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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased;

Jesus is speaking to a crowd including his disciples about scribes and Pharisees.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 23:12 Ὅστις δὲ ὑψώσει ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται, καὶ ὅστις ταπεινώσει ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται.

KJV Verse

Matthew 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

What His Listeners Heard:

Whoever, however, will lift himself up will be lowered and whoever will lower himself will be lifted up.

Lost In Translation:

This verse it typical of Jesus's use of double meanings and reversals. The main play on words here is the contrast between raising and lowering. Playing on the ideas of "higher" and "underling" in the previous verse. 

The second phrase in this verse is identical to the first but reverses the verbs and their forms. This is captured better in the NIV version, which at least translates the word "humble" consistently. The first part echos an earlier such phrase, Matthew 18:4. Some of the sense of it being a parallel is lost because there KJV translators translated the same Greek word for "humble" differently in the first phrase and the second.

 

KJV w/Translation Issues :

 And(WW) whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and [he that(WW)] shall humble(CW) himself shall be exalted.

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.