Paul can sometimes make broad statements that are open to misunderstanding, especially when read out of context. In some of these cases, we see later scribes trying to qualify what he said so as to clarify -- in their minds -- what Paul means. Enter the wonderful world of textual criticism.

Prof Bart Ehrman is famous for his rhetorically powerful statement that there are more differences among the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament than there are words. It is true that there are about 400,000 differences among the 5,500 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, but the real question is one of significance. How many differences could be authentic, and how many do impact the meaning of the verse?

It is often argued by a small but vocal minority of people that modern translations omit the doctrine of the Trinity. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the accusation is still leveled against the NIV and all modern translations. But this is an issue of textual criticism and not theology.

A while back I did a vlog on the supposed “17 Missing Verses” in modern translations, and  the questions keep coming. So I thought I would create a website specifically to deal with this issue. It is www.MissingBibleVerses.com.

One of the more common accusations I hear about modern translations is that they omit the Trinity. The facts behind the accusation is that the Greek manuscripts used by modern translations unanimously recognize that 1 John 5:7b–8a was added centuries after John wrote his epistle and so these words are relegated to the footnotes. This passage is called the Comma Johanneum. The words in italics below are the added words.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he came across a leper who said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean!” (Mark 1:40). The next verse gives an interesting insight into Jesus’ personality.

Was the prisoner’s name “Jesus Barabbas,” or just “Barabbas”? Why are the translations different, and why did the NIV change his name from the 1984 to the 2011 editions?

One of the ongoing attacks on modern translations has to do with the Trinitarian formula in 1 John 5:7–8. The accusation is that modern translators are dropping out the divinity of Christ from the Bible. I’ve now actually seen the factual evidence of why this is not true.