For those who want to know what Jesus really said, how he said it, why crowds came to hear him, and shades of meaning lost or hidden in translation.

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Today's Verse Analysis

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

Spoken to
audience
KJV Verse

Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

What His Listeners Heard:

And,  a father? You shouldn't name yours upon this earth. Because one is yours, the Father, the heavenly one.

Lost In Translation:

All Biblical translations try to "simplify" what Jesus said in this verse. The Greek is difficult and thought-provoking, but all of that is lost in translation. In translation, it sounds like Jesus saying that we should not address our male parents as our "father" This confusion arises partly from the difference in the Greek word translated as "call" and our English word, "call," and partly in the difference of "father."  The Greek verb has the sense of giving someone a name. We do not "name" our natural fathers. "Father" in Greek, however, is also a title. Our natural fathers are not those to whom we give the title. They exist as our fathers before we learn what the word means. We name someone when we give them the honor of the title, "father."

As in the last verse with rabbi, the "your father" phrases here are misleading. A normal "your father" in the Bible is usually Jesus saying the words "that father of yours." Here, the first "your father" phrase is actually "do not name a father 'yours' on earth."  The "on the earth" modifies "you," saying that we are on the earth, contrasting it with the second father phrase, which is "yours, the Father, the heavenly one." It is our choice whether or not we name the Divine our father.

This "is in heaven" phrase in Biblical translation is also completely wrong. The "the one in the heavenly" phrase was in the KJV source, without the "is," but in today's sources, the phrase is "the heavenly" (an adjective form, not the usual noun." With the article before it, the sense is "the heavenly one." This is the punchline of the verse.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And call no(WW) man(IW) your(WP) (MW) father upon the earth: for one is your Father, [which is(IW) in(OS)] (MW) heaven(WF).

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.