How is the Holy Spirit related to God’s breath and to inspiration? In the Gospel According to Matthew 10:20 (NABRE), Jesus says, “For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” The Greek word pneuma translated here as “breath” has a wide …

The Gospel According to Matthew 9:35 (NABRE) records: “Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.” The ending words here translated as disease and illness have a range of meaning much broader than …

In the Gospel According to Matthew 9:20–22 (NABRE), Jesus heals a woman who has been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years. One of the most interesting aspects of this passage is lost in English translations. The word used to describe what the woman is seeking when she approaches Jesus …

The Gospel According to Matthew 9:9–17 includes this verse: “And when he heard, he said, ‘The strong do not have need of a healer, but the ones who are ill.’” This passage is interesting largely because of the double meaning contained by the Greek word I translated as ill. The …

The idea of looking and beholding is common in Scripture. We frequently encounter the English word “behold” as a translation of the Greek ἰδοὺ (idou). It’s a singular imperative form of a word that means “see,” so this phrase literally means something like “look.” This word “behold” is used in …

The Gospels make frequent mention of demonic possession, but they pose an interesting linguistic difficulty because the Greeks had an entirely different view of such possession than that held by Christians today. In the Gospel According to Matthew 8:14–22 (NABRE), we encounter Jesus healing people who are possessed by demons. …

How would you define goodness? This week, we encounter two different words that can be translated as good in the Gospel According to Matthew 7:17. I’ve translated this verse as: “In this way, every good tree makes quality fruits, but the rotten tree makes wicked fruits.” The first word used to …

The Greek word translated in the Gospel According to Matthew 7:6 (NABRE) as holy or sacred is a common word with important Christian meaning. The word, ἅγιος (hagios), means dedicated to the gods, and it ultimately became the Greek word used to describe the Christian view of holiness. This word in …

In the Gospel According to Matthew 6:30 (NABRE), we encounter “you of little faith.” This phrase demonstrates one of the more interesting things about the Greek language that doesn’t often translate cleanly into English. In Greek, it’s possible to take two or more words and to mash them together to …

What does it mean for a person to disguise his or her face when fasting? Twice in this week’s translation, we run into an interesting Greek word, ἀφανίζω (aphanizo), and in both cases, the word means something several steps removed from its root meaning. The verb itself contains the prefix …