Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Set a man at variance against his father" means causing a minor disagreement or difference of opinion
"Variance" meant active conflict or division, far stronger than a mild disagreement.
Matthew 10:35, in every translation this tool compares.
Matthew 10:35 has Jesus warning, "I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law." The underlying Greek verb means to split or divide in two; this is about families being torn apart over faith, not a friendly difference of opinion at the dinner table.
Today "variance" is a mild, almost technical word (a zoning variance, "some variance in the data"), so a modern reader tends to underread the intensity of what Jesus is actually predicting: real relational rupture, not a minor spat.
