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Note: This view shows ‘verses’ which are not natural language units and hence sometimes only part of a sentence will be visible—click on any Bible version abbreviation down the left-hand side to see the verse in more of its context. Normally the OET discourages the reading of individual ‘verses’, but this view is only designed as a tool for doing comparisons of different translations—the older translations are further down the page (so you can read up from the bottom to trace the English translation history). The OET segments on this page are still very early looks into the unfinished texts of the Open English Translation of the Bible—please double-check these texts in advance before using in public.
Text critical issues=none Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)
OET (OET-RV) Because Yohan came and he wasn’t eating or drinking, and they said, ‘He’s possessed by a demon!’![]()
OET-LV For/Because Yōannaʸs came neither eating nor drinking, and they_are_saying:
He_is_having a_demon.
![]()
SR-GNT Ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, ‘Δαιμόνιον ἔχει.’ ‡
(Aʸlthen gar Yōannaʸs maʸte esthiōn maʸte pinōn, kai legousin, ‘Daimonion eⱪei.’)
Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, orange:accusative/object.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).
ULT For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
UST Similarly, when John came to you and often did not eat or drink, people rejected him and said, ‘A demon is controlling him!’
BSB For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
MSB (Same as BSB above)
BLB For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon!'
AICNT For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
OEB For, when John came, neither eating nor drinking, people said “He has a demon in him”;
2DT For Yōannēs came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
WEBBE For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
WMBB For Yochanan came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
NET For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
LSV For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon;
FBV John didn't come feasting and drinking, so people say, ‘He's devil-possessed!’
TCNT § For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
T4T Similarly, you are dissatisfied with both John and me! When John came and preached to you, he did not eat good food and did not drink wine, like most people do. But you rejected him saying, ‘A demon is controlling him!’
LEB ¶ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
BBE For John came, taking no food or drink, and they say, He has an evil spirit.
Moff For John has come neither eating nor drinking,
⇔ and men say, 'He has a devil';
Wymth "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, `He has a demon.'
ASV For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a demon.
DRA For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: He hath a devil.
YLT 'For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a demon;
Drby For John has come neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon.
RV For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
(For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath/has a devil. )
SLT For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has an evil spirit.
Wbstr For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a demon.
KJB-1769 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
( For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath/has a devil. )
KJB-1611 For Iohn came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he hath a deuill.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above, apart from capitalisation)
Bshps For Iohn came neither eatyng nor drinking, and they say, he hath the deuil.
(For Yohn came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he hath/has the devil.)
Gnva For Iohn came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a deuill.
(For Yohn came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath/has a devil. )
Cvdl For Ihon came nether eatinge nor drynkinge, & they saye: he hath the deuyll.
(For Yohn came neither eating nor drynkinge, and they say: he hath/has the devil.)
TNT For Ihon came nether eatinge nor drinkinge and they saye he hath the devyll.
(For Yohn came neither eating nor drinkinge and they say he hath/has the devil. )
Wycl For Joon cam nether etynge ne drynkynge, and thei seien, He hath a deuel.
(For Yohn came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He hath/has a devil.)
Luth Johannes ist kommen, aß nicht und trank nicht; so sagen sie: Er hat den Teufel.
(Yohannes is coming, ate not and drank not; so say they/she/them: He has the devil.)
ClVg Venit enim Joannes neque manducans, neque bibens, et dicunt: Dæmonium habet.[fn]
(He_came because Yoannes nor manducans, nor bibens, and they_say: Dæmonium has. )
11.18 Venit enim. Sicut tunc ita et nunc utramque viam salutis respuitis. Lamentavimus ad Joannem, cecinimus ad Christum. Hæc est summa. Generatio ista nec plorat cum Joanne plorante, neque gaudet cum Christo gaudente. Nec mirum si duplicem viam salutis contemnunt, cum et jejunium et saturitatem petitur spernunt; si jejunium placet, cur Joannes displicet? si saturitas, cur Filius hominis?
11.18 He_came because. Like then so/thus and now both way/road health respuitis. Lamentavimus to Yoannem, cecinimus to Christ/Messiah. This it_is sum/total. Generation these_(ones) but_not plorat when/with Yoanne plorante, nor rejoices when/with to_Christ/Messiah gaudente. Neither strange when/but_if duplicem way/road health they_despise, when/with and fasting and saturitatem asksur spernunt; when/but_if fasting please/it_seems_right, cur Yoannes displease? when/but_if satiety/abundance, cur Son of_man?
UGNT ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, δαιμόνιον ἔχει.
(aʸlthen gar Yōannaʸs maʸte esthiōn maʸte pinōn, kai legousin, daimonion eⱪei.)
SBL-GNT ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν· Δαιμόνιον ἔχει·
(aʸlthen gar Yōannaʸs maʸte esthiōn maʸte pinōn, kai legousin; Daimonion eⱪei;)
RP-GNT Ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, Δαιμόνιον ἔχει.
(Aʸlthen gar Yōannaʸs maʸte esthiōn maʸte pinōn, kai legousin, Daimonion eⱪei.)
TC-GNT § Ἦλθε γὰρ [fn]Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσι, Δαιμόνιον ἔχει.
( § Aʸlthe gar Yōannaʸs maʸte esthiōn maʸte pinōn, kai legousi, Daimonion eⱪei. )
11:18 ιωαννης ¦ ιωανης WH
Key for above GNTs: yellow:punctuation differs, red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).
