MATTHEW 1:16 ... Michael Rood Misses the Translation ... and is even corrected by the wretched SHEM TOV !

Michael Rood, a leader in the Hebrew Roots movement, has declared  Matthew 1:16 to contain the word "father" in it instead of "husband."

Thus, he attributed the Davidic lineage in Matthew to be Maryam's instead of her husband Joseph's Davidic lineage.

In Mr. Rood's own "corrected" Bible version, The Chronological Gospels, Matthew 1:16 is printed ( page 44-45):

"And Yaakov begat Yoseph

the father of Mariam

of whom was born Yeshua

who is called Messiah."

This replacement of husband with father  has no manuscript backing whatsoever. In the Nestle-Aland 26th edition, Greek New Testament,  the variants listed for Matthew 1:16 are quite numerous, but NONE deal with substituting "father" for "husband". 

As a matter of fact, MOST of the variants of that verse deal with the variety of additional words of "... who was espoused or betrothed to Mary ..."

Justifying his re-wording of Scripture, Mr. Rood printed this explanation on page 45, in a note in the middle of the page.

He cited the Syriac-Aramaic  Peshitta text using the Hebrew word for man / mighty man [ GeV Ra (i.e., Gowra, Aramaic, or GiBoR, Hebrew) ] in Matthew 1:16 versus the Hebrew word for husband [ Ba'ala ] in Matthew 1:19.

Then he printed this statement ( same note ):

"The Greek translators chose to render both Aramaic words Gevra and ba'ala as the Greek word  aner which simply means "a person of full age." The English translators then chose to translate the singular Greek word aner as "husband." ...

Now we have a problem . . . a problem which consists of sorting through the ERRORS of FACT that Mr. Rood printed in his text and in his footnote, page 45. 

First of all, the Greek word anAr  means a mature man, as opposed to a youth, a man as opposed to a woman, and a husband when in context with a wife or wife-to-be.  

Doing a quick analysis of  anAr   in the New Testament, we find that word is used for HUSBAND 44 times , according to Robert Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA., p. 505.
 

Interestingly,   anAr ( and its forms, ANDRA, etc.) is the ONLY GREEK WORD translated as HUSBAND through-out the New Testament, according to Young's Concordance, same page.  In every instance of its usage as HUSBAND, there is a woman, wife, or bride named in context in that verse.

The Greek word for FATHER is patAr and its forms. There are approximately 4 columns of New Testament "father, fathers, etc.," listed in Young's Concordance and they ALL are a form of the word patAr.

Not one verse in the New Testament 

translates anAr  as "father". 

Moving on to the Hebrew, we should easily recall that the Hebrew word for FATHER is AB ... as in Abba, Father, where HE+ cries in the Garden, Mark 14:36: 

And HE+ said, Abba, FATHER,

all things are possible unto THEE;

take away this cup from ME+:

nevertheless not what I+ will,

but what THOU+ wilt.

In the Syriac-Aramaic Peshitta, we find " VeMer Aba Abi ..."

( And HE+ said, " Father, My+ Father... " )

 In Romans 8:15, we find the Hebrew word for FATHER again, only this time WE are crying "Abba, Father !"

 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage

again to fear;

but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,

whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

In the Peshitta, the phrase is :
"Aba Abun" ... "Father, our Father."

Yet again, we find the Hebrew word for FATHER in the New Testament in Galatians 4:6, but this time, it is the SPIRIT of GOD'S SON+ crying out:

And because ye are sons,

GOD hath sent forth 

the SPIRIT of HIS SON+

into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

In the Peshitta, again is written :

 "Aba Abun" ... "Father, our Father."

AB  and its forms take up approximately 10 columns in Young's Concordance.

In summary then, the Hebrew word for FATHER is AB or ABBA; the Greek word is PATAR . "HUSBAND", then, is a totally different word from "FATHER" in both Testaments.

Likewise, through-out the New Testament, AB ( and its forms ) is the common word for FATHER in the Syriac-Aramaic Peshitta.

