Subject: Matthew 21:3, 7

From: "Vinton A. Dearing" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 12:42:50 PST

I used to suppose that Matthew did not know the rules of Hebrew 
poetry when he wrote that Jesus rode in triumph on two animals. I am 
now inclined to translate the passage differently. Jesus could 
compose verse, as we see from Luke 12:53, so I suppose that he knew 
perfectly well that the "ass" and the "colt the foal of a she-ass" in 
Zechariah 9:9 were the same male animal, and that when he sent the 
apostles to get it, saying that they would "find an ass tethered and 
a foal with her," he meant they would identify the colt from this 
information, just as he later told those who were to prepare the Last 
Supper that they would find the house by following a man who was 
carrying a waterpot (Luke 22:10). I then find traces of recognition 
that Jesus rode only the colt in some of the earliest mss of 
Matthew and prefer their readings to the common ones. "The Lord needs 
it" (with Sinaiticus and Theta [01 and 038]) in vs. 3, and in vs. 7, 
"they put their garments on it" (ep' auton with Bezae and Phi [D or 
05 and 043]) and "they put him upon it" (epanw autou with Theta 
[038]; Bezae [D or 05] and 892 have epanw auton, but that may be only 
itacism). The fact that Jesus said the owner would send both animals 
-- or said he himself would send both animals back -- (vs. 3) does 
not affect my interpretation of the other passages, or so I believe 
-- so much so that I am inclined to emend that place in the text all  
by myself from apostelei autous to apostelei auton,  but only in a 
footnote. Samuel Johnson, perhaps the greatest textual critic of 
Shakespeare, wrote, "Since I have confined my imagination to the 
margin [i.e., footnotes], it must not be considered as very 
reprehensible, if I have suffered it to play some freaks in its own 
dominion. There is no danger in conjecture, if it be proposed as 
conjecture; and while the text remains uninjured, those changes may 
be safely offered, which are not considered even by him that offers 
them as necessary or safe."   I would be grateful for any comments.
     Vinton Dearing