The Hard Sayings: Matthew 10:34

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

This article is part of a series explaining the sayings of Jesus that are hard to understand. To see a list of these verses, go to this page.

Matthew 10:34 was spoken toward the end of the second large grouping of Jesus’s lessons in Matthew, the section called the Sending of the Apostles. Some of us find this verse difficult because we expect Jesus to promote only peace. What is really surprising in this verse is that Jesus may not be talking about himself at all.

Below is a modern Biblical translation of Jesus’s Greek words:

NIV: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

The words in boldface are discussed in this article.

This verse surprises us not only because it seems so contradictory to Jesus’s overall message, but it is also inconsistent with this section’s prior context. In translating it this way, the first English translators of the King James Bible were following the Latin Vulgate. Martin Luther, in his German Bible, followed the Latin as well. The Vulgate version had sixteen hundred years of justification behind it. The Biblical translators saw the Latin as established Scripture. And, as we will see, the context that they focused upon did not come before this verse but after it.

What Listeners Thought

Jesus starts this verse by saying it isn’t about what Jesus taught but what his followers might have thought. The word translated as “suppose,” and “think” in other major translations, means "to use by custom," and "to get accustomed to." It is the verb form of the Greek word translated as "norms," or "customary behavior."  The verb is not a command but a statement either in the future tense or in the form of a possibility. So, Jesus starts by telling his followers, "You might not get accustomed to" or "you will not get accustomed to." In reality, however, his followers did get accustomed to the idea of Jesus bringing peace.

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This was relatively early in Jesus’s ministry, but did his followers then expect him to bring peace? The expected Messiah was supposed to be a military leader like David who would win Israel’s freedom. The Messiah was not expected to bring peace. But didn’t Jesus teach peace? Not at this point in his ministry as it is recorded in Matthew. This is his first use of the word translated as “peace” in the Gospels. Jesus talked about “peacekeepers” earlier, but “peacekeepers” are those who make peace in interpersonal confrontations. The entire Sermon on the Mount focused on smoothing out relationships as an alternative to bringing disputes to court. We think of Jesus as bringing “peace” today, but it is unlikely that his followers thought this at the time. In the TV series, The Chosen, some of his followers were Zealots, expecting revolution until the death.

Nor did “peace” mean the spiritual harmony in Jesus’s day as much it does now. The concept of “peace” then was largely limited to an absence of war. Who claimed to bring peace in Jesus’s time? The Romans. Caesar Augustus began the period we know as Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. Pax Romana was literally peace by the sword. It was Rome’s sales pitch for the value of worldwide Roman domination. The Pharisees and Herod Antipas got much of their power by satisfying the Romans on their ability to keep the peace among Judeans.

The Double Meaning

The key phrases are “come to bring peace” and “did not come to bring peace.” This "come" in Greek can be legitimately translated in two ways: as "I  come," the biblical translation, or as "they come," an alternative version referring to Jesus’s enemies. With this verb, the verb endings for the first-person singular, “I come,” and third-person plural, “they come,” are the same.

The "they come" version better fits into the larger context. Jesus starts this lecture by saying "beware of men." Jesus’s entire message has been warnings about persecution. Into this context, the warning of “they don’t bring peace but the sword” fits very well.

There are also light-hearted aspects to the verse, which are hidden in translation. The verb translated as "bring" means "to cast" or "to toss," and even “to juggle.” Jesus used this verb frequently in humorous verses. The image of "tossing peace over the earth" is light-hearted, which is why the Biblical translators avoided it. This action of "tossing" also applies to the sword. The “sword” is a small sword, a machete, one that could be used for tossing and juggling. This idea of “tossing” peace and the sword might mock the Romans for claiming they brought peace with the sword.

This is not to argue that “do not think I have come to bring peace” is wrong when compared with “do not think they have come to bring peace.” As always, Jesus chose his words to create two different meanings. He was playing with his audience and their expectations. They expected a Messiah of war, so he appears to give it to them.

What did they hear first because it fit their expectations?

Listeners Heard: You all might not get accustomed to the idea that they come to toss peace over this earth. They come not to toss peace but a sword.

The verse following this one, Matthew 10:35, explains more about this idea by talking about divisions within families, but that verse uses the same form of “come,” which means either “I come” or “they come.” At the time, more families were divided by the Romans and the Zealots disagreeing about Judea’s future than they were by Jesus.

But three verses after this, Jesus says anyone not preferring him over their immediate family isn’t worthy of him. This reverses the context, making it seem as though he was talking about himself during this series of verses, but his listeners could not have known that when they first heard this. However, this informed the later translators of this verse, both into Latin and later into English. So, they chose to make this verse conform with the latter context, not the earlier one. It stands as something as a bridge between the two.

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