The Hard Sayings: Matthew 12:36

But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.

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.

Below is a modern Biblical translation of Matthew 12:36:

NIV:  But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.

The problematic words in boldface are discussed in this article.

As we detail in the analysis of this verse at Christswords.com, this short modern version has fifteen translation issues, including many of the words in the Greek being left out. There are half as many issues in the King James Version. The keywords confused here include “everyone,” "give," "account," "empty," "word," "spoken," and "judgment." Several of these words connect this verse to the topic of this section of Jesus’s teaching, which is the contrast between the valuable and the worthless. The English translations confuse this topic in earlier verses as well, but the problems are worse here because more connections are lost.

The two main phrases in this verse are reversed after its “I tell you that” beginning. In the Greek, the action, “speaking empty words” comes first, causing its consequences, “giving account.” This is the normal course of cause and effect. In the English translation, the consequences are expressed before their cause, reversing their logical order.

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These Men’s Logic

The “everyone” is the Greek phrase, "these men." It clearly refers specifically to the Pharisees who were challenging Jesus during this teaching. Jesus is not saying this about everyone, a mass condemnation. We all speak “empty words” at times. Jesus was saying this about the Pharisees, both historical and our modern versions. There is no verb phrase “have to” in the Greek indicating that this must happen. Nor does the verb translated as “give” here mean simply “give.” It is a compound word that means “give back,” often used in the financial sense of “repay. What is being given back? We cannot know this from this English translation.

What is given back is not an “account.” "Account" is the Greek usually translated as "word" in the Bible. See this article explaining its meaning in detail. This Greek word, logos, is the root of our word “logic.” It means "a computation," "a reckoning," and "value," so “account” is not far wrong in some contexts, but it confuses the meaning of the verse, making it sound like a punishment. I usually translate logos as “idea,” or “teaching,” but in either case, it clearly refers to “what is spoken.” This would be clearer if “spoken” came first, as it does in Greek. Through logos’s meaning of "value,” it provides a connection back to the theme of value and the lack of it in the larger teaching of this scene.

Judgment

The Greek word translated as "judgment" means distinguishing among choices and "separating" people and things. Jesus uses it in a variety of ways, though the Bible usually translates it as "judgment." It also means a "turning point." It is the source of our word “crisis.” What did the word “judgement” mean to his listeners? The people of his era associated judging with legal trials, but not the afterlife.

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