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I found in Matthew 1 of the Peshitta, Joseph as a father to Mary and not husband!


And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. (Matt 1:16 - KJV)

ιακωβ δε εγεννησεν τον ιωσηφ τον ανδρα (G435) μαριας εξ ης εγεννηθη ιησους ο λεγομενος χριστος (TR, 1550)


Yaqob begot Yoseph the guardian of Maryam, her from whom was begotten Yeshua, who is called The Messiah. (Matt 1:16 - Peshitta) read

and Jacob fathered Joseph the father of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. (Matt 1:16 - REV) read


in Matthew 1:17 we can see that from the Babylonian captivity to Christ is fourteen generations.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. (Matt 1:17 - KJV) enter image description here

With the word father the generations becomes 14 and not 13. One possibility is that scribes when they renew/copy manuscript thought they corrected a error and restored it by changing father into husband, many times are Mary and Joseph mentioned as a couple and nowhere do we see a father to Mary as Joseph which would make one think a mistake had been done and "restore" the word to husband.

Betrothed to Joseph … Luke 1:26–27
Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph ... Matthew 1:18
Flees with Joseph to Egypt … Matthew 2:13–18
Gabriel talks to Joseph about Mary .. Luke 1

Also with the word father instead of husband the generations in Luke 3 does not conflict with Matthew 1 which is a different lineage. Luke 3:23 Joseph son of Heli. Matthew 1:16 Joseph son of Jakob.

  1. What manuscript does Peshitta follow?
  2. What manuscript does English Revised Version follow?
  3. Are their any manuscript that support the word father?
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Comment to the translation from here

“father.” The Greek is anēr (#435 ἀνήρ), and means “an adult human male.” Anēr is generally assumed to mean “husband” in this verse, but that cannot be the case. For one thing, the list of the three sets of 14 generations that go from Abraham to Christ (vs. 2-16), makes this impossible. If Joseph is the husband of Mary, there would only be 13 generations in the last list of “14 generations.” Also, the Aramaic text reads differently in this verse than it does in verse 19, and in verse 19 Joseph is unmistakably referred to as the “husband” of Mary. The difference in the vocabulary indicates a difference in the relationship.

Peshitta writes: ܓܒܪܗ which is usually a male relative who is supposed to accompany a female.

In Islam, coming from the Arabic culture, it is prescribed/recommended that a male relative accompanies a woman when travelling. Customs in Syria may have been similar.

The Peshitta has probably been translated from the Greek version we know. The word ἀνήρ allows this translation. As it is later reported that Joseph was her husband or fiancée, it can be a translation error. It is however also possible that her father and her husband had the same name. It's quite likely that in this case, the passage had been adapted to the understanding that Joseph was her husband.

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