Tag Archives: Matthew 22:16

καὶ ἀποστέλλουσιν αὐτῷ τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτῶν μετὰ τῶν Ἡρῳδιανῶν λέγοντες· διδάσκαλε, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀληθὴς εἶ καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ διδάσκεις, καὶ οὐ μέλει σοι περὶ οὐδενός· οὐ γὰρ βλέπεις εἰς πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπου· (Matthew 22:16) Setting the Trap with Polished Greek

This verse opens the famous entrapment scene regarding taxes to Caesar. But before the trap is sprung, the Pharisees and Herodians present their false flattery—and it is crafted with exquisite Greek. The grammar is not casual; it is deliberate, loaded with theological irony and syntactic elegance.

We explore:

The nuance of οὐ μέλει σοι as a Greek idiom for detachment or impartiality The syntax of βλέπεις εἰς πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπου and its Semitic backdrop The participial structure λέγοντες and its discourse function The phrase τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ and prepositional theology Grammar in Disguise: “You Do Not Care about Anyone”

The phrase οὐ μέλει σοι περὶ οὐδενός contains the idiomatic use of the impersonal verb μέλει (“it is a care/concern to…”).… Learn Koine Greek