MAT 15:8 Parallel Verse View

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=small word differences Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)

Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, orange:accusative/object, pink:genitive/possessor, cyan:dative/indirect 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 ‘This people honors me with their lips,
⇔  but their heart is far away from me.

UST ‘You people treat me respectfully when you talk,
⇔  but you do not really care about me.

BSB ‘These people honor Me with their lips,
⇔ but their hearts are far from Me.

15:8 CT does not include draw near to Me with their mouths, and they.

BLB This people honors Me with the lips, but their heart is kept far away from Me.

AICNT ‘{This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me};[fn]

15:8, Later manuscripts read “These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips. But their heart is far from me.”

OEB “This is a people that honour me with their lips, While their hearts are far removed from me;

WEBBE ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth,
⇔ and honour me with their lips;
⇔ but their heart is far from me.

WMBB (Same as above)

NET ‘ This people honors me with their lips,
⇔  but their heart is far from me,

LSV This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and with the lips it honors Me, but their heart is far off from Me;

FBV ‘These people say they honor me but in their minds they don't care about me.[fn]

15:8 Or “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are a long way from me.”

TCNT ⇔ ‘This people [fn]draws near to me with their mouth
⇔ and honors me with their lips,
⇔ but their heart is far from me.

15:8 draws near to me with their mouth and ¦ — CT

T4T ‘These people talk as if they honor me [MTY], but they do not think about honoring me at all [MET].

LEB • ‘This people honors me with their[fn] lips, but their heart is far, far away from me,

15:7 *Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun

BBE These people give me honour with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Moff This people honours me with their lips,
⇔ but their heart is far away from me:

Wymth "`This is a People who honour Me with their lips, while their heart is far away from Me;

ASV This people honoreth me with their lips;
⇔ But their heart is far from me.

DRA This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me.

YLT This people doth draw nigh to Me with their mouth, and with the lips it doth honour Me, but their heart is far off from Me;

Drby This people honour me with the lips, but their heart is far away from me;

RV This people honoureth me with their lips; But their heart is far from me.

SLT This people draw near me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips; but their heart keeps off far from me.

Wbstr This people draw nigh to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

KJB-1769 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

KJB-1611 This people draweth nigh vnto mee with their mouth, and honoureth mee with their lips: but their heart is farre from me.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above, apart from punctuation)

Bshps This people draweth nye vnto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lippes: howbeit, their hearts are farre from me.
(This people draweth nigh/near unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips: howbeit/yet, their hearts are far from me.)

Gnva This people draweth neere vnto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with the lips, but their heart is farre off from me.
(This people draweth near unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with the lips, but their heart is far off from me. )

Cvdl This people draweth nye vnto me wt their mouth, & honoureth me wt their lippes, howbeit, their hert is farre fro me.
(This people draweth nigh/near unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, howbeit/yet, their heart is far from me.)

TNT This people draweth nye vnto me with their mouthes and honoureth me with their lippes howbe it their hertes are farre from me:
(This people draweth nigh/near unto me with their mouths and honoureth me with their lips howbeit/yet it their hearts are far from me: )

Wycl and seide, This puple honourith me with lippis, but her herte is fer fro me;
(and said, This people honourith me with lips, but her heart is far from me;)

Luth Dies Volk nahet sich zu mir mit seinem Munde und ehret mich mit seinen Lippen, aber ihr Herz ist ferne von mir.
(This/These people approaches itself/yourself/themselves to/for to_me with his mouth and honours(v) me with his lips, but you(pl)/their/her heart is distant from to_me.)

ClVg [Populus hic labiis me honorat: cor autem eorum longe est a me.[fn]
([Populus this/here lips me honour/respect(n)at: heart however their far_away it_is from me. )

15.8 Labiis me honorat. Magister, scimus quia verax es Marc. 12.. Vel exteriorem munditiam commendando, interior et quæ vera est, in eis non est.

15.8 Labiis me honour/respect(n)at. Teacher/Master, we_know because truthful you_are Marc. 12.. Or exteriorem cleanliness commendando, interior and which true it_is, in/into/on to_them not/no it_is.

UGNT ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ; ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ;
(ho laos houtos tois ⱪeilesin me tima; haʸ de kardia autōn porrō apeⱪei ap’ emou;)

SBL-GNT ⸂Ὁ λαὸς οὗτος⸃ τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ, ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ·
(⸂Ho laos houtos⸃ tois ⱪeilesin me tima, haʸ de kardia autōn porrō apeⱪei apʼ emou;)

RP-GNT Ἐγγίζει μοι ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, καὶ τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ, ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ' ἐμοῦ.
(Engizei moi ho laos houtos tōi stomati autōn, kai tois ⱪeilesin me tima, haʸ de kardia autōn porrō apeⱪei ap' emou.)

