Mat 12:44 Then he says, I will return to my house from where I came; and when he arrives, he finds [it] empty, swept, and garnished.

An alternative version based on the original Greek: Then he realizes, I will return to my family from where I came; and when he arrives, he finds leisure, cleanliness, and order.

Think of this as the story of the prodigal son. The context here is the "unclean spirit," which is at once a demon that has been cast out, the bad things that come out of people, and the lack of faith that demands a outward sign. The unclean spirit goes out, finds nothing, and then returns. This bad stuff comes out of people, looking for something rewarding, but it doesn't find anything. So, then what? The bad stuff boomerangs. It returns to its source, which is like a home or family. The reception by this source was better than its receptionin in the outside world.

As an aside, people debate whether demons really exist. Having dealt for a long-time with people who have addictions (I work with a group of halfway houses), I came to think that it was more productive to think about fighting alchoholism and drug addiction as battles against demons who had control over part of your brain. I know a lot of religious people get excited if you deny"the supernatural" but to me everything is natural because it is created by God. What we call "supernatural" is just stuff that we don't understand, which is pretty much of everything. Could it include entire classes of beings that we don't understand? Sure, it could include entire levels of reality we don't understand.

"Says" is from legô, which means "to pick up," "to choose for one's self," "to count," "to say," "to speak," "to recite," and a lot more things but you get the idea.

"House" is from oikia, which means "building," "house," "family," and "household."

"Return" is epistrephô , which means "to turn around," "turn about," "to turn towards home," "to return," and "to turn ones mind towards."

"Empty" is scholazô, which means "to loiter," "to be at leisure," and "to be unoccupied."

"Swept" is saroô, which means "to sweep," "to clean" or "swept."

"Garnished" is kosmeô, which means "arrange," "order," "prepare," "adorn," and "equip."

Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.

This is the type of verse this blog was created to analyze because it is deep and the translation is misleading. First, a little connective context. This lesson started with a discussion of casting out demons and now appears to return that topic. However, the "unclean spirit" (akathartos pneuma) here is not exactly the devils (daimonion) discussed earlier. Is this a return to the discussion of "devils" or is it really a continuation of a discussion of the weaknesses of those who are accusing him? What is Christ saying?

Alternative translation: When an impure spirit comes out of a man, it goes through worthless positions, seeking a place to stop but gains nothing.

This verse joins at least three previous ideas: the casting out devils; worthless trees producing worthless fruit, and people looking for a sign into a single idea. The unclean spirit is AT ONCE the devils that Christ's casts out, the worthless words of those who are attacking him, and the hopeless of those looking for God to provide absolute proof as the basis of their faith. For Christ the three things are the same form of "sullied spirit." When we express that spirit, we seek to justify ourselve, looking for a solid position, but our efforts amount to nothing. Our negativity find nothing valuable in the world.

"Unclean" is akathartos, which means "foul," "uncleansed," and "morally unclean." It was the term used to refer to a woman's menses.

"Spirit" is pneuma, which means "blast," "wind," "breath," "the breath of life," and "divine inspiration."

"Gone out" is exerchomai, which means "to go out," "to stand forth," and "to come to an end." Despite being translated here as"gone," it is not at all the same term used for "caste out" earlier (ekballo). It comes from the base, erchomai, which means "to set out," "to come," and "to go." It means both "to go" on a journey and "to arrive" at a place and the term ex (ek before a consonant), which means "out of."

"Of a man" is apo (from) anthrôpos, which means both "a man" and in the plural (anthropon) "mankind." It is both the term for individuals and a generic term.

"Walks" is from dierchomai,which means "to go through" and "to pass through." It is the same base word as exerchomai above but with the prefix dia, which means "through," "throughout," and "in the midst of" and is used to describe passage through both time and space.

"Dry places" is anudros (waterless, unwatered) topos, which means "place," "position," and "topic." This could be thought of as a "dry topic" or "worthless position."

"Seeking" is zêteô, which mean "to seek after," "to search after," and "to feel the want of."

"Rest" is anapausis, which means "cessation of motion," "rest," and "relaxation."

"Finds" is heuriskô , which means "to find," "to discover," and "to gain."

Mat 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon [is] here.

Whoa, where did this queen of the south stuff come from? I thought the topic was Jonah? The story of the queen of the south, that is, the queen of Sheba, comes from 1 Kings:10. Again, remember, Christ was asked for "a sign," but he said he wasn't going to give any sign but the sign of Jonah. The queen of Sheba came to Solomon looking for a sign too. She wanted to know if everything she had heard about his wealth and his wisdom was true. She saw with her own eyes what how successful he was and she gave him more wealth because she was impressed by his success. As Christ said earlier in this discourse, "You shall know a tree by its fruit." Here, he is asking those who need a sign to believe in him because of what he had accomplished.

