In the sermonette for b4G, I wrote that:
[Jesus] certainly was not guilty of treason (the main reason He was up there in the eyes of the Romans) because He had not said that He was the King of the Jews — others had.
Amongst the feedback I received was this comment from Ian:
I liked your article about the Cross on b4G, but there’s one factual error: Jesus did say He was the King of the Jews in Matthew 27:11.
OK.. this was a surprise. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t make a mistake. I mean… I was the Hermione Granger of my seminary classes — I *tutored* people in Greek and Hebrew while taking the beginning classes and I also know the Word really well. But… I’m a broken and fallible human and mistakes are always possible. So… I decided to check Matthew 27:11 in all the Bibles I had available to me (that I could read). I marked the passages “Affirmative”, “Vague”, and “Vague towards Affirmative”. Here are the results (click on the more… link to see everything):
New International Version: “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. (Affirmative)
New American Standard Bible: Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” (Vague towards Affirmative)
The Message: Jesus said, “If you say so.” (Vague)
Amplified Version: Jesus said to him, You have stated [the fact]. (Vague)
New Living Translation: Jesus replied, “Yes, it is as you say.” (Affirmative)
King James Version: And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. (Vague)
English Standard Version: Jesus said, “You have said so.” (Vague)
Contemporary English Version: “Those are your words!” Jesus answered. (Vague)
New King James Version: Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” (Vague towards Affirmative)
21st Century King James Version: And Jesus said unto him, “Thou sayest.” (Vague)
American Standard Version: And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. (Vague)
Worldwide English: Jesus said, ‘Yes, I am.’ (Affirmative)
Young’s Literal Translation: And Jesus said to him, ‘Thou sayest.’ (Vague)
Darby Translation: And Jesus said to him, Thou sayest. (Vague)
New Revised Standard Version: Jesus said, “You say so.” (Vague)
Revised Standard Version: Jesus said, “You have said so.” (Vague)
Latin Vulgate: … dicit ei Iesus tu dicis (Vague)
French Darby: Et Jésus lui dit: Tu le dis. (Vague)
La Bible de Jérusalem: Jésus répliqua : “Tu le dis.” (Vague)
French Segound: Jésus lui répondit: Tu le dis.
(Props to The Bible Gateway, Crosswalk.Com Bible Study Tools, and The Unbound Bible for the translations.)
The consensus: Jesus gave Pilate a really vague answer. In most of the older translations (and the non-English ones), it comes to something like “You say that I am.”
Why This Is Such A Big Flipping Deal
This was my reasoning to Ian for the vague answer:
Basically, the theological point is this: if Jesus had said, “yeah… I’m the king”, He would have been rightfully guilty of treason. The point is: He wasn’t. When Pilate asked, He said “You say I am” which is a really vague answer because Pilate has just said those words in the form of a question, so technically he had said that Jesus was the king of the Jews. Jesus answered along the lines of “if you say so” which fits the Isaiah 53 prophecy that He did not say a word in his defense.
The reason I’m getting all fluffy about this is that the mistranslated passages (NIV, NASB, NLT, WE, and NKJV) are the ones that many conservative and evangelical Christians use. This mistake is a bit on the big side because if Jesus had answered affirmatively, He would have been guilty of treason… and He wasn’t. This could easily have salvific consequences for someone because of a mistake in translating 3 words.
I think the lesson here is that no translation is infallible and we need to not be just reading the BIV or KJV but rather looking at different versions. Every translation has a specific bias and that limits it somewhat. I didn’t post the Greek NA 26/27 here because I can’t do Greek characters on here and I wasn’t in the mood to transliterate them; but if I have any questions, I always refer back to that text. The KJV is really no more accurate than the NIV or the RSV.
(Thanks to Ian for graciously allowing me to make an example of him.)