The Hebrew word for HUSBAND is ISH  . ISH or its forms are found in 66 verses in the Old Testament. 

Ba'al, which means "lord" or "master" is translated as HUSBAND only 14 times, according to Young's Concordance, page 505, and always in context with a wife, woman, or bride.  Only one other Old Testament word is translated as husband and that is chathan, used only twice in Exodus 4: 20, 25.

The problem with Mr. Rood's language analysis of Matthew 1:16 is that he abandoned the Greek manuscripts which gave him NO SUPPORT for his theory and ran to adopt a rather questionable understanding of the word written in the Syriac manuscript, the Peshitta, in Matthew 1:16 .  

Not surprisingly, Mr. Rood's understanding DOES NOT MATCH the Orthodox Syriac Church's translation of Matthew 1:16 !

The Aramaic ( Syriac ) Peshitta is an excellent manuscript. It was corrected from the Old Syriac manuscripts, as the Syriac scholars and learned men compared the Old Syriac manuscripts with the Byzantine Greek and the Latin manuscripts. 

The Dukhrana website lists 148 words in the Peshitta of a Greek origin ... such common words as air, for, land, anchor, stranger, coin, basket, body, stomach, school, guardian or tutor.  These words would be common to most all languages, thus the use of Greek words in the Peshitta for these common nouns reveals the composition, influence, and inclusion of Greek in the Peshitta.

  In Matthew 1:16, however, the Peshitta has the Hebrew word for man / mighty man: GiBoR or Govra, changing the B for a V and having Aramaic vowel points. It can mean a guardian male.

That is a most excellent distinction. 

BEFORE Joseph consummated their marriage, a "guardian male" was exactly the position appointed to him by The LORD.  Joseph became "legally" her husband in the betrothal contract,  but in fact, he was the protector-male of both Maryam and the Babe+ developing in her womb.

Joseph, a man of integrity and one who could be trusted of GOD, realized his appointment was from The LORD, early on : to protect his betrothed wife and the Divine Babe+. He was INDEED the "guardian male" as well as her legally betrothed husband.

To confirm the choice of GiBoR ( Gowra, Govra, or Mr. Rood's Gevra ) , the Old Syriac manuscripts indentify Joseph as "... he who was espoused to Maryam ... " .  Both the Cureton and Old Syriac Sinaitic Palimpsest manuscripts** state the same, in accordance with some of the Greek manuscripts.

That would indicate that Joseph was legally bound to Maryam as her husband ... IN MATTHEW 1:16 ... as it is stated there.

Interestingly, in the Peshitta, GiBoR ( or Gowra, etc. ), a grown man, is IMPLIED as the FATHER by the context of the verse in Matthew 7:9, where it is written:

Or what man is there of you,

whom if his son ask bread,

will he give him a stone?

Notwithstanding this one example,  "FATHER" is a definite word in the Peshitta, the word from the Hebrew; ABa is found through-out the Peshitta as FATHER.

IN SUMMARY... there is no justification for Matthew 1:16 being translated as "father" instead of "husband" or one ESPOUSED TO MARYAM. 

No justification at all in the language of ANY of the manuscripts of that text.

Oddly enough, even the wretched,

Anti-Christian Shem Tov manuscript

from the Middle Ages has

... " ESPOUSED TO MARYAM."

So... where does Mr. Rood "find" that GiBoR / GeVRa is translated as "father " ? 

Only in his own Chronological Gospels.

+  +  +

May the LORD open the eyes of the unsuspecting readers of this ill-crafted version 

from the pen

of this Hebrew Roots leader, 

Michael Rood.

 **( The information regarding the Old Syriac Cureton and Sinaitic manuscripts is available at Dukhrana.com. It is free, on-line, in English to navigate, as well as the printed Syriac New Testaments IN SYRIA/ Aramaic. These two manuscripts are printed on that site, as well as the Peshitta and Paul Younan's translation, at Peshitta Tools tab at the top .)