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.

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Today's Verse Analysis

After the transfiguration and coming down from mountain.

Spoken to
Apostles
KJV Verse

Matthew 17:9 Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 17:9 Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

What His Listeners Heard:

To no one should you tell this sight until when the son of the man is raised from the dead.

Lost In Translation:

This is not a command, but a suggestion, like the beginning of the previous verse. In Greek, these suggestions have a more light-hearted feel than the commands in the translation. There is an untranslated "when" here that connects Jesus's resurrection to this vision.  The use of "vision" here carries both the sense that the transfiguration was both real and an illusion which is consistent with the Greek, however, more commonly it just means a "sight." The final "risen/raised" is a subjective verb about something that might happen at some time. It is not in the future or the past perfect tense, which would make it more of a prophecy.

 

KJV w/Translation Issues :

(MW) (MW) Tell the vision to no man until  (MW), the Son of (MW) man be risen again(IW) from the dead.

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.