InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEUT JOB YEHO (JOS) HERO (JDG) RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG YOEL (JOEL) MIC ISA ZEP HAB YIR (JER) LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBAD DAN EZEK EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL 2 PS WIS TOB MAN BAR G DAN G ESD L ESD ESG JDT 3 MAC SIR 1 MAC 2 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL LAOD PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
InterlinearVerse Mat C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28
Mat 18 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V23 V24 V25 V26 V27 V28 V29 V30 V31 V32 V33 V34 V35
Used in these topics: Forgiveness and reconciliation with others
OET-LV The Yaʸsous/(Yəhōshūˊa) is_saying to_him:
I_am_ not _saying to_you up_to seven_times, but up_to seventy_times seven.
In this section, Jesus continued to talk about relationships among believers. He did this by telling a parable about a servant and a king. The king canceled the servant’s large debt. But the servant refused to cancel the small debt of his fellow servant. As a result the king punished the servant.
Jesus told this parable to show us that God has forgiven our many sins. So we should forgive the few sins that other people commit against us. If we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The parable of the servant who refused to forgive
The necessity for forgiveness (JBP)
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times,
Jesus said to Peter, “I tell you, not only/just seven times,
Jesus answered, “I tell you that you should forgive him not just up to seven times,
Jesus said, “No, not just 7 times.
I tell you, not just seven times: This clause is Jesus’ reply to Peter’s question. Jesus understood why Peter asked his question. He knew that Peter probably expected the answer that seven was a good limit. So Jesus started by denying what Peter expected him to say.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
I say to you, not just seven times (GW)
Not just seven times (CEV)
No, not seven times (NLT)
Some words are implied but not repeated here. The complete clause would be:
I tell you, you must forgive him not just seven times.
I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. (NCV)
but seventy-seven times!
instead you should forgive him up to seventy-seven times.”
You should forgive him 77 times.”
but: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between “not seven times,” and “seventy times seven.” Languages have different ways to indicate this negative-positive type of contrast. Some of the ways are:
With the conjunction but.
With a conjunction other than but. This is a common way in English to show this type of contrast. For example:
rather
Instead
With no conjunction. For example:
Not seven times. Seventy times seven.
seventy-seven times: There are two ways to interpret the Greek phrase that the BSB translates as seventy-seven times:
It is the number 77. For example:
seventy-seven times (NRSV) (BSB, NRSV, NIV, NET, NJB, NABRE, CEV, NCV)
It means 70 x 7. This would be 490 times. For example:
seventy times seven (RSV) (RSV, ESV, NASB, REB, KJV, NLT, GNT, JBP, GW)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). This same Greek phrase occurs in the ancient Greek translation of Genesis 4:24. There, the number in the original Hebrew is clearly the number 77.
It is also recommended that you put one interpretation in the text and the other interpretation in a footnote. Here is a sample footnote:
Or seventy times seven (490). Either way, Jesus meant a huge number of times to forgive.
Some words are implied but not repeated here. The complete clause would be:
you should forgive him seventy-seven times
Note 1 topic: translate-tense
λέγει
˓is˒_saying
To call attention to a development in the story, Matthew uses the present tense in past narration. If it would not be natural to do that in your language, you could use the past tense in your translation. Alternate translation: [said]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure
οὐ λέγω σοι ἕως ἑπτάκις, ἀλλὰ ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: λέγει αὐτῷ Ὁ Ἰησοῦς Οὒ λέγω σοί ἕως ἑπτάκις ἀλλά ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά)
If your language would not naturally put the negative statement before the positive statement, you could reverse the two clauses here. Alternate translation: [I say to you up to 77 times, not up to seven times]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis
ἕως ἑπτάκις, ἀλλὰ ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά
up_to seven_times up_to (Some words not found in SR-GNT: λέγει αὐτῷ Ὁ Ἰησοῦς Οὒ λέγω σοί ἕως ἑπτάκις ἀλλά ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά)
Jesus is leaving out some of the words that in many languages a sentence would need in order to be complete. You could supply these words from the previous verse if it would be clearer in your language. Alternate translation: [that you should forgive your brother up to seven times, but that you should forgive him up to 77 times]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά
seventy_times seven
Here Jesus uses the large number 77 to indicate that Peter and all believers must always forgive other people. Jesus does not mean to count up to 77 and then stop forgiving other people. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [77 times and beyond] or [77 times, by which I mean always]
OET-LV The Yaʸsous/(Yəhōshūˊa) is_saying to_him:
I_am_ not _saying to_you up_to seven_times, but up_to seventy_times seven.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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