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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you...for you make clean the outside of the cup

A long condemnation of the religious leaders of the time, their focusing on outward things not the inward.

Spoken to
audience

Matthew 23:25 Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι καθαρίζετε τὸ ἔξωθεν τοῦ ποτηρίου καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, ἔσωθεν δὲ γέμουσιν ἐξ ἁρπαγῆς καὶ ἀκρασίας.

KJV Verse

Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 23:25 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

What His Listeners Heard:

Boo-hoo for you, writers and distinguished actors. Because you clean the outside of the cup and the meat platter. Inside, however, they are loaded by robbery and a desire of power.

Lost In Translation:

This verse is much more entertaining in Greek because of the metaphor that it ends with that is completely lost in translation. The humor starts with the repetition of the beginning.  It ends with uncommon and exaggerated words "robbery" and "rot", which are fit in with Jesus's use of humor.

The keyword here is mistranslated as "of" in the phrase "full of," which miss the point of Jesus's criticism. The word he used means "from," indicating that the cup and platters of his enemies were full from, or due to their robbery and rot.

The last two words are translated badly in both the KJV and NIV, probably trying to make religious points. The word translated as "extortion" and "greed" means "robbery" and "rape," with with the shipping metaphor indicated by the "full" verb, which is usually used to refer to a heavily laden ship, "piracy" words well.  The last word means "rot," specifically "rotten meat," and it is the punchline because it describes both how the platter was filled and what it was filled with.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees(UW), hypocrites(UW)! for ye make clean the outside of(CW) the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion(CW) and excess(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.