Have you ever wandered into a bookstore and wondered which bible was the best one to buy? I can’t advise on a certain translation, but there are some definite guidelines. Read on to see what verses and phrases are being left out of our most popular translations!
Open your bible to John 5:4 and see how much of the story that appears below is included in your bible. Many bibles don’t include all these verses and actually just skip the verse numbers altogether. If you check several bible versions you will be amazed.
John 5
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of invalid folk — blind, halt, withered — waiting for the moving of the water.
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first stepped in, after the troubling of the water, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5 And a certain man was there who had an infirmity for thirty and eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been in that state a long time, He said unto him, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
7 The infirm man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.”
8 Jesus said unto him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
Now here is the same story; different bible:
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed.
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Okay, do you see a discrepancy here? Does it matter?
Look these verses up to see if these words have been left out of your bible.
- “but by every word of God” from Luke 4:4.
- “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11)
- “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37)
- “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (I John 5:7)
These are just a few, there are MANY more. Why?
Would you be surprised to know that there was no book called “James”? No one is sure why the change came about, but the original book was called “Jacob”. Just knowing that it was actually the book of Jacob gives it a whole new perspective.
Some of the translators of the new versions in the early years simply did not have access to the original manuscripts to compare, so we got error upon error. Now, as Yahweh said it would, knowledge has increased, and there are many ways to go back to the originals, research and increase knowledge. There are now some translations that have gone back to the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek scriptures and produced books that are much more consistent with the original languages.
You can now find many of the original manuscripts online. Run your own searches on the following:
- Greek Septuagint
- Codex Sinaiticus
- Vaticanus
- Alexandrinus
- The Bezae
- Textus Receptus
- Vulgate
- Masoretic Manuscripts
- Dead Sea Scrolls
- Syriac
- Samaritan (Pentateuch)
- Leningrad Codex
And happy learning!
