Passage

Matthew 16.26

Book: Matthew · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it."

"26. For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"

"27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds. 28. Verily I say unto you, there are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." (Matthew 16:24-28, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it."

"26. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?"

"27. For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds. 28. Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”" (Matthew 16:24-28, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

"26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

"27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. 28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." (Matthew 16:24-28, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"24. Then said Jesus to his disciples, 'If any one doth will to come after me, let him disown himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, 25. for whoever may will to save his life, shall lose it, and whoever may lose his life for my sake shall find it,"

"26. for what is a man profited if he may gain the whole world, but of his life suffer loss? or what shall a man give as an exchange for his life?"

"27. 'For, the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father, with his messengers, and then he will reward each, according to his work. 28. Verily I say to you, there are certain of those standing here who shall not taste of death till they may see the Son of Man coming in his reign.'" (Matthew 16:24-28, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus
Audience: the twelve disciples, immediately after Peter's confession and Jesus's first explicit Passion prediction (Mt 16:13-23)
Location: the region of Caesarea Philippi (cf. Mt 16:13)
Time period: roughly six months before the crucifixion, c. AD 29-30

Theological reading

Matthew 16:26 closes the cross-bearing summons of vv. 24-25 with a two-fold rhetorical question that exposes the structural failure of any trade of the soul for created goods. The first question, "what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?", names the zero-net (in fact, infinitely-negative) calculus of the world-for-soul exchange. The second, "what shall a man give in exchange (antallagma) for his life?", names the impossibility of any counter-good adequate to redeem a soul once forfeited. The Greek psychē in both questions does double duty: "life" in the ordinary sense and "soul" in the eschatological-anthropological sense; the verse trades on the slippage. The pericope's pastoral function is evangelistic: to drive the hearer to recognize that no creaturely antallagma is available and that the only effective ransom is the one Christ Himself provides (Mark 10.45; 1 Timothy 2.6). The verse is also one of the load-bearing texts for Reformed atonement-theology: the soul's incommensurability with creaturely goods sets up the necessity of a counter-good of infinite value, which Anselm formalizes in Cur Deus Homo and which penal-substitution preaching deploys evangelistically.

Key words

G0487 - antallagma, antallagma (exchange, ransom-price), the load-bearing noun; one of only two NT occurrences (parallel at Mark 8.37)
G5590 - psychē (pending), psychē (soul, life), the doubled referent; both temporal life and eschatological soul

Quoted in

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.