Matthew 10:23 — “Flee Ye into Another”: The Text of Christ’s Persecution Instruction

“But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.” — Matthew 10:23

At first glance this looks like a missing-verse dispute. It is not. The received and critical texts both tell the disciples to flee to another city. Their main difference is the Greek adjective translated “another.” A much longer form, preserved especially by Codex Bezae, adds a second instruction about flight.

Small distinctions deserve exact names. Otherwise a reader may be frightened by a controversy that the manuscripts do not contain.

Another—and the next

The Textus Receptus uses ἄλλην, the ordinary word for “another.” The critical text uses ἑτέραν, which can carry the thought of another of a different kind, though in common New Testament use the two words often overlap. In this sentence both yield the same plain English: “flee to another.”

Codex Bezae expands the command: if they persecute you in the other city, flee to the next. The extra line may have begun as an explanation of Christ’s following words, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.” It may also have dropped by an eye-skip between repeated forms of “another.” The divided position and narrow support of the longer instruction weigh against treating it as Matthew’s text.

Modern editors choose ἑτέραν chiefly because of the early Alexandrian evidence. The Textus Receptus keeps ἄλλην with the received church text. No doctrine turns on the choice, and the Authorized Version does not conceal the difference by rendering both words alike; it gives the English sense they share.

The command is not cowardice

Jesus does not tell the Twelve to deny him or abandon their charge. Flight carries the gospel to the next city. A servant may remain when duty binds him, and he may leave when persecution would end the work in one place while another field stands open. The verse joins courage to prudence.

That setting also explains why a copyist might lengthen the line. Readers naturally ask, “What happens when the next city also persecutes them?” The Bezan addition answers the question in the style of the passage. A useful answer is not therefore an inspired sentence.

The received ἄλλην is simple, old, and widely carried. The critical ἑτέραν changes no command, while the long Western form likely preserves interpretation rather than text. Matthew’s charge remains as the Authorized Version gives it: when one city drives Christ’s messengers out, they are to flee into another and keep preaching.

The added Western clause shows how interpretation can enter without bad theology. If persecution follows in the second city, of course the same prudence may apply again. The gloss answers a reasonable pastoral question. Its usefulness is what made it easy to preserve and hard to recognize once the margin disappeared.

Christ’s final words in the verse have generated several interpretations: the coming may refer to resurrection, judgment upon Jerusalem, the advance of the Son’s royal authority, or the final advent. The small adjective “another” does not decide that larger question. It governs the immediate movement through Israel’s towns.

The text therefore joins endurance and mobility. Flight is not always faithlessness, and staying is not always courage. The servant’s aim is obedience to the mission, not the performance of bravery before persecutors.

Sources and further reading

• Matthew 10:16–28; Acts 8:1–4; 9:23–30; 14:5–7.
• Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, note on Matthew 10:23.
• Frederick H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament.