Sunday, August 27, 2023

Matthew 9:9

On Worship Anew a couple months ago (11 June, the Second Sunday after Pentecost), the Gospel reading was Matthew 9:9-13.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed in verse 9 that what the ESV translates as a finite verb ("rose") is a participle in Latin ("surgens").  Here are the verses in full:
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me."  And he rose and followed him.

Et cum transiret inde Iesus vidit hominem sedentem in teloneo Mattheum nomine et ait illi sequere me et surgens secutus est eum
It's also a participle (ἀναστὰς) in the Greek:
Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Μαθθαῖον λεγόμενον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· ἀκολούθει μοι. καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.
I have the same comment about this as I had for similar constructions in the calling of the other disciples in Mark 1:18, 20Matthew 4:20, 22, and Luke 5:11:  I think the participle should remain a participle in the English translation because this results in a greater emphasis on the finite verb ("followed" "secutus est," ἠκολούθησεν), which describes a more significant action.