It has been several days since I have taken time to update you on the work of the Scripture Restoration Project, so I wanted to share with you another example of the detective work involved in restoring the original Hebrew of the Gospels. In particular I want to share with you the process of the restoration of Matthew 7:13-14 and its parallel in Luke 13:24.
A special problem arose in restoring the text of Matthew 7:14 which says in the KJV “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way.” Some readers will mistakenly believe that “strait” is an Old English spelling of “straight.” That is actually not true, these are actually two different English words:
“Straight” means “free from curves, bends, angles, or irregularities” while “strait” means “a narrow space or passage” (although this use of the word is now archaic).
The DuTillet and Munster Hebrew texts are redundant here, using the same Hebrew word (צר) to to modify both the “gate” and the “way”:
מה צר השער וצרה הדרך
Literally “how narrow is the gate and narrow is the way…” This reading seems redundant and unlikely, since the oldest versions of Matthew all have two different words here. Had the original Hebrew had the same word, the translations into Aramaic, Greek and Latin would likely have used the same word in both places as well.
The Shem Tob Hebrew version of Matthew has:
כמה השער צר וכבד הדרך
Literally “how narrow is the gate and grievous is the way.” This word (כבד) does not explain the translation of this word in the other ancient versions to mean “strait”.
Now if we look to the Aramaic of the Old Syriac we have:
מא אליץ תרעא וקטינא אורחא
Literally “How strait the gate and narrow the way”
The Aramaic Peshitta reverses the order with:
מא קטין תרעא ואליצא אורחא
“How narrow is the gate and strait is the path”Aramaic אליץ gives us a good correspondence for Hebrew צר while Aramaic קטין has an exact cognate in Hebrew קטון literally “small”, such that the the original Hebrew was:
מה צר השער וקטנה הדרך
Literally “How narrow is the gate and small (i.e. constricted) is the way”
The rent is past due, must be paid by the end of the day tomorrow (Monday) and we just do not have it!
Donations in April were very, very low. This is common each year with tax time taking a bite out of people’s pocket books. Unfortunately, our expenses have not decreased during the tax season.
This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.
But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.
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Hurst, TX 76053