International Institute of Jesus Christ

Matthew 19

Translated straight from the SBLGNT, with the grounds of every decision on the page.

Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τοὺς λόγους τούτους, μετῆρεν ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅρια τῆς Ἰουδαίας πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου.

And it happened, when Jesus had finished these words, that he moved on from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

καὶ ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ ὄχλοι πολλοί, καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτοὺς ἐκεῖ.

And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

Καὶ προσῆλθον ⸀αὐτῷ Φαρισαῖοι πειράζοντες αὐτὸν καὶ ⸀λέγοντες· Εἰ ἔξεστιν ⸀ἀνθρώπῳ ἀπολῦσαι τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ κατὰ πᾶσαν αἰτίαν;

And Pharisees came to him, testing him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”

ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς ⸀εἶπεν· Οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε ὅτι ὁ ⸀κτίσας ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτοὺς

And answering he said, “Have you not read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female?

καὶ εἶπεν· ⸀Ἕνεκα τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα καὶ ⸀κολληθήσεται τῇ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν;

And he said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.'

ὥστε οὐκέτι εἰσὶν δύο ἀλλὰ σὰρξ μία. ὃ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω.

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has yoked together, let no man separate.”

λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· Τί οὖν Μωϋσῆς ἐνετείλατο δοῦναι βιβλίον ἀποστασίου καὶ ἀπολῦσαι ⸀αὐτήν;

They say to him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to divorce her?”

λέγει αὐτοῖς ὅτι Μωϋσῆς πρὸς τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν ὑμῶν ἐπέτρεψεν ὑμῖν ἀπολῦσαι τὰς γυναῖκας ὑμῶν, ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς δὲ οὐ γέγονεν οὕτως.

He says to them, “It was for your hardness of heart that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been so.

λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ⸀ὅτι ὃς ἂν ἀπολύσῃ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ καὶ γαμήσῃ ἄλλην μοιχᾶται ⸂καὶ ὁ ἀπολελυμένην γαμήσας μοιχᾶται⸃.

And I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, not for immorality, and marries another commits adultery; and the one who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Why this rendering

Matt.19.9 Observation

Syntactic observation

Matthew and Mark each hold something the other lacks in this sentence. **Matthew has an exception, Mark none** — μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ, not for sexual immorality. **Mark has a clause for the woman, Matthew none** — Mark 10:12: and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. The two books miss each other exactly. **Luke 16:18 has neither** — no exception and no clause for the woman, just two unconditioned sentences. Three ways, then: Matthew the exception only, Mark the woman's clause only, Luke neither. Within Matthew the exception is worded twice and differently: 5:32 has παρεκτὸς λόγου πορνείας, outside a matter of immorality, and 19:9 μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ — the word πορνεία is the same, the phrase around it is not. πορνεία occurs three times in Matthew (5:32, 15:19, 19:9), once in Mark (7:21), once in John (8:41). ἀποστάσιον, a certificate of divorce, twice in Matthew (5:31, 19:7) and once in Mark (10:4). Matthew 19:7 and Mark 10:4 name Moses; 5:31 says only ἐρρέθη, it was said, naming no one — it keeps the you have heard frame of the Sermon on the Mount. And the verb of the quotation at v.5 diverges: Matthew κολληθήσεται, he shall be joined; Mark 10:7 προσκολληθήσεται, with one prefix more.

Rendering options · 2

Adopted

“not for immorality” — kept distinct from 5:32's “outside a matter of immorality”

Basis πορνεία is one word at both places and is fixed as immorality; the phrase around it differs, so the renderings differ with it.

Match the two places to one phrase

Basis They state the same exception, so the reading is evened out.

Rejected That Matthew words it twice and differently is the datum; matching removes it from the translation and prevents setting it beside the fact that Mark has no such clause at all.

Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ⸀μαθηταί· Εἰ οὕτως ἐστὶν ἡ αἰτία τοῦ ἀνθρώπου μετὰ τῆς γυναικός, οὐ συμφέρει γαμῆσαι.

