complete verse (Matthew 7:19)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 7:19:

  • Uma: “A tree that does not bear well is definitely chopped down and burned up. So also God will certainly punish those false/lying prophets. We (incl.) know that they are lying/liars if we look at the fruit of their work.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “All trees that do not bear good fruit are chopped down and thrown in the fire and burned.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The tree whose fruit is bad is chopped down and burned.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “All trees with bad fruit will be cut-down at their (lit. its) base to then be-burned-as-firewood.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, each tree plant which is sick, whose fruit is not good, it will just be felled, for it will just be thrown on the fire.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “And all the trees which do not produce good fruit will be cut down and burned.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 7:13-20)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 7:13-20:

The road to the not-so-narrow gate leads to destruction,
       but it’s wide, and many follow that road.

The road to the narrow gate leads to life,
but it’s hard to follow, and is found by only a few.
       Struggle to enter this gate, no matter what!

Translation commentary on Matthew 7:19

A parallel to this verse is found also in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt 3.10; Luke 3.9), though it is not found in the Lukan parallel to the present passage (Luke 6.43-45). It is a simple statement of what a farmer does to a tree that does not produce fruit over a period of time: “Any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and burned” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Moffatt, in fact, places verse 20 before verse 19, both to preserve the thought sequence and to make proper connection with the following paragraph: “ So you will know them by their fruit. Any tree that does not produce sound fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

This sentence, verse 19, is a passive construction. Many languages naturally use an active construction, which means that an agent must be supplied. Quite often this is something like “the farmer.” Further, keeping in mind what is said under verse 17 about the trees being part of a plantation or an orchard, the verse can well be rendered “The farmer (or, A man) will cut down and burn in a fire any tree on his farm that does not bear good fruit.”

Also see 3.10 for similar expressions.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .