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Matthew 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy
Context:

Parables, Sower, Understanding

Spoken to:
audience
Greek Verse:

Matthew 13:14 καὶ ἀναπληροῦται αὐτοῖς ἡ προφητεία Ἠσαίου ἡ λέγουσα “ Ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε.

Septuagint Isaiah 6:9, "ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε."

 KJV Verse:

Matthew 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
NIV Verse:

Matthew 13:14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “ ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

Literal Alternative:

Also the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled by them saying that “By a sense of hearing, you all might hear and might never put it together and watching might watch, but you all might never see.”

 Hidden Meaning:

The quote from Isaiah is the same Greek as found in the Septuagint Isaiah 6:9, but the Greek words are only an approximation of the original Hebrew. If Jesus spoke Aramaic, as the academics want him to, the record wouldn't be the exact words of the Septuagint. This verse offers good support for the Greek Hypothesis. After all Isaiah 6:9 is similar to Jeremiah 5:21 and Isaiah 44:18 and an exact translation from the Hebrew in any other language is very unlikely to be in the exact same words. Look at how differently this Greek is translated by the KJV and the NIV. For more, see this article about the Greek and Aramaic Hypotheses.

The NIV version of this tries to simplify it, making as grammatical misrepresentations as the verse has words. Of course, since Jesus was quoting the OT. Neither the KJV nor the NIV version is faithful to the OT versions.

 The Spoken Version:

“Is their inability to ‘put it together’ the reason they oppose you?” suggested Flat Nose.
“You are misquoting what has been written,” the leader of the Distinguished shout.
The Master laughed and nodded his agreement.
“Also the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled by them saying that,” the Master responded, changing into his old man’s voice as he quoted the luminary. “‘By a sense of hearing, you might hear and might never put it together and watching might watch, but you might never see...’”
My Takeaway:

We trust in order to believe what we see and hear.

For detailed analysis of each word of original Greek, KJV and NIV translations, and more, click here.

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About this Site

I started this site fifteen years ago.  My original award-winning work as a "techno-linguist" was in ancient Chinese. I wanted to bring the same computer search and analysis techniques to explore something more important: the original Greek of Jesus's words.

This site does not promote any religious point of view. Indeed, it seeks to avoid the competing and evolving religious dogmas that have shaped Biblical translation for centuries.  I purposely use "nonreligious" sources for Greek word meaning, rejoining the study of Biblical Greek with the broader study of ancient Greek. My goal is simply to identify how listeners of his time heard him.

Jesus' words are unique for three reasons.

  1. They were spoken, not written. Spoken language is inherently different than written language.
  2. They changed the meaning of words, determining even how later NT authors' used the Greek.
  3. They were the basis of a unique historical revolution in they way people think.

Most of the on-line material on "Biblical Greek" is largely tautological. It explains the Greek only in terms of how it has been historically translated into English. It flows from the ways that the  Gospel was taught from the Latin Vulgate. I respect this work and use it daily. However,  most of my work takes place outside of this tradition, researching the use of the Greek closer to the time of Jesus, especially the Greek OT, the Septuagint.

The Bible has been such a powerful force in history that it has changed the meaning of many words in English, Latin, and Greek. However, the Greek of Jesus's words has been faithfully preserved for centuries from the changing religious fashions of history. These fashions, unfortunately, affect each successive English translation of the Bible, moving it further and further from the Greek.  I stopped analyzing the NLT version because so much of it fails to connect to anything in the Greek. The Message version is much worse.

This site is offered for those who care about fidelity to Scripture in any sense of the word.

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What does Jesus teach us about Blasphemy of the holy Spirit? What makes this sin unforgiveable?
Answer:

The Biblical translations of Mark 3:29 are misleading. Below I list the problems with the KJVs and the NIV translations. Most people might find a literal translation more understandable. For a complete analysis, see ...

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