Passage

Matthew 12.34

Book: Matthew · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"32. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come. 33. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit."

"34. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

"35. The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36. And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matthew 12:32-36, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"32. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come. 33. “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit."

"34. You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

"35. The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things. 36. I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment." (Matthew 12:32-36, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. 33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit."

"34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

"35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matthew 12:32-36, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"32. And whoever may speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven to him, but whoever may speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is coming. 33. 'Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad, for from the fruit is the tree known."

"34. 'Brood of vipers! how are ye able to speak good things, being evil? for out of the abundance of the heart doth the mouth speak."

"35. The good man out of the good treasure of the heart doth put forth the good things, and the evil man out of the evil treasure doth put forth evil things. 36. 'And I say to you, that every idle word that men may speak, they shall give for it a reckoning in a day of judgment;" (Matthew 12:32-36, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD

Quoted in

New Age Spiritualism

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.