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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 19:6 Herefore they are no more twain,

A teaching on the marriage.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 19:6 ὥστε οὐκέτι εἰσὶν δύο ἀλλὰ σὰρξ μία: ὃ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω.

KJV Verse

Matthew 19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.

What His Listeners Heard:

And so no longer are they two, instead one flesh. What in fact the Deity yoked together, man does not separate.

Lost In Translation:

The two key words in this verse, the ones translated as "joined together" and "put asunder/separe" are used by Jesus only in this verse and its parallel in Matthew 19:6. Jesus commonly uses two other Greek words to mean "join" and "divide."

The humor here is in the word translated as "joined." which means "yoke together" and "harness together"  and in yoking a team of mules or oxen to a plow or wagon.  The root word means  the "yoke" used for draft animals. and also, a pair of balances.

The "man" here is the same word describe what was made in the image of the Divine and could be translated as "mankind" or "humanity." It is also the "man" who leaves his parents to take a wife.

The Greek word for "put asunder/separate"  is not the word that Jesus used to refer to divorce. The word Jesus uses to mean "divorce" is the Greek word meaning "to untie" or "to loosen." This word can mean "divorce," but it is never used in the Bible. It is usually used to mean "depart" or "separate." The root word is a noun that refers to the space between or around things. Its literal meaning is "to make space."

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Wherefore they are no more twain, but(CW) one flesh. What therefore (MW) God hath(WT) joined together, let not man put asunder.

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.