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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

Jesus is speaking to a crowd including his disciples about scribes and Pharisees. This section begins a long condemnation of the religious leaders of the time that continues until the end of this chapter, Mat 23:39.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 23:13 Οὐαὶ δὲ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι κλείετε τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων: ὑμεῖς γὰρ οὐκ εἰσέρχεσθε, οὐδὲ τοὺς εἰσερχομένους ἀφίετε εἰσελθεῖν.

KJV Verse

Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

What His Listeners Heard:

But boo-hoo for you, you writers and distinguished, actors! Because you celebrate/shut up the realm of the skies in front of these people. Because you yourselves do not enter for yourselves nor the ones entering by themselves let go to enter.

Lost In Translation:

This verse is full of wordplay and humor. It uses a lot of Jesus's forms of humor including exaggeration, double meanings, repeating words, and so on. This is all lost in translation. The beginning of this verse ("Woe to you") is repeated many times in the following verses. It is hard to imagine this working as a lecture,  but, if we think of it in a lighter vein  ("boo-hoo to you"), the repetition itself is a form of humor. This first verse sets the comedic tone for a series of verses, while certainly critical, they are also really extremely playful.

The most interesting philosophical aspect of this verse is the first two occurrences of the Greek verb translated as "go in" and "enter." They are not in the active voice but either the passive or middle voice. So people are either show into the realm, which seems a good description of Jesus's mission, or they show themselves in, a good description of the personal nature of the journey. They do not simply "go in" or "enter in." In looking at other uses of this word to describe entering the "kingdom," I find middle voice examples (Matthew 19:23, Matthew 7:21, Mark 10:23) but no passive examples. Most occurrences are active but either as subjunctive or infinitives. The most likely meaning seems the middle voice.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees(UW), hypocrites(UW)! for(CW) ye shut up the kingdom of (MW) heaven against (MW) men: for ye (MW) neither go in yourselves, neither(CW) suffer ye them(CW) that are entering(CW,WF) to go in.

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.