Matthew 9:8

In the original Greek according to Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority, this verse is:

ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ὄχλοι ἐθαύμασαν, καὶ ἐδόξασαν τὸν θεὸν τὸν δόντα ἐξουσίαν τοιαύτην τοῖς ἀνθρώποις

According to Westcott-Hort, the Greek text of this verse is:

Ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ὄχλοι ἐφοβήθησαν καὶ ἐδόξασαν τὸν θεὸν τὸν δόντα ἐξουσίαν τοιαύτην τοῖς ἀνθρώποις.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates the passage as:

When the crowds saw this, they were awestruck and gave glory to God who had given such authority to men.

For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 9:8.

This verse records the reaction of the people who witnessed the miraculous healing of a paralytic man by Jesus, who before the healing declared the forgiveness of the man's sins,^[1] that they glorified God, who had given such divine "power" or "authority" to men.^[2][3] Dale Allison notes that a text in 4QPrNab, a document among the Dead Sea Scrolls, shows that some Jews think of one person who forgives another's sins with healing as the result.^[1]

The Greek text according to Westcott and Hort has ἐφοβήθησαν ("they were afraid"; cf. Mark 5:15 for a similar reaction of fear at miraculous events), a rather solely physical effect than the word ἐθαύμασαν ("they marvelled") of the Textus Receptus,^[4] which is more in agreement with words used in the parallel verses, Mark 2:12 ἐξίστασθαι πάντας ("they all were amazed") and Luke 5:26 ἔκστασις ἔλαβεν ἅπαντας ("they all were filled with fear").^[3] Moreover, Mark 2:12 records the words the people said, "We never saw it after this fashion", whereas Luke 5:26 has "We saw strange things today".^[3] The variants of words here and in the parallel verses are likely attributed to various translations of the Aramaic or Hebrew traditions.^[4]

The event described here took place in Capernaum, where Jesus resided at the time (cf. Matthew 4:13).^[1]