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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 21:13 It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer;

After tipping over the tables of money changers and dove sellers.

Spoken to
group

Matthew 21:13 Γέγραπται “Ὁ οἶκός μου οἶκος προσευχῆς κληθήσεται,” ὑμεῖς δὲ αὐτὸν ποιεῖτε “σπήλαιον λῃστῶν.”

KJV Verse

Matthew 21:13 It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 21:13 It is written,  ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.

What His Listeners Heard:

It has been written, "This household of mine a household of prayer will be named. You yourselves, however, it you made a cave of pirates.

Lost In Translation:

Here, he is quoting the prophets (not "the law," Moses) Isa 56:7 ("house of prayer") and Jer 7:11 ("Den of robbers"). As is usual, Jesus's Greek follows the Greek Septuagint exactly, word for word.

The original Greek is more colorful, contrasting the "house of prayer" not just with a "den of thieves" but with "a cave of priates." The temple of Jesus's time was called a place of sacrifice.

This is the first mention of the word "prayer" by Jesus in the Gospels, but he only uses it five times total. He earlier talks about praying, but doesn't use the noun.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

It is(WT) written, My (MW) house shall be called the(IW) house of prayer; but ye have(WT) made it a den of thieves.

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.

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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.