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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 23:18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing;

A long condemnation of the religious leaders of the time, now focusing on swearing oaths.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 23:18 καί Ὃς ἂν ὀμόσῃ ἐν τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ, οὐδέν ἐστιν, ὃς δ᾽ ἂν ὀμόσῃ ἐν τῷ δώρῳ τῷ ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ ὀφείλει:

KJV Verse

Matthew 23:18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

 

What His Listeners Heard:

And who when he promises at the altar it is nothing; who, however, when he promises on the offering the one on top of it, he owes.

Lost In Translation:

Again, the sense of these attacks is primarily humorous, getting people to laugh at the scribes and Pharisees. The humor here is partly repetition, of the words in ​Matthew 23:16, and partly the new images and double meanings changing those words. A lot of the images are lost in translation because the keywords, "altar" and "gift" don't mean today what they did in Jesus's time.  The word "gift" means an "offering," a "burnt offering" in the context of an altar, which was not a table, as we think of it today, but a grill.

The word translated as "upon" means "on top of" but it also means "superior to." This "superior to" idea reflects both the comparison of the offering to the altar and the comparison of different offerings, going back to Cain and Able.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And, Whosoever (MW) shall(CW) swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever(MW) swears by the gift that is upon(CW) it, he(IW) is guilty(WW).

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.