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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,

Teaching the apostles that how they must excel is in serving others not being served by them.

Spoken to
Apostles

Matthew 20:28 ὥσπερ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν διακονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι καὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.

KJV Verse

Matthew 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

What His Listeners Heard:

Just as the child of the man didn't show up to be served instead to serve and to offer this self of his, an emancipation for  many.

Lost In Translation:

While the second part of this verse comes close to stating the central theme of modern Christianity, that Jesus died for our sins, it doesn't say that. The term translated as "ransom" is the specific term used to describe the freeing of slaves. The term translated as "life" is usually translated in the KJV as "soul." (See this article about its use.) As that article says:

Notice that this is the word translated as "life" in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45 is frequently translated as "soul.
 When Jesus says that he came to "give his life" for the ransom of many, I don't think many Christians think that Jesus sacrificed his soul to rescue us. However, itthis same word is also used in Matthew 16:26, Luke 9:25, and Mark 8:36 to describe gaining the world and "losing your soul." While "losing your life" works in these verses, this doesn't seem to be what Jesus means to convey.

Also note that the phrase "giving your life" doesn't mean dying. You can give your life to teaching or to writing or to anything. The term "giving" means "dedicating" in Greek as much as it does English.  This statement is made as an illustration of service, not an illustration of suffering. Jesus is not asking his followers to suffer but to serve the needs of others. This is the context.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Even as the Son of (MW) man came not to be ministered unto, but(CW) to minister, and to give his (MW) life a ransom for many.

KJV List (See full page for word-by-word analysis):
For analysis of each word of original Greek and biblical verses, click here.

Constantly Updated

My analysis standards and methods are constantly improving. New information on each verse is provided as articles are updated. It requires approximately two years for me to work through updating each of Jesus's verses.

What Jesus's Listeners Heard

The everyday meanings of the Greek words Jesus used were different than the definitions they have been given over time in biblical translation. The word translations here are based upon documents of his time such as the Greek Septuagint, not ideas unknown in his time.

About this Site

See what Jesus said in Greek and see how his words are changed in English translation. My goal is to translate Jesus's words as they were heard when he taught, not the way they are interpreted today. The work here resurrects the humor and cleverness of Jesus's words lost in translation.

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Each article provides detailed information on all the Greek words in each verse with links simplifying your own research. It compares the Greek to popular translations to show where words are confused, changed, left out, and added. This site offers research available nowhere else, such as how often Jesus uses a specific Greek word and links to a list of every verse in which he uses a given word.