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He said to THEM, "... to THEM it has not been given"

tonychanyt

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New King James Version, Mt 13:

11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given."
The English "them" is a personal pronoun in the third person plural. The two "them" refer to two different groups of people.

Let's see the context: ESV, Mt 13:

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow."
"them" refers to the crowds.

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them,
ie, the disciples

G846 αὐτοῖς›, personal pronoun, dative masculine, 3rd person plural

“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Now, the same English spelling "them" refers to the crowds. In Greek, the two "them" belonged to two different lexemes (lexical concepts).

G1565 ἐκείνοις, demonstrative pronoun, dative masculine plural

My paraphrase:

but to those (crowds) it has not been given.
I like NIV in this case:

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
NIV simply didn't translate the first "them" to avoid the possible confusing pronoun reference. Sometimes word-for-word translation (ESV) is not as good as thought-for-thought (NIV).