The disciples say to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Οὐ πάντες χωροῦσι τὸν λόγον ⸀τοῦτον ἀλλ’ οἷς δέδοται.

But he said to them, “Not everyone holds this word, but only those to whom it is given.

εἰσὶν γὰρ εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ἐγεννήθησαν οὕτως, καὶ εἰσὶν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνουχίσθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ εἰσὶν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. ὁ δυνάμενος χωρεῖν χωρείτω.

For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens. Let the one who can hold it hold it.”

Why this rendering

Matt.19.12 Observation

Syntactic observation

εὐνοῦχος stands three times in this one verse and the verb εὐνουχίζω twice, and neither recurs anywhere in the corpus. The three kinds divide by voice: the first ἐγεννήθησαν, were born so, passive; the second εὐνουχίσθησαν, were made so, passive, ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, by men; the third εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτούς, made themselves so, active with a reflexive. The voice runs passive, passive, active, and only at the end is the agent the man himself. Only that third carries a purpose — διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. The closing ὁ δυνάμενος χωρεῖν χωρείτω answers οὐ πάντες χωροῦσιν of v.11. χωρέω stands at eight places in the corpus (Matt 15:17, 19:11, 12 twice; Mark 2:2; John 2:6, 8:37, 21:25) and the picture differs at each — how much a jar holds, no room at the door, a word finding no place, the world not containing the books. This place belongs to that line.

Rendering options · 2

Adopted

“eunuch” and “hold” — rendered, but not narrowed

Basis εὐνοῦχος is Greek, not a loanword, so it is not transliterated (transliteration is reserved for Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew place names). χωρέω is held to hold, joining it to John 21:25.

Render the third kind as “those who renounce marriage”

Basis Takes the third as figurative and puts that reading into the text.

Rejected The text uses one word for all three kinds and changes only the voice. Rendering the third differently breaks that construction and decides for the reader whether it is figurative — a decision we leave to them.

Lost in translation

the single word χωρέω

Across eight places the one word carries jars, a doorway, a word, books, and this saying; no single English or Korean word carries all seven. Different renderings are used at different places, and only the binding of vv.11-12 by one word is preserved.

Τότε ⸀προσηνέχθησαν αὐτῷ παιδία ἵνα τὰς χεῖρας ἐπιθῇ αὐτοῖς καὶ προσεύξηται· οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἐπετίμησαν αὐτοῖς.

Then children were brought to him, that he might lay his hands on them and pray; but the disciples rebuked them.

ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· Ἄφετε τὰ παιδία καὶ μὴ κωλύετε αὐτὰ ἐλθεῖν πρός με, τῶν γὰρ τοιούτων ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

But Jesus said, “Leave the children, and do not hinder them from coming to me; for of such is the kingdom of the heavens.”

καὶ ἐπιθεὶς ⸂τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῖς⸃ ἐπορεύθη ἐκεῖθεν.

And laying his hands on them, he went on from there.

Καὶ ἰδοὺ εἷς προσελθὼν ⸂αὐτῷ εἶπεν⸃· ⸀Διδάσκαλε, τί ἀγαθὸν ποιήσω ἵνα ⸀σχῶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον;

And behold, one came to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”

ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Τί με ⸂ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ; εἷς ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθός⸃· εἰ δὲ θέλεις ⸂εἰς τὴν ζωὴν εἰσελθεῖν⸃, ⸀τήρησον τὰς ἐντολάς.

