My Analysis

What follows is my own attempt to analyze and interpret the verse, using the same information you have been examining. You may find points of agreement—or disagreement. If you are not a Greek reader, please do not be overwhelmed or intimidated by my inclusion of the Greek words. Read through it, and you should be able to gather what you need from my explanations.

The Text

Here is how I translated the verse

After the translation, I explain the analysis and reasoning that led to these decisions.

Greek Text

12. ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἕως ἄρτι ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται, καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν.

English Translation

12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven forcefully advances, and yet violent men seize it.

Here is my diagram of the verse

Just a little background

By way of just a little background, let me explain what led me here. Maybe your path is similar to mine. I always took this verse–without much question–as an exhortation to spiritual warfare. I then started seeing others who had a completely different reading from me. Some saying that “the violent take it by force” was about bad people (the violent) taking or trying to take the kingdom. “Where did that come from?” I wondered.

What are the issues we must resolve?

As I dug in, I discovered there was some confusion over a few critical pieces of this verse. The first part of the verse “And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven” is non-controversial. What follows is where the puzzle begins.

1. What does the word βιάζεται (vee-ah’-z-eh-teh) mean?
2. What does ἁρπάζουσιν (arp-a’-z-oo-seen) mean?
3. What does βιασταὶ (vee-ahs-teh’) mean?
4. What does the pronoun αὐτήν (ahf-t-ay’-n) refer to?
5. When one figures that out, what does it all mean when put together?

Let’s dive in.

What does βιάζεται mean?

The dictionary form of this word gives the following meanings: “to inflict violence on, dominate, constrain,” “to gain an objective by force, use force,” or “go after someth. w. enthusiasm, seek fervently, try hard.” There are even a few more possibilities listed in the lexicon. See William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 175.

Settling on the meaning is tricky because the form of the word is ambiguous. It could be one of two different forms. Either it is a middle voice verb or a passive voice verb. In English we have but two voices: active and passive. Greek has three. Active, you may remember from grammar school, means that the subject is doing the acting: I hit the ball. Passive, is where the subject is receiving the action: The ball was hit by me. Greek also has a middle voice, where the subject participates in or benefits from the action. The definition is more nuanced, but this is sufficient for our purposes.

Middle and passive verbs are often spelled the same way, i.e., they have the same appearance. Frequently, we can determine the voice by the context. In some cases, whether the word is one voice or another makes almost no difference to the meaning of the sentence. The form of βιάζεται is ambiguous—either passive or middle—and the usual contextual clues are largely absent.

If you read the word as passive, then the kingdom of heaven is receiving violence, i.e., it “suffereth violence,” as the KJV renders it. If you read the word as a middle voice verb, then the kingdom of heaven is the actor, the kingdom is advancing forcefully. Just knowing that, can you see where I landed on what voice this verb is?

As you may have surmised, I read it as a middle voice. I did so for four primary reasons. First, the same form of the word is used in Luke 16:16. “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” (KJV.) The word rendered presseth is the Greek word βιάζεται. The other major translations are almost entirely uniform using some form of the word press.

The rendering ‘press’ reflects a middle-voice sense: the subject actively engages for its own participation. Every man (the subject) is doing the pressing for his own benefit. Thus, the only other time that βιάζεται is used in the New Testament, it is used in a middle voice.

Second, the context of the passage is Jesus dictating a report to be given to a discouraged and imprisoned John telling him about the advances the kingdom of God is making: e.g., the blind see; the lame walk. It talks about the advancements John the Baptist made. It talks about John not being a mere reed shaken by the wind.

Third, it does not fit the context for Jesus to characterize the kingdom’s arrival primarily in terms of defeat or vulnerability, rather than advance. After all, the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. Jesus describes at one point how he saw Satan fall like lightning.

Finally, if the βιάζεται is passive, who is causing violence to the kingdom of heaven? It does not seem like that is the kind of point Jesus is making in this context. This is not because a passive reading is impossible, but because it contributes little explanatory force in this context.

What does ἁρπάζουσιν mean?

