Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
John 10:29
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all. The manuscripts disagree about what is greater.
John 10:29, in every translation this tool compares.
What my father gave me is greater than anything. My father, who gave it to me, is greater than anyone. One word of difference, two sentences.
Because the variants make the subject either the Father or the gift, and the two readings say different things about what cannot be taken away.
The King James and NIV read my Father is greater than all. The NRSV and NET read what my Father has given me is greater than all.
Textual, not lexical
The variants concern the gender and number of the relative pronoun and the adjective. One family gives the Father as the subject of is greater; another gives the flock. Both are well attested and the editors divide.
Not a translation problem. The versions differ because the Greek texts do.
When versions differ about who the subject of a sentence is, look for a pronoun variant rather than a translation choice.
My Father is greater than all is the majority rendering in English versions.
- The variant readings of the relative pronoun and adjective
- Metzger, Textual Commentary, at John 10:29
- The editorial split among the critical editions
