"the violent take it by force"

Matthew 11:12 is grievously misread. People are told it means Jesus taught that a Christian should aggressively approach God for what they want.

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." (KJV)

"From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,* and the violent take it by force." (NRSV *Or "has been coming violently")

Here is a clearer translation from Ancient Greek.

ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἕως ἄρτι

"Yet from the days of John the Baptist until now,

ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται,

the Kingdom of the Heavens is constrained,

καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν. (SBLGNT)

and constrainers plunder it." (Christ Family Bible)

Evidence in favour of the proposed solution:

1. The proposed senses of the key verbs biázō (βιάζω) and harpázō (ἁρπάζω) are found in the generally speaking, theologically neutral LSJ dictionary, here and here, respectively.

2. The context clarifies the correct disambiguation among the multiple senses of biázetai and harpázō:

a) The text is about John the Baptist.

b) John the Baptist has been imprisoned at the time of Jesus’s speech (Matt. 11:2).

c) Jesus concludes this part of the speech, and the entire speech, by stating that John the Baptist is Elijah, a prophet who was also violently persecuted.

d) Jesus’s speech has as a primary theme the validation of the self-claims of John the Baptist as a prophet and even the messenger of the Kingdom of God. Possibly the relative silencing of John, through imprisonment, may have thrown into question John’s unique divine role. Indeed, the imprisoning of a messenger announcing that the Kingdom of God has approached, may have thrown into question the truth of that claim on the logic that the Kingdom of God must be physically more forceful than its enemies.