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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors,

Teaching about forgiving people for mistakes leads to an analogy about forgiving debts.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 18:34 καὶ ὀργισθεὶς ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν τοῖς βασανισταῖς ἕως [οὗ] ἀποδῷ πᾶν τὸ ὀφειλόμενον.

KJV Verse

Matthew 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 18:34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

What His Listeners Heard:

And, being angered, that master of his gave him over to those examiners until he gave back all that being owed.

Lost In Translation:

This verse is built around a play on words, two forms of the word "give," one translated as "delivered/handed over" and the other translated as "pay/pay back." The end echoes the end of Matthew 18:30 so this lord/master copies what the slave demanded quite literally. The sense is that "as you do it shall be done to you."

Also lost is the idea that the master wanted to find out more about the assets of the slave. The word "tormenters" or "jailers"  means "examiners," "testers," or "questioners" but the idea was the questioning was done using various motivating techniques to get people to talk. The point is that the master wanted this man questioned about his finances. He had hidden his assets, the debts owed to him by others, until his debt to his master was forgiven. The lord assumes that more was hidden.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

 And his (MW) lord was wroth(WF), and(IW) delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due [unto him(OS).

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.