Matthew 2:6 (KJV) There’s No Excuse Here

Matthew 2:6 (KJV)
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

This is an obvious reference to, Micah 5:2, But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

It is plainly not a word for word quotation though the context seems to dictate that one be provided. This passage, and others like it, gives the detractors of the King James Version what they think is ammunition to excuse rephrasing passages in more modern versions. “God must not care that the Bible be Word for word quoted or else He would have taken more care to see it was done in the Bible when the Bible quotes the Bible.”

There are a number of reasons this logic is not sound:
In this case, the quoters of the Bible could have been paraphrasing.Nothing in the text requires that they be specific. They only needed to get the general message to Herod.

That God would lead a man to quote a passage differently than the original is far different than a man choosing to make such a change.God may have provided a slightly different version to give depth to the message.

Matthew wasn’t there to hear the exact conversationPerhaps the slightly different phrasing is meant to reflect that.

That I paraphrase a Bible passage in conversation is in no way meant to imply that the very words of Scripture are open for change. Neither should it be implied from this verse or others like it.

To my readers:
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For this and more than 3800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Pastor Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Matthew 2:6 (KJV) There’s No Excuse Here

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