The more difficult or awkward reading is often preferable. The reading at first will seem to be more difficult or awkward to understand, but after further investigation, it will be discovered that a scribe deliberately or mistakenly changed the text to an easier reading.
Was the original reading for Matthew 5:47b “Do not even the Gentiles do the same” or was it “Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
Short Reminder:
If we have the original words, we, in essence, have the original and; therefore, do not need the original documents.
The shorter reading is generally preferred if the change is intended. This is a reflection of scribal tendency, as a scribe is far more likely in his efforts at clarification, willfully to make an addition to a text. Very rarely will a scribe intentionally add to his text by mistake.
The Convincing Evidence [CE] are two of the earliest manuscripts that are very weighty (P46 B) as well as Clement MSSaccording to Jerome, which indicates that this is an even higher-level proof that the reading (γυναῖκες τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν “wives to your own husbands”) could have been original in that it is enough to accept it as
Nazareth was a very small village in the region of Galilee (Galilee lay north of Samaria and Judea). The town was located about 15 mi (25 km) west of the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. – The NET Bible
