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Today's Verse Analysis

Teaching about forgiving mistakes, after a parable about forgiving debts.

Spoken to
audience
KJV Verse

Matthew 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 18:35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

What His Listeners Heard:

So also, that Father of mine, the heavenly one, will do to you. When you don't let go, each person, that brother of his, out of those hearts of yours.

Lost In Translation:

The threat here is humorous, like the scare line at the end of a ghost story. The first line of this verse is an impossibility: we cannot give back to the Divine all that we owe, no matter how much we are tortured. This is why the second half is important because it limits the "torture" to the time when we do not let go of others. Note that neither "debts" nor "mistakes" are mentioned. Instead, holding something in our hearts against someone is equated to slavery.

Notice also that this mistake is personal, even though Jesus is addressing a crowd. This verse is an odd combination of second-person plural forms and third-person singular forms. It is a second-person plural statement with a third-person singular aside, "each person to that brother of his" in the third-person singular. The end is a relatively rare example of Jesus using the plural form of the Greek word for "hearts," probably because it follows this "each person" phrase. Most of the plural hearts we see in English are actually a singular Greek form. See this article.

The negative here is indicates a desire or opinion, "wanting to forgive," not something that doesn't happen. 

KJV w/Translation Issues :

So likewise(CW) shall my (MW) heavenly (MW) Father do also(IW) unto you, if ye from your (MW) hearts forgive not every one his brother [their trespasses(OS).

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.