New International Version Luke 16:
βιάζεται (biazetai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 971: From bios; to force, i.e. to crowd oneself, or to be seized.
For this usage, the subject/actor is a person. The person is forcing himself (middle voice) into the kingdom of God.
There is a parallel account in Matthew 11:
βιάζεται (biazetai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
The spelling is identical to the one in Luke. But now, the subject is the kingdom of heaven. The voice usage is either middle or passive. The actors are the people.
Ellicott's explained:
Barnes explained:
is forcing his way16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way [G971] into it.
βιάζεται (biazetai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 971: From bios; to force, i.e. to crowd oneself, or to be seized.
For this usage, the subject/actor is a person. The person is forcing himself (middle voice) into the kingdom of God.
There is a parallel account in Matthew 11:
has been subject to violence,12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence [force G971], and violent people have been raiding it.
βιάζεται (biazetai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
The spelling is identical to the one in Luke. But now, the subject is the kingdom of heaven. The voice usage is either middle or passive. The actors are the people.
Ellicott's explained:
Pulpit concurred with the voice usage:The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.—The Greek verb may be either in the middle voice, “forces its way violently,” or passive, … but there is little doubt that the latter is the right rendering. The words describe the eager rush of the crowds of Galilee and Judæa, first to the preaching of the Baptist, and then to that of Jesus. It was, as it were, a city attacked on all sides by those who were eager to take possession of it.
Both passages are talking about people raiding/forcing their way into the kingdom of God. They are descriptions of unruly crowd behaviors.In Luke it is middle, "Every man entereth violently into it;" and though it is certainly passive here.
Barnes explained:
There is no allusion here to the manner in which individual sinners seek salvation, but it is a simple record of the fact that multitudes had thronged around him and John to hear the gospel.