Matthew 1:18

Discovered in a Belly

Greek ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου. from out of a spirit of a holy one. There is no definite article "the" present in this text, therefore capitalizing the words or adding "the" to the text is less than accurate. ἁγίου which is also translated as "saint" is in the genitive case.

Greek hagios. #G40. set-apart, different, holy, sacred. Used in the Septuagint for the Hebrew qadosh which means “set-apart, holy”.

“The fundamental (core) meaning of 40 (hágios) is “different” – thus a temple in the 1st century was hagios (“holy”)

Holding within a Belly or Found within a Belly?

The literal of this phrase is "she was found in a belly she who is holding" 

ἐν γαστρὶ "within a belly." Strongs #1064 γαστήρ (gastér) a word from which we get all the gastro- words. The significance of this word lies in the fact that there exists a more appropriate word for "womb" #3388 métra.

Certain biases will lean toward translating ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα as "holding within a belly" as it is normal for verbs to follow objects in Greek. However, the verb that follows "in a belly" is in participle form, which is not so typical, if "belly" was meant to be the object. Moreover, Ancient Greek literature and texts often preferred precise terms to describe specific states or conditions, and ἔγκυος was the accurate term for pregnancy, not "holding" ἔχουσα. But even if that were the intention of the writer here, it leaves the prior verb εὑρέθη "she was found" an aorist indicitive active verb without any object.  She was found....where?

Overall, there is quite a forceful and awkward shift to go from 

"she was found in a belly she who is holding"

to

"she was discovered to be pregnant in womb"

since, 1) there is no infinitive κυεῖν "to be pregnant" in this verse and 2) there is no word μήτρα "womb/matrix" either.

Luke, when speaking of Mary uses ἐγκύῳ "pregnant" which literally means "swelling inside" from a word κύῳ meaning "wave/swell" of a sea or lake.

Our RBT translation of this verse does not modify, add, hack, or delete any words.