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Weightier Matters |
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An almost identical passage is found in Luke's Gospel (see chapter 11 verse 42). Translations consulted other than that of J. N. Darby have the same or similar wording or at least carry practically the same meaning. Marshall's literal translation reads: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because ye tithe the mint and the dill and the cummin, and ye [have] left the heavier things of the law, judgement and mercy and faith; but these things it behoved to do and those not to leave." |
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The difficulty here is in the word translated those, emphasised by myself above. A straight forward reading of the passage makes the Lord say that the scribes and Pharisees should not have left aside matters that He had just said they had done, that is, the tithing of various herbs. Having done the things He said they had done, it does not make sense to say that they should not have forgotten to do them. The passage given that meaning becomes illogical. |
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Christ could have said that the scribes and Pharisees should have performed the weightier matters of the law as well as the tithing, but that is not what He said according to the text. The passage has much more force and makes sense if the word those is translated them. Christ is then saying that the weightier matters should have been performed and not left aside. The last part then reinforces the previous statement. |
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The question arises as to why the translators have translated the passage in the way they have. Without having any pretension to a knowledge of New Testament Greek it would appear that they have assumed that because the two words translated these and those or "the other" (AV) are close together they have taken the view that they were intended to refer to two different things as when we use the expressions these and those in English. Maybe that is the normal use in Greek. However, in many cases our AV translators have translated the Greek word those as that, so it is clearly not impossible to do so. In fact the AV only translates the Greek word EKEINOS twice as "the other" and 137 times as "that". JNDarby as shown above translates EKEINOS in the passages in Matthew and Luke under consideration as those rather than "the other" though in other places he translates it as that. In 19 places the AV translates EKEINOS as "same". As in Matthew 23:23 we are speaking of several things the word that in English is not appropriate. Them would be more suitable unless the words the same are used. Them is used for EKEINOS 11 times in the AV and is also sometimes used by JNDarby. However, what is important is that the words: "not have left... aside" should be seen to apply to the weightier matters and not to the tithing as the usual translation seems to suggest. |
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September 2002 |
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