For those who want to know what Jesus really said, how he said it, why crowds came to hear him, and shades of meaning lost or hidden in translation.
A long condemnation of the religious leaders of the time
Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
(Does not exist).
But Sadly, for you, scholars and elites, actors, the ones devouring the households of the bereaved [like prey] and the ones making themselves offer tedious prayers as a pretense, these are going to get an excessive judgment.
This verse does not exist in the Greek sources we use today. It is a variation of Mark 12:40, and Luke 20:47 with the same intro as the surrounding versions. Sometimes, the previous verse, Mat 23:13, is numbered in this place with verse 13 left blank. Since no source exists, the previous verse's intro will be duplicated followed by an analysis of Mark 12:40 vocabulary. However, there is no active verb in this verse, since it is a string of nouns or verbs used as nouns.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees(UW), hypocrites(UW)! for(CW) ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer(WF): therefore ye shall receive(WF) the greater damnation(CW).
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.
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.
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.
Regular emails from Substack, subscribe to Rediscovering Jesus's Words.
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.
