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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 22:12 And he said to him, Friend, how

After his opponents leave, Jesus addresses the crowd telling a parable comparing the realm of the skies to a man, a king.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 22:12 καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ Ἑταῖρε, πῶς εἰσῆλθες ὧδε μὴ ἔχων ἔνδυμα γάμου; ὁ δὲ ἐφιμώθη.

KJV Verse

Matthew 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 22:12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

 

What His Listeners Heard:

And he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here not wanting to have attire for a wedding? That one, however, was silent.

Lost In Translation:

The key to this man's mistake is hidden in the mistranslation of the negative here. There is a negative of subjective opinion here indicating that the offending man, did "not want" to have the appropriate attired, (see article on the negative here). In the KJV, it is translated simply as "not," and in the NIV it is totally eliminated, replacing the negative and the verb with the proposition "without." This makes the king's accusation regarding the man's choice invisible.

The "wedding garment/wedding clothes" is also confusing. The word means "clothing for a wedding," not referring to a specific type of garment.

This final word is the punchline, a verb that means "was muzzled," which probably sounded as funny then as it does today.  Jesus only uses this word four times, twice to address demons and twice as a punchline.

 

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding(WF) garment? And(WW) he(CW) was speechless.

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.