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Today's Verse Analysis

Matthew 18:8 Wherefore if your hand or your foot offend thee,

Speaking about the traps of life

Spoken to
group

Matthew 18:8 Εἰ δὲ ἡ χείρ σου ἢ ὁ πούς σου σκανδαλίζει σε, ἔκκοψον αὐτὸν καὶ βάλε ἀπὸ σοῦ: καλόν σοί ἐστιν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν ζωὴν κυλλὸν ἢ χωλόν, ἢ δύο χεῖρας ἢ δύο πόδας ἔχοντα βληθῆναι εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον.

KJV Verse

Matthew 18:8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

NIV Verse:

Matthew 18:8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

What His Listeners Heard:

If, however, that hand of yours or that foot of yours trips you up, cut it out and toss [it] from you! It is good for you to show up into this life limping or deformed than, having two hands or two feet, to be tossed into this pyre, this perpetual one.

Lost In Translation:

In the translation, this verse sounds very threatening, but in Greek, it is clearly meant to be a humorous exaggeration and light play on words. Jesus uses a very similar, but less complex line in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:30) so this line was clearly part of his routine and was polished over the years.  Adding "foot" to it makes it easier to perform the "tripping up" joke that is part of it.  In this version, he adds a play on words, good versus limping and deformed.. The repetition of five "ors" is also a humorous technique.  See this article on Jesus's Humor.

KJV w/Translation Issues :

Wherefore(CW) if thy (MW) hand or thy (MW) foot offend thee, cut (WN) them off, and cast from thee: it is better(WF) for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into (MW)  everlasting (MW) fire. 

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.