Sunday, January 16, 2022

Matthew 16:23

About a month ago, I watched the CUW chapel service from 3 September 2014:


The reading was Matthew 16:21-25, and while I was following along in my French translation, I noticed a small feature in verse 23:  "Mais Jésus, se retournant, dit à Pierre:  Arrière de moi, Satan!  tu m'es en scandale; car tes pensées ne sont pas les pensées de Dieu, mais celles des hommes."  In the ESV, this is rendered as:  "But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.'"

In the French translation, "you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων) is rendered as "tes pensées ne sont pas les pensées de Dieu, mais celles des hommes."  Literally, this is "your thoughts are not the thoughts of God but those of men," and this echoes Isaiah 55:8:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."