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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 23:16 Woe unto you...Whosoever shall swear by the temple,

A long condemnation of the religious leaders of the time, now focusing on swearing oaths.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 23:16 Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοὶ οἱ λέγοντες Ὃς ἂν ὀμόσῃ ἐν τῷ ναῷ, οὐδέν ἐστιν, ὃς δ᾽ ἂν ὀμόσῃ ἐν τῷ χρυσῷ τοῦ ναοῦ ὀφείλει:

KJV Verse

Matthew 23:16 Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:16 Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’

What His Listeners Heard:

Sadly, for you, blind guides, the ones saying: Who when he promises on the temple is nothing. Who, however, when he promises on the gold of the temple, he owes.

Lost In Translation:

Again, the sense is that these attacks are primarily humorous, getting people to laugh at the scribes and Pharisees. So Jesus uses uncommon words with double meanings, here the meanings of
the "blind" and "gold." The "blind" are those lacking common sense, something Jesus accuses his opponents of using the analogy of "salt" in the Sermon on the Mount. "Gold" means "golden word," but the joke is that those who are blind can see the color gold.

I find myself wondering if swearing on the "gold of the temple" somehow implied giving gifts to the temple. My sense is generally that oaths were sealed by the giving of such gives, which the Pharisees supported.

In Matthew 5:34, Jesus makes his opinion of oath-taking clear, basically telling people at the Sermon not to do it. He has also used the term "blind guides" before as well in Matthew 15:1, describing his opponents as the blind leading the blind.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Woe unto you, you blind guides, which(CW) say(WF), Whosoever (MW) shall(CW) swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever (MW) shall(CW) swear by the gold of the temple, he is(IW) a debtor(WF)!

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.