This is better a message for us than the people of his own time. During his own time, he healed this sick and caste out devils, but since his death, Christ has reshaped the world by his teaching. As he told those around, with his coming the Kingdom of God had arrived. This was a matter of hope in his time, but in our time, we can see what he has accomplished.

Most of the Greek is the same as the last verse, but for a few new ideas.

"Uttermost parts" is from the Greek, peras, which means "end," "limit," and "boundary." It also means "perfection" of a thing. It conveys the idea that the end proves the means, not that the end justifies the means.

"Wisdom" is from sophia, which means "cleverness," "skill," and "learning." This was seen as an attribute of God and a gift from God to men. Sophia was the Greek goddess of learning and in Christianity is used as a symbol for Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mat 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [is] here.

A better translation: The real men of Nineveh are raised up in comparison with this age to condemn it since those people reformed their ways after Jonah's proclamation and a greater herald is present here.

Jonah actually didn't preach to Nineveh. He announced that God would destroy them if they didn't reform. Jonah was personally dissappointed that Nineveh, Israel's enemy, listened to his warnings and changed their ways. Jonah was the herald, predicting God's wrath. Jonah was a flawed herald in the sense that he didn't want God to spare Nineveh even if they did reform. Jonah wanted God to judge people by who they were (enemies of Israel) rather than what they did (change their ways).

The normal translation makes Christ's statement seem metaphorical or maybe a prediction about the Last Judgment, but reading the Greek in context, Christ seems to be referring to his own previous two statements comparing Nineveh to the current generation. The key is an easy but incorrect translation of "raise up" as "rise up." Christ is raising the example of Nineveh. Nineveh isn't actually rising up. It is Christ's raising of the example of Nineveh that distinguishes them from the current generation.

"Men" is anêr, which in Greek indicates that manliness of "men," both for good and bad. It emphasizes the adultness of a man when compared to a youth or the mortality of a man when compared to the divinity of God. It is also used to mean "husband."

"Shall rise up" is from anistêmi, which means "to make to stand up," "to raise from the dead," "to rouse to action," and "to make people rise up." In the form used, it indicates causing these actions, "to raise from the dead" not "to rise from the dead (anistamai).'

"Judgment" is krisis, which means "separating," "distinguishing," and "judgment."

""Condem" is katakrinô, which means "to give a sentence against," and "to condemn."

"Repented" is metanoeô, which means "to perceive too late," "to change one's mind," and "to repent."

"Preaching" is kêrugma, which means "proclamation," "announcement," and "that which is proclaimed by a herald.

"Here" is hode, the demonstrative pronoun which means "this" in the sense of "what is present" and "what can be seen." With verbs of action and with a person (its use here), it means "here" as in "here I am" in the sense of "I am present."

"Greater" is pleiôn, which means "more," "greater than," and "further than."

Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

I always found the mention of the story of Jonah here a little jarring. It didn't seem to fit the demand for a sign from God. However, I went back and read the book of Jonah are realized that it ties directly to the entire theme of what Christ says in the second half of Matthew 12. Once again, I am shocked by well all these verses about apparently different topics tie together when view from the right perspective, either because they record the actual flow of Christ's discourse or from the work and inspiration of Matthew in puting together the verses in his Gospel.

This last half of the chapter is about helping rid people of the problems that they carry within them. It starts with Christ defending himself for casting out demons and ends with a story about the demons returning to their hosts when nothing takes their place. In between, Christ makes the point that those who are productive have something worthwhile within them while those who scatter and produce what is worthless have something wrong within them. The idea is theat valuable ideas produce more valuable ideas while useless ideas produce nothing but more waste. Useless idea prevent valuable idea from taking root, but the absence of valuable ideas invites the entertaining of worthless ideas.

How does this relate to Jonah? The story of Jonah starts with Jonah refusing to save Nineveh by going to preach to repentance to them because Nineveh was an enemy of Israel. The importance of Israel was the useless idea within Jonah that prevented the Jonah from doing something productive. Because he carried this worthless idea within him, he almost destroys the innocent people and their ship as he tried to escape God in (talk about a worthless idea).

How does he survive? He surrenders himself to death. It is interesting (to me, anyway) that when Jonah is surrounded by men, his useless thinking is a danger to him because the society of people can attempt to protect him. Only when confronted with nature (as we all are eventually in facing our own mortality) can Jonah let go of his useless thinking. This is very consistent with what Christ says all through the Gospels about society allowing and promoting useless thinking while nature forces us to recognize what is true and worthwhile.