11:2-19 This section begins with John the Baptist’s doubt, but it ends by exalting his faith and ministry (11:7-19). The people’s rejection of John (11:16-19) foreshadows their later rejection of Jesus.
Long before Jesus was born, God spoke of a messenger who would prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah (Malachi 3:1). John the Baptist was that messenger. When John’s ministry was ending, he began to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah. So John sent some of his disciples to verify that Jesus was the Messiah (11:3). Jesus indicated that his miracles and preaching were proof that he was the expected Messiah whom God spoke of (11:4–5).
Jesus then showed that John was very important in God’s eyes (11:7–14).
Jesus and John did God’s work in very different ways, but most people refused to listen to either person (11:16–19).
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The question of John the Baptist
Jesus talked about John the Baptizer
Messengers from John the Baptist (NRSV)
Jesus and John the Baptizer’s actions prove who they are
There is a parallel passage for this section in Luke 7:18–35.
In this paragraph, Jesus compared the people of his generation to children playing in the market. The people of that generation criticized John’s harsh lifestyle and did not respond to his message. They also criticized Jesus’ joyous lifestyle and did not respond to his message. They were like children who refused to dance to happy songs, but they also refused to mourn to sad songs. They were never satisfied. They rejected both John and Jesus.
For John came neither eating nor drinking,
When John came to do God’s work, he neither feasted nor drank wine,
This generation is like those children, because during John’s time of ministry, he did not eat good/ordinary food or drink alcohol.
For: In verses 11:18–19, Jesus explained his comparison in 11:16–17. The generation of people in Jesus’ time were like children because they did not want to follow John or Jesus. In Greek, this explanation is introduced with a conjunction that the BSB translates as For.
Here are some other ways to introduce this explanation:
They can be compared to them because
They are just like those children because
In the same way
John came: Here the word came is used in a general way to describe the time when John was preaching in the wilderness. It introduces the way John usually lived. It does not indicate that John “came” to a particular place.
In some languages, a literal translation may imply a wrong meaning. If that is true in your language, here are some other ways to translate this:
John had the custom of
during the ministry of John
John came and was doing God’s work
neither eating: There are two ways to interpret the clause that the BSB translates as neither eating:
John did not eat normal, good food. According to 3:4c, he ate locusts and wild honey. Furthermore, he did not go to feasts and parties where people spent a lot of time eating fancy food. Pleasures and comforts like food were not important to him. For example:
did not eat…like other people (NCV) (CEV, NCV, NLT)
John did not eat food very often. This means that he frequently fasted. For example:
he fasted (GNT) (GNT, NLT96)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Many Jews fasted, so it is unlikely that they would have thought that John “had a demon” (11:18b) because he fasted.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
did not feast
did not eat good food
did not eat well
didn’t spend his time eating (NLT)
nor drinking: The word drinking refers to “drinking wine.” (See Luke 7:33 where the word “wine” is explicit in the text.) For example:
didn’t drink wine (NLT96)
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
Use a general word for alcoholic beverages. For example:
did not drink alcohol
Use a common alcoholic beverage that is used in a general sense in your area. For example:
not drink millet beer
not drink palm wine
not drink something like palm wine
Use a descriptive phrase. For example:
not drink fermented grape juice
The Jews allowed drinking wine, but drinking too much and getting drunk was considered wrong. John never drank any wine, as Luke 1:15 explains. This was unusual for a Jew.
and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
and they say, ‘A demon controls him!’
So, people were saying, ‘He is demon possessed!’
As a result, people rejected him and said that a demon is in him!
and: Verse 11:18b is a result of the people seeing John’s way of life (in 11:18a). The people rejected John’s message and so made wrong statements about him.
Here are some other ways to begin this part of the verse:
So (NCV)
and as a result
they say, ‘He has a demon!’: This clause means that the people were saying that John was possessed by a demon.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
He’s possessed by a demon. (NLT)
That man has a demon in him! (CEV)
This clause shows that the people rejected John. The saying ‘He has a demon’ is a lie. If people in your area will think that ‘He has a demon’ is true about John, you may want to make the text more clear. For example:
they rejected John saying, ‘He has a demon’
they falsely said, ‘He has a demon’
demon: Another way to translate this word is:
evil spirit
For more help in translating the word demon, see the note under 7:22c.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
ἦλθεν
came
The word came refers to John living and behaving in certain ways. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a comparable phrase or state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [was] or [lived]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων
neither eating nor drinking
This does not mean that John never ate food. It means he fasted often, and when he ate, he did not eat expensive food or drink. If it would be helpful for your readers, you could make this idea more explicit. Alternate translation: [frequently fasting] or [neither eating good food nor drinking wine]
Note 3 topic: writing-pronouns
λέγουσιν
˱they˲_˓are˒_saying
The pronoun they refers to people in general. If this is not clear for your readers, you could use a form that refers to people in general. Alternate translation: [many say] or [others say]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / quotesinquotes
λέγουσιν, δαιμόνιον ἔχει.
˱they˲_˓are˒_saying ˓a˒_demon (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἦλθεν Γάρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων καί λέγουσιν δαιμόνιον Ἔχει)
If it would be clearer in your language, you could translate this so that there is not a quotation within a quotation. Alternate translation: [they say that he has a demon.]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
δαιμόνιον ἔχει
˓a˒_demon (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἦλθεν Γάρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων καί λέγουσιν δαιμόνιον Ἔχει)
To say that someone has a demon is to say that the demon possesses or controls that person. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a comparable phrase or state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [He is demon-possessed] or [He is controlled by a demon]