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OET (OET-LV) Be_taking_heed of the false_prophets, who are_coming to you_all in clothing of_sheep, but inside they_are swindling wolves.
OET (OET-RV) “Watch out for false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside they’re swindling wolves.
For many years, English versions and Christians have commonly referred to Matthew 5–7 as “The Sermon on the Mount.” In some translations, it may be helpful to include a heading for chapters 5–7 that is on a level above the section heading for 5:1–12.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The Sermon on the Mountain
The sermon that Jesus preached on a mountain
Jesus taught people on the side of a mountain/hill
Beware of false prophets.
¶ “Beware(plur) of false prophets.
¶ Jesus continued, “Be careful of people who claim to be God’s prophets/spokesmen, but are liars.
Beware of: This phrase is a warning. Jesus warned his followers to be on guard against false prophets.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
Be on your guard against (GNT)
Watch out for (NIV)
Be careful of (NCV)
false prophets: A false prophet is a person who claims to speak messages from God, but he did not really receive his messages from God. Such people are not real prophets.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
deceitful/lying prophetsBut this translation should not imply that they were truly God’s prophets but had lied about something else.
false religious teachers (JBP)
those who say they are prophets of God but/and whose teachings are lies
those who pretend to be spokesmen for God
In this context, the word prophets probably refers to all religious teachers. In some languages this phrase would refer to only those who call themselves prophets. If that is true in your language, you may want to use a more general word. For example:
false religious teachers (JBP)
See how you translated prophets in 4:14 and 5:12.
They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
They come to you in sheep skins, but inside those sheepskins they are dangerous, hungry wolves.
They come to you pretending to be gentle. But they are dangerous. They are like wild dogs wearing sheep skins.
They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves: The phrases sheep’s clothing and ravenous wolves are metaphors.
Sheep are tame animals. The sheep represent things that are gentle and harmless.
The phrase sheep’s clothing refers to a skin from a sheep. It includes the hair/wool.
The word wolves refers to a kind of large, fierce, wild dog. The Greek word that the BSB translates as ravenous means “eager to attack and having a great desire to eat or take things from others.” The wolves represent danger.
In this metaphor, the wolves wear the skins of sheep in order to look like sheep. They do this to deceive other animals so that they can get near them and destroy them. In the same way, false prophets approach true believers and pretend to be one of them, but their teaching is dangerous.
Here are some other ways to translate these metaphors:
Keep the metaphors and explain the meaning in a footnote. Here is a sample footnote:
Wolves wearing the skins of sheep represents false prophets who pretend to be true believers. Just as wolves wearing sheep skins are deceitful and still dangerous, false prophets are deceitful. Their teachings are dangerous.
Translate the metaphors as similes and explain the meaning in the text. For example:
who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves (NLT)
They come to you looking gentle like sheep, but they are really dangerous like wolves. (NCV)
They come to you pretending to be gentle, but they are really dangerous. It is as if they were fierce wolves wearing sheep skins.
wolves: Those animals, wolves, only live in certain parts of the world. If you live in an area where there are no wolves, you can substitute a wild animal that destroys other animals. For example:
wild dogs
lions/hyenas
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
οἵτινες ἔρχονται πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων, ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσιν λύκοι ἅρπαγες
who ˓are˒_coming (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Προσέχετε ἀπό τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν οἵτινες ἔρχονται πρός ὑμᾶς ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσίν λύκοι ἅρπαγες)
Here Jesus speaks of God’s people as if they were sheep. By the false prophets wearing sheep’s clothing, he means that the false prophets pretend to be part of God’s people. However, Jesus says that inwardly they are ravenous wolves. He means that they hurt and take advantage of God’s people, which is acting just like wolves that eat sheep. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea in simile form or state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [who pretend to be part of your group, as if they were dressed in sheep’s clothing. However, inwardly they want to harm you, as if they were ravenous wolves]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων
in clothing ˱of˲_sheep
Here, the phrase sheep’s clothing refers to disguising oneself to look like a sheep. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [disguising themselves as sheep] or [pretending to be sheep]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
λύκοι ἅρπαγες
wolves swindling
When wolves are ravenous, they want to capture and eat other animals, such as sheep. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [hungry wolves] or [wolves on the hunt]
OET (OET-LV) Be_taking_heed of the false_prophets, who are_coming to you_all in clothing of_sheep, but inside they_are swindling wolves.
OET (OET-RV) “Watch out for false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside they’re swindling wolves.
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.