TC-GNT ⇔ [fn]Ἐγγίζει μοι ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν,
⇔ καὶ τοῖς χείλεσί με τιμᾷ,
⇔ ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ.
( ⇔ Engizei moi ho laos houtos tōi stomati autōn,
⇔ kai tois ⱪeilesi me tima,
⇔ haʸ de kardia autōn porrō apeⱪei ap emou. )

15:8 εγγιζει μοι ο λαος ουτος τω στοματι αυτων και ¦ ο λαος ουτος CT

Key for above GNTs: yellow:punctuation differs, red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).

SOTN SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 15:1–20: The deeds that make someone unclean in God’s eyes

Over the years, Jewish religious leaders added many oral rules to God’s written laws. The Pharisees and teachers of the law considered these oral rules (also called traditions) to be as important as God’s written laws. One of their rules was that a person must wash his hands a certain way before he ate food. If a Jew did not follow this rule before he ate, they considered him ceremonially “unclean.” This meant that they did not allow him to worship God in public for a certain amount of time. Jesus made it clear that there was something far more important than how a person washed his hands. The important thing was the condition of his heart.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ Traditions (GW)

Jesus Teaches about Inner Purity/Cleanliness

There are parallel passages for this section in Mark 7:1–23 and Luke 11:37–39.

15:8a

‘These people honor Me with their lips,

‘These people honor me with their mouths/words,
those people pretend to honor/respect him/God when they speak,

These people: When Isaiah originally spoke these words, the phrase This people referred to the Jewish people of that time. Jesus said that the Pharisees were also the people whom Isaiah had spoken about.

In some languages it may be natural to translate this phrase as:

You^(plur) people

All of you (CEV)

honor Me with their lips: The phrase honor Me with their lips is a figure of speech called a metonymy. In this figure of speech, the phrase their lips stands for “their words.” This means that the Pharisees honored/praised God with their words.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

Substitute a similar figure of speech. For example:
praise me with their mouths
Omit the figure of speech and express the meaning directly. For example:
honor me when they talk
show honor to me with words (NCV)

This clause indicates that the honor is hypocritical. If people in your area will think that the honor is real, you may want to add some implied information. For example:

pretend to honor me with their words

me: Jesus was quoting from the book of Isaiah, which was quoting the words of God. So the pronoun me refers to God. In some languages it may be necessary to use indirect speech in order to make this clear. For example:

in which God said that those people honored him with their lips/words

15:8b

but their hearts are far from Me.

but their minds/livers are far from me.
but they do not really love him.

their hearts: In the New Testament, the word heart refers to the mind, emotions, and will of a person. It refers to the part of a person that he uses to think, feel, and make decisions.

In some languages people refer to this part of a person as the thoughts, mind, throat, liver, or stomach. They are not referring literally to that physical part of the body.

Your language may use a word other than the heart to talk about the center of emotions. In that case, you should use that word instead of “heart.”

are far from Me: The words far from me are a figurative expression that means that the people had turned away from God. They had turned away in the following ways:

They turned away with their minds and so they did not think of God.
They turned away with their will and so they did not obey God.
They turned away with their emotions and so they did not love God.

In your translation, try to find an expression that implies or suggests all of these things.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

but their minds/livers/stomachs are far from me

but in their hearts/throats/thoughts, they have turned away from me

but they do not mean what they say

If one term expresses only part of the meaning, you may be able to use a combination of terms. For example:

they do not truly love me or think about me

UTN uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

ὁ λαὸς οὗτος & τιμᾷ

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ὁ λαός Οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσιν μέ τιμᾷ ἡ δέ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ)

Here, the phrase This people refers to the Israelites about whom Isaiah was speaking. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [The Israelites honor] or [These Jewish people]

Note 2 topic: writing-pronouns

με & ἐμοῦ

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ὁ λαός Οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσιν μέ τιμᾷ ἡ δέ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ)

Here, both uses of the word me refer to God. If it would be helpful in your language, you could refer to him more directly. Alternate translation: [me, their God, … me]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

τοῖς χείλεσίν

the (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ὁ λαός Οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσιν μέ τιμᾷ ἡ δέ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ)

Here, lips represent someone speaking. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use an equivalent expression from your language or state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [with their speech] or [with their words]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

ἡ & καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ

the & heart ˱of˲_them far_away ˓is˒_being_away from me

Here Isaiah speaks as if the Israelites’ heart was far away from God. He means that they do not think about God or want to obey him. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use simile form or state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [it is as if their hearts were far away from me] or [they do not want to serve me]

Note 5 topic: grammar-collectivenouns

ἡ & καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει

the & heart ˱of˲_them far_away ˓is˒_being_away

If it would not be natural in your language to speak as if a group of people had only one heart, you could use the plural form of that word in your translation. Alternate translation: [their hearts are far away]

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

ἡ & καρδία αὐτῶν

the & heart ˱of˲_them

In the author’s culture, the heart is the place where humans think and feel. If it would be helpful in your language, you could translate heart by referring to the place where humans think and feel in your culture or by expressing the idea plainly. Alternate translation: [their mind] or [their thinking]

Parallel MAT 15:8

Section 15:1–20: The deeds that make someone unclean in God’s eyes

15:8a

15:8b