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Today's Verse Analysis

The Sermon on the Mount, invisible and visible, worthwhile and worthless, acting  and speaking

Spoken to
audience
KJV Verse

Matthew 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

NIV Verse:

Matthew 7:24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

What His Listeners Heard:

Everyone, really, anyone who is listening to mine, these ideas here and considers them, he will be compared to a practical fellow who constructed his, the house, on that rock.

Lost In Translation:

This verse has a lot of surprises: untranslated words, a common word with poor translations, and uncommon words translated to look like common words.

The verb translated as "doeth" and "puts into practice" is normally a verb of action, meaning "do" or "make," but when it refers to thoughts, it means "consider."  Here, its can be either action, "does," or thinking, "considers." Jesus's meaning  doesn't become clear until , Matthew 7:26, where the same phrase is repeated but with a negative of opinion rather than action.   

The missing words are mostly the articles "the" before "sayings," "house," and "rock," but the "all" that begins the verb is missing in the KJV.  The missing "the" is important because the Greek words translated as "mine" and "his" come before these articles, and this is very uncommon for Jesus. The construction emphasizes the possession of something. See this article on the use of the Greek article for more.

The common word translated in an uncommon ways is the word translated as "sayings" and "words." This Greek word means "ideas" and "concepts," but it is usually mistranslated as "word" even though it is not the Greek word for "word." See this article for more about this word.

The uncommon words are those translated as "man," "wise," and "rock" are uncommon.  The word translated as "man" is used to contrast one male with something else: god, woman, or another man. The "wise" has no relation to the common word "wisdom." The "rock" is not related to the word translated as "stone."  This word translated as "rock" also has the specific meaning of the "cliffs above the sea."

KJV w/Translation Issues :

(MW) Therefore whosoever heareth these (MW) sayings(WW) of mine, and doeth them, I(WW) will liken(WV) him unto a wise(CW) man, which built his (MW) house upon a(WW) rock:

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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Do Your Own Research

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.