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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 20:19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock,..

Jesus is leading the apostles up to Jerusalem

Spoken to
Apostles

Matthew 20:19 καὶ παραδώσουσιν αὐτὸν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν εἰς τὸ ἐμπαῖξαι καὶ μαστιγῶσαι καὶ σταυρῶσαι, καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθήσεται.

KJV Verse

Matthew 20:19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify [him]: and the third day he shall rise again.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 20:19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

What His Listeners Heard:

And  they will give him over to the foreigners for that mocking and whipping and staking and on the third day he will be awakened.

Lost In Translation:

This verse is extremely light-hearted, given its topic. It consists of a long series of "and" conjunctions connecting a bunch of ghastly verbs in the form of nouns. In Greek, they are all infinitive, introduce by an article, making them act as a noun describing the action. In English, we use the gerund, ending with "ing" as the verbal noun form. Notice that the emphasis in on what the foreigners do, not what happens to him, the verbs, except for "delivered/given over" being active, not passive.

The word translated as "crucify" didn't mean that in Jesus's time, though it has come to mean it since. It mean "to sake," that is, to hang up on a stake, not a cross.

Also the "arise" here is one of three different words Jesus uses to describe coming back from death. This one means "awakening." All of these words are offered in the passive: Jesus was raised by anouther, not by his won power.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And shall deliver him to the Gentiles (MW) to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify [him]: and the third day he shall (MW) rise(WW) again(IW).

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.