In his Sermon on the Mount under different forms of worship, he began with a strong rebuke of about not being showy or pretentious in one’s display of oneself in our worship of God. He then used such examples of how to give, how to pray, and how to fast. One textual variant [error] was added three times.
In Matthew 6:1a variant unit, there are two different variant readings and in Matthew 6:1b variant unit, there is one variant reading. And there is a nomen sacrum.
If we have the original words, we, in essence, have the original and; therefore, do not need the original documents.
It is true that the first three centuries of copying New Testament Greek manuscripts were “free,” in that scribes often took liberties with the manuscript they were copying from, chaotic copying of the texts, a period of copying that was in a state of flux by scribes who did not value what they were copying? Herein lies the truth.
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?”