And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about the good? One is the good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Why this rendering

Matt.19.17 Observation

Syntactic observation

The same exchange is built differently at Mark 10:17-18 and Matthew 19:16-17. In Mark the address is διδάσκαλε ἀγαθέ, good teacher, and the answer τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός — why do you call me good? no one is good except one, God. In Matthew ἀγαθέ drops from the address, leaving διδάσκαλε, and attaches instead to the question: τί ἀγαθὸν ποιήσω, what good thing shall I do. So the answer shifts too, τί με ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, why do you ask me about the good — and ὁ θεός drops from the sentence that follows, leaving εἷς ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθός, one is the good. The word ἀγαθός does not disappear; it moves — from address to object, from a person to a thing. Luke 18:19 agrees with Mark — Τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός. **Of the three, then, only Matthew has a different sentence.** SBLGNT marks three points of variation here (⸀⸂⸃), and the Textus Receptus reads Matthew with the other two.

Rendering options · 2

Adopted

“Why do you ask me about the good? One is the good”

Basis Renders the base text as it stands without drawing it toward Mark; the shift of the word is visible only with both books side by side.

“Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, God”

Basis Follows the Textus Receptus and matches Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19.

Rejected By our base-text decision we follow SBLGNT; and the direction runs one way — the odd one of three being conformed to the other two is common, three that agreed coming apart at one point is not.

λέγει αὐτῷ· Ποίας; ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ⸀εἶπεν· Τὸ Οὐ φονεύσεις, Οὐ μοιχεύσεις, Οὐ κλέψεις, Οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις,

He says to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “These: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness,

Τίμα τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα, καὶ Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν.

honour your father and mother,' and ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'”

λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ νεανίσκος· ⸂Πάντα ταῦτα⸃ ⸀ἐφύλαξα· τί ἔτι ὑστερῶ;

The young man says to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”

ἔφη αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Εἰ θέλεις τέλειος εἶναι, ὕπαγε πώλησόν σου τὰ ὑπάρχοντα καὶ ⸀δὸς πτωχοῖς, καὶ ἕξεις θησαυρὸν ἐν ⸀οὐρανοῖς, καὶ δεῦρο ἀκολούθει μοι.

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be complete, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in the heavens; and come, follow me.”

ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ νεανίσκος τὸν ⸀λόγον ἀπῆλθεν λυπούμενος, ἦν γὰρ ἔχων κτήματα πολλά.

But hearing the word the young man went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ⸂πλούσιος δυσκόλως⸃ εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν·

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen I say to you that a rich man will enter the kingdom of the heavens with difficulty.

πάλιν δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, εὐκοπώτερόν ἐστιν κάμηλον διὰ ⸀τρυπήματος ῥαφίδος ⸀εἰσελθεῖν ἢ πλούσιον ⸂εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ⸃.

And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to enter through a needle's hole than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Why this rendering

Matt.19.24 Observation

Syntactic observation

Matthew writes kingdom of the heavens thirty-two times and kingdom of God four (12:28, 19:24, 21:31, 43). Mark runs the other way: kingdom of God fourteen times, kingdom of the heavens never; and Luke has kingdom of God thirty-one times and kingdom of the heavens never. One of those four places is here — and **the verse immediately before it, v.23, has kingdom of the heavens.** The two phrases of Matthew stand against each other in consecutive verses: v.23 εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, v.24 εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ. The parallels at Mark 10:23-25 and Luke 18:24-25 have kingdom of God throughout. The camel's half diverges too. Mark has διὰ τῆς τρυμαλιᾶς τῆς ῥαφίδος διελθεῖν, to pass through the hole of the needle; Matthew διὰ τρυπήματος ῥαφίδος εἰσελθεῖν, to enter through a needle's hole — the word for the hole differs, τρυμαλιά against τρύπημα; Matthew has no articles where Mark has two; and the verb differs, pass through against enter. Only ῥαφίς, needle, is shared. **Luke 18:25 does not even share that** — διὰ τρήματος βελόνης: the needle is βελόνη and the hole τρῆμα, both different again. So all three books differ in both the needle and the hole, and only the verb aligns — εἰσελθεῖν in Matthew and Luke against Mark's διελθεῖν. βελόνη, τρῆμα, τρύπημα and τρυμαλιά each occur once in the corpus. And Matthew's enter is not repeated for the rich man at the end — one verb carries both camel and rich man.

