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Today's Verse Analysis

The Sermon on the Mount, invisible and visible, worthwhile and worthless, acting  and speaking

Spoken to
audience
KJV Verse

Matthw 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

NIV Verse:

Matthw 7:25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

 

What His Listeners Heard:

And, it fell down...the rain. And they showed up...the streams. And they blew...the winds. And they beat on...the house there and no, it doesn't fall. Because it had its foundations laid on that rock.

Lost In Translation:

This verse has a pair of unique words translated as "beat" and "founded." It also has  four other words that are uncommon for Jesus to use 

It is a good example of Jesus 's use of word order to create great story-telling and little jokes. In the first part of the verse, all the verbs come first, with the specific subjects following, acting as punchlines creating an unexpected meaning of the preceding verb.   One example is that it starts with a word translated as "descended" that means "fall down." This verb would be assumed to apply to the house. This is also an example used in the article on the difference between spoken and written language because it works much better spoken than written with a pause before the subject.

The word translated as "descended" means "fall down," but two other words in this verse express a related idea. The word translated "fell" is hte most common word for "fall." It is the root of the word translated as "beat," which means literally  "to fall against."

KJV w/Translation Issues :

And the rain descended, and the floods(WW) came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that (MW) house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a(WW) rock.

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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Do Your Own Research

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.