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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 19:8 Moses because of the hardness of your hearts

Teaching about marriage. We should not divorce.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 19:8 Μωυσῆς πρὸς τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν ὑμῶν ἐπέτρεψεν ὑμῖν ἀπολῦσαι τὰς γυναῖκας ὑμῶν, ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς δὲ οὐ γέγονεν οὕτως.

KJV Verse

Matthew 19:8 Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 19:8 Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.

What His Listeners Heard:

Moses, by reason of that hard-heartedness of yours, yielded to you to divorce those women of yours. From  inception, however, it hadn't happened to this extent.

Lost In Translation:

Jesus uses a unique (for him) word here for a specific purpose that is translated as "sufferer" or "permitted." It the specific form used, it has the sense of entrusting to someone's judgment, leaving it for them to decide upon. This sense is lost in translation.

Also lost is the meaning of the end of this verse, that is, the punchline. The word translated as "was" means "become" or "happen." It indicates a change, not the continuation of a situation as translated. It is in the past perfect so "has happened." The "this way" and "so" primarily means "so much" and "to this extent" with a verb indicating change. So the sense is, "it hadn't happened--to this extent." This indicated that divorce was increasing in Jesus's era. Of course, it was a major political issue because of the divorce and remarriage of Antipas, an issue that John was beheaded over.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Moses because of the [hardness of your hearts(CW)] suffered(CW) you to put away your (MW) wives: but from the beginning it was(WW,WT) not so.

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.