Did Matthew Put Words in Jesus' Mouth?

As we begin to dig into Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9, it has been critical to approach these passages with the right framework. Therefore, prior to examining those passages, we’ve already introduced the pain caused by misrepresenting this text, examined Jesus’ other words in Matthew 5 and considered similar sayings in the other gospels. We also examined that we must disciple people considering divorce differently than those already suffering from divorce.

Context Argument B2

As we looked in CA-B1, we must conclude that Matthew added the phrases “except for the reason of unchastity” and “except for immorality.” It is not showing proper intellectual integrity to conclude Mark and Luke merely omitted them. But then, the question must be asked:

Did Matthew put words in Jesus’ mouth?

Let’s consider a few things regarding quotations found in Scripture:

There are no quotation marks in the Greek.

In fact, one area that makes reading ancient manuscripts tricky is that there is rarely punctuation, spacing or different cases (it was typically reproduced in all caps). Therefore, anytime we approach a quotation, it takes interpretive tools to discern where a quote begins and where it ends.

We have very few direct quotes in Scripture.

Revelation seems to offer us a couple moments where John is instructed exact words to write, but most of the time he is told just to record what he sees. There are very few times where we are told that the exact words have been recorded for our sake.

Direct quotations of Jesus are virtually impossible.

Jesus spoke in Aramaic. The New Testament was recorded in Greek. Therefore, any quote we attribute to Jesus (except Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? which Matthew [in 27:46] chose to preserve in Aramaic) has already been translated so that it could be recorded in Greek. Just as any translation of Scripture requires the addition of words to preserve the original meaning, the authors of the gospels certainly had to add words or phrases to Jesus’ teaching so that it would make sense in translation.

Therefore, an orthodox understanding of inspiration requires us to believe the authors were very careful in their selection of every word. Few question Jesus’ precision in everything He said. Likewise, through the divine work of the Holy Spirit, we should not question the Spirit's work as the texts were recorded. Every author had as his goal, with the Spirit working as a Divine Guide to make sure the goal was accomplished, to accurately represent the words of Christ.

So Matthew, with the same intent as Mark and Luke, saw fit to add these two phrases when repeating the teaching of Christ. Why is that? Was there something unique about Matthew’s audience that required this addition?

Certainly, there is (again, I am grateful to my father for always articulating this distinction). And we will get to that very important distinction eventually. But first, we’ll carefully examine the words of Matthew, knowing that he very deliberately chose (and the Spirit oversaw) the words as recorded.