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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 23:21 And whoso shall swear by the temple,

A long condemnation of the religious leaders of the time, now focusing on swearing oaths.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 23:21 καὶ ὁ ὀμόσας ἐν τῷ ναῷ ὀμνύει ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ ἐν τῷ κατοικοῦντι αὐτόν:

KJV Verse

Matthew 23:21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

What His Listeners Heard:

And the one swearing on the temple swears on it and on the one occupying it.

Lost In Translation:

The point of the verse may be to prohibit swearing because on the Temple is swearing on the Divine. This message was said more directly in Matthew 5:33, and the following verse, Matthew 23:22, echoes Matthew 5:34.

 This verse again repeats another of the couplets of this section. This is the style of Jesus's humor in repetition, creating an expectation that the pattern will be followed but then breaking it. The expectation created by the previous verses is that this one would end with "everything in it" or words to that effect, but instead, it ends with "the one occupying" in it.

The word translated as "dwelleth" and "dwells" is not the word usually translated as "dwell" in the NT. Instead, it is a rare word that works more like our "occupy" or "inhabit," taking a direct object. It is a verb in the form of an adjective, "occupying," preceded by an article, completing the idea of a noun, "the one occupying it."

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And whoso(CW) shall(WT) swear(WF) by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him(CW) that(IW) dwelleth(CW,WF) therein(CW).

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.