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]

• Allison, Dale C., Jr. (2007). "57. Matthew". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 844–886. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Coogan, Michael David (2007). Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann; Perkins, Pheme (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 (Augmented 3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195288810.