When Jonah is resurrected from his watery grave, he preaches to Nineveh and as a society, they reform themselves. The valuable in Jonah comes out and creates value in the world. However, Jonah still has the emptiness within him so he is unhappy that God saves Nineveh from destruction. In other words, his demons came back to him. While Jonah sulks in the desert heat, God sends a vine to give him shade and then takes it away. Jonah is angry about God taking away the vine like he is angry with God for saving Nineveh until God explains that, like everything else in his life, the vine was a gift that he did nothing, that it did not come from his own productivity but from God's so he had nothing to be angry about.

What is the sign of Jonah? Certainly Christ's death and resurrection, but in the end all the free gifts that we get throughout our lives, starting with each breath we take, that we do nothing to produce for ourselves.

There is also a subtle but important lesson in the Greek contrasting the story of Jonah with the resurrection of Christ, but it involves understanding the Greek concepts of "belly," "chest," and "head." The contrast is between Jonah's "belly of the huge fish" and Christ's "heart of the earth" that Christ goes into

"Belly" is from the Greek, koilia, which means the "cavity within the body" (from the Greek, koilos, for "hollow"). It means both the belly, the intestines, and the womb. The word is also used to mean "excrement," which fills the hollow. "Heart" is from the Greek kardia, which means the physical heart. It is a metaphor for "deep" and in "the heart of the ocean."

Both terms are used to indicate feeling, desires, and inclinations but with an important difference. The Greeks considered the belly the source of our animal impulses and desires: food, sex, and other forms of immediate gratification. However, they considered the heart or chest (more precisely, thumos) the center of higher desires and feelings: courage, righteous anger, patriotism, true affection, and wisdom. The mind, as the third part of this particular physical trinity, was reasoning without feeling, cold, calculating but without values. Values come from the belly or the heart. There is also a bit of ancient sexism here in that women in general were considered to be driven more by the belly and men more by the chest. However, the meaning becomes clearer in English if we talk about people who are driven by their belly or driven by their heart. The only difference is that in English "the heart" is softer, more sensitive, (a valentine) and more feminine than in Greek. In Greek, thumos was the source of strength and endurance not softness.

Here, Christ is highlighting his similarity to Jonah and also his differences. Both would die and be reborn, but Jonah was driven by belly, his lower impulses of self-preservation and comfort and was buried in a belly. Christ was driven by the heart and was buried in a the heart.

(Also, to deal with old myths that are not all that important, "whale" is a common mistranslation of the Greek, kêtos, which means "sea monster" or "huge fish." Is this important? Not very except that Christ uses fish all the time in his miracles and whales, not so much. )

Mat 12:39 An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there no sign shall be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

While it sounds like Christ is clearly condemning the people of his age, our basic assumption is that all of his words are addressed to all people of all time. In the original Greek, his characterization of those around him can be read more sympathically.

The burdened offspring of adultery wish for proof, but no proof will be given to them but the proof of the prophet Jonah.

"Evil" is ponêros, which primarily means "oppressed by toils."

"Adulterous" is moichalis, which is a noun meaning "adulteress." This word is not really used in classical Greek.

"Generation" is genea, which means "race," "family," "offspring," and "age."

"Seeks after" is epizêteô which means "to seek after," "to wish for," and "to demand."

"Sign" is sêmeion, which means a "mark," "sign," or "proof." The word in Greek is used specifically to means a sign from the gods and it that sense, it means "omen," "portent," and "constellations."

Mat 12:37 For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.

Based on the following linguistic research, an alternative translation would be: By your logic you will have right done to you and by your logic you will be judged.

In the original Greek, the idea is not so much being "justified" or condemned," but being judged by the standard you set for others. In the normal English translation, the emphasis seems to be on the "words" used because the previous verse talks about "idle words," but a different term for "words" was used in that reference. In the Greek the subtle play on words is a warning to those attacking Christ to be careful of the way that they are judging him.

"Words" is the Greek logos, which means "word," "computation," "reckoning," and "value." It is also "an explanation," "an argument," or "a rule or principle of law."

"Shall be justified" is dikaioô, which means "to set right," "to claim or hold as a right," and "to do a man justice." In the passive form (used here), it means "to have right done to one."

"Shall be condemned" is katadikazô, which means "to give judgment," "to condemn," and "to have a judgement go against one." In the passive form (used here), it means "to be bound by law."

Mat 12:36 But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account for on the day of judgment.

