Matthew 10:5-8

10:5 Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them as follows: ¹  “Do not go to Gentile regions ²  and do not enter any Samaritan town. ³  10:6 Go ⁴  instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 10:7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, ⁵  cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

[10:5]  ¹ tn Grk “instructing them, saying.”

[10:5]  ² tn Grk “on the road of the Gentiles.” That is, a path that leads to Gentile regions.

[10:5]  ³ tn Grk “town [or city] of the Samaritans.”

[10:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “But go.” The Greek μᾶλλον (mallon, “rather, instead”) conveys the adversative nuance here so that δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:8]  ⁵ tc The majority of Byzantine minuscules, along with a few other witnesses (C³ K L Γ Θ 700* al), lack νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε (nekrou" ejgeirete, “raise the dead”), most likely because of oversight due to a string of similar endings (-ετε in the second person imperatives, occurring five times in v. 8). The longer version of this verse is found in several diverse and ancient witnesses such as א B C* (D) N 0281^vid Ë^1,13 33 565 al lat; P W Δ 348 have a word-order variation, but nevertheless include νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε. Although some Byzantine-text proponents charge the Alexandrian witnesses with theologically-motivated alterations toward heterodoxy, it is interesting to find a variant such as this in which the charge could be reversed (do the Byzantine scribes have something against the miracle of resurrection?). In reality, such charges of wholesale theologically-motivated changes toward heterodoxy are immediately suspect due to lack of evidence of intentional changes (here the change is evidently due to accidental omission).