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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 22:9 Go therefore into the highways,

After his opponents leave, Jesus addresses the crowd telling a parable comparing the realm of the skies to a man, a king.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 22:9 πορεύεσθε οὖν ἐπὶ τὰς διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν, καὶ ὅσους ἐὰν εὕρητε καλέσατε εἰς τοὺς γάμους.

KJV Verse

Matthew 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 22:9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.

What His Listeners Heard:

Bring yourselves then toward the outlets of the roads, and as many as when you find, call into this wedding.

Lost In Translation:

An uncommon word, one Jesus only uses twice, is translated here as "highways" in KJV and "corners," in NIV version. It actually means "outlets," meaning where the main highway feeds the local roads. This indicates that the common word translated as "street" in NIV and untranslated in KJV means more of a highway than just a road. 

The "as many as" here--in the KJV, left out of the NIV--is the object of the verb "find" but it is placed before the beginning of a "when" clause in which the verb appears but that clause is invisible because it is not translated in either the KJV or NIV or any other common translation. This makes the statement seem interrupted, where Jesus started to say one thing, but they said another.

 

 

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Go ye therefore into the highways, (MW) (MW) and as many as (MW) ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

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.