I’m taking βιασταὶ and ἁρπάζουσιν out of order for a reason. In my initial analysis, I perceived this verse as call to arms. It appeared to me that the tricky area was less about βιάζεται and more about βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν. The action in the sentence looked like it was coming from ἁρπάζω. The present active indicative verb, which means to attack, snatch, steal, or seize something, was doing all the work. Jesus, it would seem was telling His followers to engage in the fight.

For me, that view changed after looking at βιασταὶ more carefully.

What does βιασταὶ mean?

βιασταὶ is a word that is used in the New Testament only in this verse. It’s a noun that means “violent” and in this specific form it means violent men or violent persons. The BDAG lexicon identified three usages of the word outside of the New Testament and “all three [were] in a pejorative sense.” BDAG, 176. These violent people are bad, that’s what the word means. With no evidence of positive meaning of the term, I could only conclude one thing. There is no way this word could have been referring to Jesus’ followers. That means what I thought was a “call to arms” could not be.

Where does this leave us? Keep reading.

What does the pronoun αὐτήν refer to?

It seems fairly clear that the pronoun is referring back to the kingdom of heaven. In Greek pronouns agree with their antecedent in gender and number. αὐτήν is a feminine, singular accusative. So is βασιλεία. There is no other noun that αὐτήν could refer to.

When one figures that out, what does it all mean when put together?

One of the things that many commentators who disagree with the “call to arms” viewpoint point out is that there are no imperative-tense words–commands–in the sentence. There is no commendation of the βιασταί (the violent). There is no explicit positive valuation of ἁρπάζειν.

The imperative problem did not present much of a challenge. The text creates imperative force without using imperative grammar. Jesus frequently speaks this way in Matthew—describing realities that summon response without issuing commands (e.g., ‘the harvest is plentiful,’ ‘the days are evil,’ ‘the narrow gate leads to life’).

Was I wrong about this verse and did it change my mind? Was I wrong about this being a call to action? The short answer is yes, I was wrong. Yes, my analysis changed my mind. But my conclusion stayed the same.

Consider the verse functioning as a two-part description:
(A) the kingdom’s forceful advance, and
(B) the violent reaction that advance provokes.

I originally understood the (b) part as the exhortation. Jesus was telling His followers, essentially to be violent and ready to take the kingdom. Based on the discussion above, it seems unlikely that βιαστής was referring to believers. So the (b) part is not the exhortation. The (A) part is. To put it simply, the kingdom advances through God’s work, while its advance provokes violent opposition.

Consider the broader context of this passage. John the Baptist’s ministry advances the kingdom. Jesus’ ministry does as well. This is what’s happening in the (A) part. Opposition escalates. The same advance that saves also provokes resistance. This is the (B) part. It is the (A) part–the kingdom forcefully advancing–that creates the implied exhortation.

Is there a call to arms? Are we to fight? Is there an urgency? Yes. The kingdom’s advance itself creates the crisis. The exhortation is situational, not verbal. Disciples are summoned by what God is doing, not by an imperative. The text remains descriptive, but not inert.

The initiative belongs to God (the kingdom advances). Human response—good or bad—happens because of that advance. The exhortative force arises from reality, not from command.

In short, this verse does not command physical violence, and it does not commend the violent. It describes a kingdom whose advance creates crisis, opposition, and urgency. The summons lies not in an imperative verb, but in the reality Jesus names.

Questions to Ponder

Here is one final check in before posing a few more questions for you to grapple with. Where do you stand on the verse now? Do you see it any differently than you did when you first started? If so, note how in your notes. If no, note why.

With that out of the way, here are some final questions.

• Even if you don’t know Greek, let’s say you have been asked to revise the English of this verse. You have two options for βιάζεται (suffer violence or forcefully advance), you have two options for βιασταὶ (violent men or zealous disciples), and you have small range of meanings for ἁρπάζουσιν (seize, take by force, etc.) You can also think about the word translated “and.” Is it coordinating two same thoughts or contrasting two contrary ideas? Using those options, do the following.
  • How would you revise your English translation, if at all?
    • If you would revise it, how would your translation read?
    • If you wouldn’t revise it, why not?
  • After studying this verse, do you think βιασταὶ could mean zealous disciples? Is that truly an available definition? If so, why?
• Thinking about the discourse in the neighboring verses, how does your “revised” translation align with the context?
• Which part of the verse now seems to you to carry the greatest interpretive weight—and why?

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