Luke 20:23 Why tempt ye me?

Spoken to
challengers

Jesus is asked if it is lawful to give to Caesar.

KJV

Luke 20:23  Why tempt ye me?

LISTENERS HEARD

Why test me?

LOST IN TRANSLATION

This verse does not exist in Luke in the morphological GNT that we use for more modern Bibles. It appears in the source of the KJV, the Textus Receptus. See this article for more about differences. A similar verse appears in Matthew 22:18.  In Mark12:15, this line is followed by the request for a coin. 

 

MY TAKE

We are always being tested by friends and opponents. 

GREEK (Each Word Explained Bottom of Page)

τί μέ πειράζετε 

Not in the morphological GNT.

GREEK ORDER

 

τί       μέ  πειράζετε 
Why  me test ?

# KJV TRANSLATION ISSUES
0

Why tempt ye me?

EACH WORD of KJV

Why -- The Greek word translated as "any" in the singular means "anyone", "someone", "something" and "anything". The same forms are used both for the masculine and feminine, so "anyone" works best for a person. In the plural, it means "everyone", "some", "they" and "those". Jesus often uses it to start a question so it means "who", "what", "which" or even "why".

 tempt  - The word translated as "tempt" primarily means "test". That meaning works better here. The KJV translators prefer the "tempting" translation wherever this word is used.

ye -- This is from the second-person, plural form of the verb.

me - "Me" is the regular first-person pronoun in Greek as the object of the verb or preposition

COMPARISON: GREEK to KJV

 From the Textus Receptus

Τί (irreg sg neut nom) "Why" is from tis which can mean "someone", "any one", "everyone", "they" [indefinite], "many a one", "whoever", "anyone", "anything", "some sort", "some sort of", "each", "any", "the individual", "such" and so on. In a question, it can mean "who", "why" or "what".

με [49 verses](pron 1st sg masc acc) "Me" is eme, which is the objective first-person, objective, singular pronoun that means  "me".

πειράζετε, (2nd pl pres ind act) "Tempt" is from peirazo, which means to "make proof or trial of", "attempt" to do, "to attempt", "to try", "to test" and, in a bad sense, "to seek to seduce" and "to tempt".

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