Deceptive Quoting
Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who would destroy (kataluo) the temple and build it (oikodomeo) in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." (Matthew 27:39-40 NRSV) As I was thinking about this verse some time ago my curiosity was aroused to investigate the original words to see if there might be a discrepancy between what Jesus was quoted as saying by His enemies and what He actually had said originally. It should come as little surprise that these men did in fact misquote Jesus and twisted His words to insinuate something He had never said. I have included the Greek words used for the English translation to reveal how these religious people tried to imply that Jesus had threatened their sacred icon, their holy temple rather than His referring to something totally different. Their prejudice was so strong because of their devotion to a building that they had elevated its honor above an...