Slick Bible corruption

Well, I figure I should put in here an issue that has been creeping up. This issue is actually pretty wild when you think about it, and whoever is responsible for this is going to be in big trouble when he (she? they?) face the judgment. Why is that? There is a curse in the book of Revelation. Revelation 22:18 - 19 says that who ever adds to the words of the book will have the plagues which are in Revelation added to him, and whoever takes away words from the book will have his name taken out of the book of life. Despite the warning, this has happened not only in the book of Revelation, but has happened in other books of the Bible as well.



How so? Take a look at Matthew 5:44 in the King James version of the Bible:

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Now, take a look at the same passage in the New International Version (NIV):

But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Can you see what happened here? The idea behind modern translations is to bring the scriptures to us in an easier to understand, more up to date language than the Kings English. Somehow, though, we have now two Bibles which say different things. Look at Matthew 9:13 in the KJV:


...for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Now look at it in the NIV translation:

...for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.

Now, take a look at the KJV of Matthew 23:14


Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

The NIV completely omits this verse. In fact, the follow 16 verses are completely removed in the NIV translation:


Matthew 17:21, 18:11, 23:14, Mark 7:16, 9:44, 9:46, 11:26, 15:28, Luke 17:36, 23:17, John 5:4 Acts 8:37, 15:34, 24:7, 28:29, Romans 16:24.

One final example here, look at John 6:47 in the KJV:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.


The NIV version says:

I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.

As seen in these few examples of scriptures, clearly one of the two is NOT the true, infallible Word of God. This should be a concern of any Christian reading this. Mark 13:31 says:

Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away"

The words of the Christ are still faithfully preserved, we know this because the previous passage. We have, however, two documents claiming to be those words. How to tell which is the truth and to be embraced, and which is a lie and needs to be discarded?

It would take a lot more time and a really, really big blog to fully explain it, so I encourage you to get out there and do your own research. I'll just put out the highlights, to give you a place to start your search for truth.

First off, take a look at what documents were used to preform the translation for the KJV and the NIV Bibles. The KJV uses a relatively younger piece of paper than the NIV Bible uses. However, I believe the KJV documents are the accurate record of God's Word. The NIV uses manuscripts from Alexandria, the capitol of the Gnostics. Ever heard of the Gnostics? They were a group of people who rejected the deity of Jesus, and attempted to alter the scriptures to fit into their world view. I'm not talking about interpretation of the Bible, but actually taking pen in hand and altering the scriptures. We see the subtle result in the NIV Bible to this day! Changing things such as the phrase "on me" from John 6:47 weakens the Christians understanding of Jesus' meaning.

An interesting side note for those linguist out there (linguist, is that even a word?). Many languages have a gender (masculine or feminine) and plural version of most of their words. English tends to disregard some of these grammatical (I made another new word!) rules other languages have. You and thee, your and thou, these are the English version of plurals. If thee or thou is used, the person is speaking to only one person. If you or your is used, the speaker is talking to many people. Think of our current slang: "Yall" is pretty common now, though it used to be a southern redneck (me!) thing. Yall indicates the speaker is addressing a group of people. "Yall going to the monster truck rally?". New Jersey and New York simply stick an "s" at the end of you to indicate if they are addressing multiple people. "Yous guys catch that baseball game?" The King James Version provides us with a more accurate translation of what the scriptures say by this alone! Many people don't like to read the KJV because of all the archaic words used. When you take the time to learn what these words mean (peradventure = perhaps) the Bible becomes even deeper!

This is my personal beliefs. Be aware, though, that there are always two sides to an issue (sometimes more lolz) and some may feel differently than I. You should be aware of this issue, since when two versions of the Bible say different things, and both claim to be true, one of them must be wrong. Good luck and God bless you!