Rendering options · 2

Adopted

“kingdom of God” at v.24 only — kept apart from v.23

Basis Matthew changes the phrase between the two verses, so the rendering changes with it. Collapsing them would make Matthew's four places uncountable and hide the inverted distribution against Mark.

Match the two verses to one phrase

Basis They name the same thing, so the reading is evened out.

Rejected That Matthew divides them thirty-two to four is itself the datum; matching here erases it, and erases precisely the one place where the two phrases touch.

ἀκούσαντες δὲ οἱ ⸀μαθηταὶ ἐξεπλήσσοντο σφόδρα λέγοντες· Τίς ἄρα δύναται σωθῆναι;

And hearing it the disciples were greatly astounded, saying, “Who then can be saved?”

ἐμβλέψας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Παρὰ ἀνθρώποις τοῦτο ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν, παρὰ δὲ θεῷ πάντα δυνατά.

And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Τότε ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Πέτρος εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν πάντα καὶ ἠκολουθήσαμέν σοι· τί ἄρα ἔσται ἡμῖν;

Then Peter answered and said to him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what then will there be for us?”

ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ὑμεῖς οἱ ἀκολουθήσαντές μοι ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ, ὅταν καθίσῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ, ⸀καθήσεσθε καὶ ⸀ὑμεῖς ἐπὶ δώδεκα θρόνους κρίνοντες τὰς δώδεκα φυλὰς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ.

And Jesus said to them, “Amen I say to you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Why this rendering

Matt.19.28 Observation

Syntactic observation

παλιγγενεσία is unique in the corpus. It is πάλιν, again, joined to γένεσις, birth or coming-to-be, and the text does not unpack it — it merely puts the article: in the παλιγγενεσία. The difficulty here is that rendering the word imports a picture the text does not have: new world brings in a κόσμος that is not there, renewal of all things a πάντα that is not there. This is why the versions compared divide. And the whole paragraph is built differently from Mark's — Matthew 19:29 puts γυναῖκα, wife, in the list of things left, Mark 10:29 does not; Mark 10:30 has the hundredfold now in this time, with persecutions, a double frame Matthew lacks. Matthew has for my name's sake, Mark for my sake and the gospel's. The twelve thrones and the twelve tribes of Israel at vv.27-28 are not in Mark — and not merely absent here: neither θρόνος, throne, nor φυλή, tribe, occurs anywhere in Mark. Matthew has five thrones (5:34, 19:28 twice, 23:22, 25:31) and two tribes (19:28, 24:30); Luke has three thrones and two tribes. **Luke 22:30 carries the same promise with two differences** — it stands at the last supper rather than here, and the thrones bear no number (ἐπὶ θρόνων, without article or δώδεκα). Only the tribes are counted at twelve.

Rendering options · 2

Adopted

“the regeneration” — rendered only as the word is built

Basis Renders πάλιν plus γένεσις and adds nothing about what it is, so the translation does not settle what the text leaves open.

“the new world” or “the renewal of all things”

Basis Unpacks it so the reader knows what is meant.

Rejected Neither κόσμος nor πάντα is in the text; unpacking turns one word into a clause and hides from the translation that this word occurs only once in the corpus.

Lost in translation

what παλιγγενεσία names

The word does not explain itself even to a Greek reader; any rendering leaves the English or Korean reader knowing either more or less than they did.

καὶ πᾶς ⸀ὅστις ἀφῆκεν ⸂οἰκίας ἢ⸃ ἀδελφοὺς ἢ ἀδελφὰς ἢ πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ἢ ⸂γυναῖκα ἢ⸃ τέκνα ἢ ⸀ἀγροὺς ἕνεκεν τοῦ ⸂ὀνόματός μου⸃, ⸀ἑκατονταπλασίονα λήμψεται καὶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομήσει.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of my name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

πολλοὶ δὲ ἔσονται πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι καὶ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”