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Today's Verse Analysis

Jesus is discussing the nature of "Self" in the larger context of his death.

Spoken to
Apostles
KJV Verse

Matthew 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

What His Listeners Heard:

Because this son of the man is destined to show up in the reputation of that Father of his, among those messengers of his. And then he will pay back to each in accordance with that activity of his.

Lost In Translation:

Many words in this verse--"shall/is going," "every/each," "man/person," and "works/have done"--are not what we expect. When you look at the original in Greek, it tells a very different story than the common translation. Each is discussed below. 

Its Greek first word, translated innocuously as "shall" and "is going to," is not the future tense of "come." It is an active verb meaning "it is destined." This is a rare word for Jesus to use. He only uses it when speaking of prophecies. This first phrase means "is destined to arrive" but it also means "always on the verge of arriving without arriving." 

Jesus is placed among the messengers. This could mean that he was categorizing himself as one of them. The angels could belong to either Jesus or his Father and the person rewarding could be either Jesus or his Father, and the Father the closest noun to these pronouns.

To add to the humor, the word translated as "glory" actually primarily means "expectation" or "reputation" not "glory." Everyone reading it after the fact has that expectation.  The word translated as "every/each" is not the common word meaning "every/each" but a special word with the sense of "each individually." The "man/person" is added to this word in translation, not existing in the Greek.

The word translated as "works/'have done" is a word that Jesus only uses here. It means "transaction" and more generally, "business" or "action." "Activity" works best here. It is singular.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

For the Son of (MW) man shall(WW,WF)) come(WF) in the glory of his (MW) Father with his (MW) angels(UW); and then he shall reward(CW) every(CW) man(CW) according to his (MW) works(CW,WN).

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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Do Your Own Research

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.