I was asked why all modern translations “omit” Matt 18:11. “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” (KJV). The form of the question betrays the basic problem, that people think modern translations omit verses rather than other translations add verses.

There are probably two reasons for this assumption. One is that the verse is in the KJV. The second is that in modern translations the verse number is skipped.

The first Bible to have verse numbers was the Geneva Bible (1557). Verse numbers allowed readers to cross-reference passages (see Wikipedia). This was 54 years before the KJV; but like the KJV, the Geneva Bible was based on the Greek Received Text (TR) that has the verse.

I am finishing up a class for BiblicalTraining.org on why I trust the Bible. For the last several weeks I have been immersed in Dan Wallace and Bart Ehrman discussions.

Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus has nothing to do with misquoting Jesus but is a popular presentation on the challenges of textual criticism, and who buys a book entitled Textual Criticism other than serious students?

One of the basic rules in textual criticism is to choose the “more difficult” reading. Another way to say this is to ask what reading would most likely give rise to the other reading, and to prefer the former.

In John 7:8, Jesus’ brothers are taunting him, telling him he should go to Jerusalem for the festival of Tabernacles. Jesus responds, “You go up to the festival yourselves; I am not going up to this festival (ἐγὼ οὐκ ἀναβαίνω εἰς τὴν ἑορτὴν ταύτην), for my time has not yet fully come.”

The problem of course is that he does go to Jerusalem (v 10). So was Jesus being honest?

A little textual criticism. Paul writes, “If I give away everything I own, and if I surrender (παραδῶ) my body in order to boast (καυχήσωμαι), but do not have love, it benefits me nothing.”

As soon as you check other translations, you see that there is a textual issue. The NASB has, “surrender my body to be burned,” following the reading of the καυθήσομαι (along with the ESV, KJV). Two letter difference.

Others translate καυχήσωμαι (HCSB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). Metzger (Textual Commentary) argues that it is more likely that the original καυχήσωμαι (“to boast”) was changed to καυθήσομαι (“to burn”) once martyrdom by burning became more frequent. His argument seems conclusive. (The external evidence is not conclusive either way.)

Perhaps this is a little overstated, but it did get your attention.

I just got back from the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. One of the things I wanted to see is the new release of the standard Greek text of the New Testament, the NA28. I ran into a grinning Wayne Grudem, and he told me about Jude 5.

This is the only place I recall that the ESV diverged from the NA27 Greek text. The ESV reads, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus (᾽Ιηοῦς), who save a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” The NET and NLT also have “Jesus.”

My brother-in-law asked me a question that came up in his Bible study the other day, and it illustrates several interesting points of Greek grammar. Thanks Terry.

1 Cor 11:24 in the ESV reads, “and when he had given thanks, he broke (εκλασεν) it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you (το υπερ υμων). Do this in remembrance of me.’” The interesting phrase is, “which is for you.”

The article το is telling you that the following prepositional phrase is functioning in some adjectival manner that is qualifying the previous noun. Jesus says that the bread of communion is “my body,” and in some way his body is “on behalf of you.”

This is typical Greek in that you have to supply a verb; you can’t translate word for word: “This is my body the on behalf of you.”

The other day I spoke briefly about textual criticism and why the Greek texts behind the King James Version (and the NKJV) and all modern translations are different. Here is an example of how that works out.

In 1 Cor 7:5 Paul is discussing the issue of sexual intimacy in marriage. He says, “Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (ESV).

The KJV reads, “that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” So is fasting a legitimate reason to withhold sexual intimacy, and what did Paul actually say?

My wife Robin came home from a Christian speakers conference yesterday and told me about a discussion they had. John 5 was the passage under discussion, and when they arrived at v 4, to their surprise it wasn’t there. I guess it caused quite a stir. Someone found it in the NASB, but no where else. (I guess no one had the KJV).

This happens in several occasions in the Bible. There are even verse references “missing” in the KJV. What is going on? Well, either someone left the verse out, or somewhere along the line someone added a verse in. But who ever assigned the verse references, he had v 4.