Matthew 15:3-4

15:3 He answered them, ¹  “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? 15:4 For God said, ²  ‘Honor your father and mother’ ³  and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ ⁴ 

[15:3]  ¹ tn Grk “But answering, he said to them.”

[15:4]  ² tc Most mss (א*^,2 C L W 0106 33 Ï) have an expanded introduction here; instead of “For God said,” they read “For God commanded, saying” (ὁ γὰρ θεὸς ἐνετείλατο λέγων, Jo gar qeo" eneteilato legwn). But such expansions are generally motivated readings; in this case, most likely it was due to the wording of the previous verse (“the commandment of God”) that caused early scribes to add to the text. Although it is possible that other witnesses reduced the text to the simple εἶπεν (eipen, “[God] said”) because of perceived redundancy with the statement in v. 3, such is unlikely in light of the great variety and age of these authorities (א¹ B D Θ 073 Ë^1,13 579 700 892 pc lat co, as well as other versions and fathers).

[15:4]  ³ sn A quotation from Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16.

[15:4]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9.