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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 16:24 If any man will come after me,

After Jesus corrects Peter, he calls his students to him.

Spoken to
Apostles

 Matthew 16:24 Εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι.

KJV Verse

Matthew 16:24 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 16:24 Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

What His Listeners Heard:

If anyone wants to show up after me, he must reject himself and lift up that stake of his, and follow me.

Lost In Translation:

The English translation hides two important pieces of wordplay in the original Greek. 

The translation of this verse as "taking up a cross" was only possible after Christ's death. During his lifetime, people would have heard this as "lifting up a walking stick" or "pulling up a stake," as in a tent stake, which was also used as a walking stick. While people were killed by staking them up, no one at the time would have heard this verse as referring to a death stake or carrying one before Jesus's death. Tent stakes, house posts, and walking sticks were much more common.

The first relates to the previous verse where Jesus says, "Get behind me, adversary." The two verses seem disconnected in English translation, but in Greek, one logically follows the other. Both verses use the same Greek phrase (opiso mou) translated first as "behind me" and then as "after me." In the previous verse, "Get behind me" seems like a rebuke but in light of this verse, it is more of a request for support. It is exactly like English when we ask people to support us by "getting behind us." In this verse, Jesus completes the request. How do support Christ? By denying ourselves and following him.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

If any man will(CW) come(WF) after me, let him deny himself, and take up his (MW) cross(CW), and follow me.

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.