarian Standard Version Bible

1 At that season Herod the tetrarch(a) heard the report concerning Jesus, 2 and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore do these powers work in him. 3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him aside in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip`s wife. 4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her(b). 5 And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod`s birthday(c) came, the daughter(d) of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased Herod. 7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she should ask. 8 And she, being put forward by her mother, saith, Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist. 9 And the king was grieved; because of his oaths, and of them that sat to eat(e) with him, he commanded it to be given; 10 and he sent and beheaded John in the prison. 11 And his head(f) was brought on a platter, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. 12 And his disciples came, and took up the corpse, and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.

13 Now when Jesus heard [it], he withdrew from there in a boat, to a desert place apart: and when the multitudes heard [thereof,] they followed him on foot from the cities. 14 And he(g) came forth, and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. 15 And when evening was come, the disciples came to him, saying, The place is desert, and the time is already past; send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food. 16 But [Jesus] said unto them, They have no need to go away; give ye them [something] to eat. 17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. 18 And he said, Bring them here to me. 19 And he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. 20 And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And they that did eat were about five thousand(h) men, besides women and children.

22 And straightway he constrained the disciples to enter into the boat, and to go before him unto the other side, till he should send the multitudes away. 23 And after he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, he was there alone. 24 But the boat was now already many furlongs from the land, distressed by the waves; for the wind was contrary. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came unto them, walking upon the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a ghost(i); and they cried out for fear. 27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying Be of good cheer; it is I(j); be not afraid. 28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto the upon the waters. 29 And he said, Come. And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters to come to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the [strong] wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. 31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and took hold of him, and saith unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? 32 And when they were gone up into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And they that were in the boat paid homage(k) to him, saying, Of a truth thou art God's Son(l).

34 And when they had crossed over, they came to the land, unto Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place knew him, they sent into all that region round about, and brought unto him all that were sick, 36 and they besought him that they might only touch the border of his garment: and as many as touched were made whole.

Footnotes

(a) "Tetrarch - King of a fourth part of his father's dominions."~John Wesley's Notes on the Bible. AT has "governor"; NWT has "district ruler"; Riverside NT and NEB has "Prince." GNT has "ruler of Galilee."
(b) "Mark (vi. 18) says 'It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife,' which last words constitute the ground of objection."~Edward Williams B. Nicholson, A New Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew, Volume 1, 1881
(c)
Birthdays in the Bible were always associated with death (Genesis 40).
(d)
According to Josephus, her name was Salome.
(e)
ASV: "sat at meat"
(f)
It is said that no fewer than four locations lay claim to John the Baptist's head. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria was built in the eighth century A.D. on the site of a church named for John the Baptist; his head is said to be buried in a shrine there. The Church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome houses a skull identified as the head of John the Baptist. A Crusader brought back  John's head from Constantinople in 1206 to a cathedral in Amiens, France. And in Munich, Germany, the Residenz Museum includes the skull of John the Baptist.

(g) The KJV, TR, MT and NIV have Jesus here instead of "he".
(h) The "Feeding of the 5,000", is the only miracle—aside from the resurrection—recorded in all four gospels (Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-14).
(i) It has always struck me that Jesus never corrected their ghostly superstition.
(j) The words used in the Greek here are EGW EIMI/ego eimi, and they are used merely as an identifier, not as a statement of Deity.

(k) The KJV and ASV and most Protestant Bibles have "worshipped" here. Thayer's Lexicon has "to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence...hence, in the N. T. by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication. It is used a. of homage shown to men of superior rank." BDAG has "Freq. used to designate the custom of prostrating oneself before persons and kissing their feet or the hem of their garment, the ground, etc...to express in attitude or gesture one’s complete dependence on or submission to a high authority figure, (fall down and) worship, do obeisance to, prostrate oneself before, do reverence to, welcome respectfully" Hence, at this Scripture, many Bibles use words other than "worship" here, i.e. "fall down", "paid homage", etc. (See REB, REV, NEB, NAB, NJB, Darby, Weymouth, Rotherham, NWT, Goodspeed etc).
(l) The ASV has "thou art the Son of God" here. "In Matt. xiv. 33, the simple translation would be, 'Of a truth thou art a son of God.' The Revisers follow the Authorized Version, thou art the Son of God, giving no indication that the noun has no article in the Greek. Compare with this, Mark xv. 39, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God,' and the parallel text in Matt. xxvii. 54, with the marginal note, 'or, a son of God, the Greek being the same in each case."~Henry Ierson, Notes on the Amended English Bible, 1887

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