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Today's Verse Analysis

Jesus moves from making yourself like a child to avoiding stumbling blocks.

Spoken to
group
KJV Verse

Matthew 18:9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 18:9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

What His Listeners Heard:

And if that eye of yours trips you up,  take it out and toss it away from you! It is beautiful for you to enter into this life one-eyed than having with two eyes the means to be tossed into the trash dump of the fire.

Lost In Translation:

The previous verse demonstrates how Jesus developed the humor in his lines. This line continues with that method.  The primary humorous word from the earlier verse translated as "pluck out" and "gouge out" here. The verb is only used twice by Jesus, in these two verses, to conflate the ideas of "take out" and "choose." This may be a humorous reference to Lev 19:14 "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD."

Jesus maintains the more complex phrase order (when compared to the Sermon) of the previous verse here because repetition is a key part of his humor. Where in the previous verse, he was able to play with Greek sound-alike words, here he plays with one funny word--one-eye-- and one funny image, being more "beautiful" with one-eye than two. 

The word "having" has as its object an infinitive, "to be to cast/to be thrown." With an infinitive object, is means "having the means to be tossed." When its object is an infinitive verb, it means "to have the means or power," or "to be able" not "it must" as in English. 

Jesus also makes it clear that "the fire, the perpetual one" that he describes in the previous verse is the always burning trash heap outside of Jerusalem.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And if thine (MW) eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better(CW) for thee to enter into (MW) life with(IW) one eye(WF), rather than having two eyes to be cast into(MW)  hell (MW)(MW) fire.

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.