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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 22:20 Whose is this image and superscription?

The Pharisees ask whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar.

Spoken to
The Pharisees

Matthew 22:20 Τίνος ἡ εἰκὼν αὕτη καὶ ἡ ἐπιγραφή;

KJV Verse

Matthew 22:20 Whose is this image and superscription?

NIV Verse:

Matthew 22:20 Whose image is this? And whose inscription?

What His Listeners Heard:

Of whom? The likeness, this one, and the inscription?

Lost In Translation:

Again, Jesus is clearly playing dumb for humorous effect. Jesus asks this question in the most off-hand way possible, playing dumb. The sentence doesn't even have a verb. This sense is lost in English translation where the verbs are added and, in the case of NLT, completely imagined. We must remember that Jesus's words were spoken, not written.

The two key nouns here, "image" and "superscription/inscription" only appear in this verse and the two parallels in Mark and Luke.

The word translated as "inscription" also means "title." The Tiberius silver denarius reads: "Ti[berivs] Caesar Divi Avg[vsti] F[ilivs] Avgvstvs" ("Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus"). So the very title on the coin was blasphemous to the Judeans at the time.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Whose is this (MW) image and (MW) superscription?

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.