Missing Bible verses… wait! What?
The unthinkable is happening, and its happening right under our noses! If you use a Bible App, such as YouVersion, or The Olive Tree Bible Study App, You need to check your Bible versions in those apps. Entire verses are missing!
When did this happen? This, I am not really sure about. I knew that the NIV was changing some of the verses to soften the blow of the truth. But I thought if you had a 1984 or earlier version of the NIV you were good.
OK let’s start small…
John 5:4 King James Version (KJV)
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
King James Version (KJV)Public Domain
This is what the 2011 NIV has:
John 5:4 New International Version (NIV)
[4] [a]
Footnotes:
- John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part, paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
IT’S NOT THERE! It’s been reduced to a footnote! This is from the website BibleGateway.com.
I got out my physical Thompson Chain Reference Study Bible (NIV) Reprinted (second printing) in September 1991, NIV copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, by Zondervan Publishing.
As you can clearly see, it goes from verse 3 to verse 5. No verse 4 at all!
So, now you know why I said it’s been happening right under our noses, AND FOR YEARS!
Why this particular verse? Are there more? YES!
But first some necessary history…
In 1998, HarperCollins acquired Zondervan Publishing, and in 2011 acquired Thomas Nelson Publishing. Both are very prominent in Christian publishing.
In 1999, NewsCorp (Parent to HarperCollins) bought out Avon Books. This included the satanic bible, originally first published in 1969.
So, that was the long way around to say that the same publisher that owns Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, also owns the publisher of the satanic bible. Very creepy stuff here.
OK back to more of the missing verses…
According to a post on the FaceBook social media site, 64,575 words have been removed from the NIV and ESV versions of the Holy Bible, including but not limited to: Jehovah, Calvary, and Holy Ghost. It appears that 45 complete verses have been removed as well, but not all 45 verses were cited. Here are the ones that were:
- Matthew 17:21, 18:11, 23:14
- Mark 7:16, 9:44, 9:46
- Luke 17:36, 23:17
- John 5:4
- Acts 8:37
I urge you to verify this yourselves! If your BibleApp still has these verses, then DO NOT UPDATE the versions or the app.
I will be updating this article!
Sources:
- Thomas Nelson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nelson_(publisher)
- Zondervan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zondervan
- HarperCollins:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarperCollins
- Avon Books:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avon_(publisher)
- The satanic bible:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Bible