Another good play on words in the Greek is lost in English translation.

"Idle" is argos, which means "not working the ground," "lazy," and "idle" when applied to people, but when applied to things (like words) "lying idle," "yeilding no return," and "fruitless." Again, this word is very consistent with Christ's message about "good" being "useful" and 'bad" being "useless.

"Word" is not the Greek term (logos) usually translated as "word.' Instead, it is rhêma, which means "that which is spoken," but more in the sense of a "saying," or "phrase."

"Give" is from apodidômi, which means "to give back," "to restore," and "to deliver." It has the economic sense of "to sell" or "to give something for one's own profit."

"Account" is actually the normal term for "word," logos. Logos is usually translated in the Gospels as "word," but in Greek it has a wide variety of meanings. It means "a computation," "a reckoning," and "value." It is also "an explanation," "an argument," or "a rule or principle of law." While rhema can be thought of as just words, logos means reasoning as much as speaking.

"The day of judgment" is hemera (day) krisis (trial, selection, separating).

So Christ is saying: Every form of lazy, profitless chatter will have to be logically justified in the future.

Mat 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.

Most of the vocabulary in this verse comes from the previous verse. Again, the contrast is not between "good" (agathos) and "evil," (poneros) , which are poor translation, but between the worthless and the useful, the cowardly and the brave, useless and the beneficial. And again, "the heart," (kardia) is the seat of feelings that motivate action.

"Treasure" is thêsauros, which means a "storage area" and "treasury." Also meaning a "strong room," "a granary," "a safe," or "a cavern." It is not the valuables themselves, but the place where they are kept, and the basis for our word, "thesaurus."

"Brings forth" is ekballô, which means "cast out," "throw away," "lose," and "produce." Earlier in this chapter, this was the word used to describe "casting out" devils, so Christ (as is so often lost in translation) making a play on words. He is still in the process of defending himself against the charge of "casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub," but here he uses the term in its much less common meaning of "to produce." For example, this word is applied to women to describe giving birth to children (another form of "casting out" devils?)

My alternative translation: A useful man produces useful things from his storage of productive feelings. A worthless man produces useless things from his storage of worthless feelings.

Inherent in this statement is the idea that, by being productive and creating value, we also create a feeling of being valuable. Our sense of being valuable leads us to create more value in a virtuous cycle. People that are worthless get caught on the other side of this cycle. Their sense of worthlessness makes them into cynics and critics and prevents them from producing anything valuable.

Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

This is another verse that gets a little twisted in translation because of how the word poneros, translated here as "evil," comes across in English.

"Generation" is gennêma, which means "that which born or produced." It means "offspring," "fruits of the earth," any "product" or "work." It also means breeding and producing.

"Vipers" is echidna, which means "viper" and is a metaphor for a treacherous wife or friend.

"Generation of vipers" would probably be better translated as "offspring" or "the work" of "vipers" or "the treacherous."

"Evil" is ponêros, which means "oppressed by toils," "worthless," "cowardly," and "useless."

"Good things" is agathos, which means "good," "serviceable," "brave," and "benefit."

The contrast here is between the worthless and the useful, the cowardly and the brave, useless and the beneficial. Agathos has a moral sense of good, but poneros lacks such a meaning except in how it gets translated in the New Testament. Poneros has more the sense of a beaten down, base, cowardly person, not a malicious one.

"Abundance" is perisseuma, which means "superfluidity," "that which remains over," and "abundance." It is from the root, perissos , which means "exceeding some measure or rank."

"Heart" is kardia, which is the physical heart and, in Greek, the seat of feelings, especially feelings that motivate action. Kardia therefore means "inclination," "purpose," and even "mind" as well as "desire."

"Mouth" is stoma, which means "mouth" and "the foremost part" of something. For example, the blade of a weapon is a stoma.

"Speak" is laleô, which means "to talk" and "to speak," but in a light way, as in "to chat," "to prattle," and "to chatter."

A little different but perhaps a closer translation to what Christ was saying:
Ih, the products of treachery, how can you--being useless--say anything productive? For out of the excess of your feelings, your mouth chatters.

Maybe I am defective, but when I study Christ's words, the religious content about the moral good and evil seems much more interesting (and accurately) translated as practical advice about what is useful and what is foolish. To me, Christ is addressing a society of moralizing hypocrites who have lost touch with practical goodness. As I translate his words, they seem most emotional when he goes after people who preach about what is "right" and "wrong" in the sense of "these are the religious rules." His focus is much more on what is "right" and "wrong" in terms of making people's lives better and devel0ping a personal relationship with God.