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Question

I was reading my Bible (it is NLT) and I noticed something that I was unsure about. John 4:9 says "The woman was surprised, for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans." Then I looked at the side notes, and it says "some manuscripts do not include that sentence." I was wondering if you knew why some don't.

Answer

This is a great question.

Here's a short version: Our English Bibles, by and large, are translations from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts that were written at least 1900 years ago. I say by and large because the Living Bible, the predecessor to the New Living Translation (NLT), is a paraphrase, not a translation. A paraphrase uses an English translation to make an easier to read version of the Bible. The NLT is a very nice, readable translation.

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We do not have any original, handwritten Bible documents. In other words, we don't have the actual pieces of paper on which Paul wrote, "See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand (Galatians 6:11)." What we have are multiple, mostly partial copies of original manuscripts, like the one pictured above. So, what scholars have had to do it piece together what they think is the best single manuscript that represents what the writer actually wrote. There is a fairly high consensus among Christian and non-Christian scholars as to the reliability of these manuscripts.

In some instances, there are inconsistencies in what should be included in the manuscripts on which we base our English translations. One way scholars determine whether or not a word, phrase, or even paragraph should or should not be included is to try to figure out which text is the oldest. The assumption is that the older the copy, the more likely it is to have been what the original author actually wrote. The idea is is that the more times a document is hand-copied, the more opportunity for copy errors.

In John 4:9, the NLT communicates that this sentence is in some manuscripts, but not in others, by using a footnote. The New Revised Standard Version handles this situation the same way. The New American Standard Bible (which I use) puts this kind of information in parentheses. What probably happened in this case was that John wrote the gospel for a primarily Jewish audience. They would not have needed any explanation as to why it would have been so unusual for Jesus to be talking to this woman. But Greek culture was quite different. Nothing would have been unusual about a man from one culture talking to a woman of another culture. So, someone who later copied the Gospel of John for a Greek audience felt the need to add an explanatory note, so that the Greek readers didn't miss the point.

Another major example of the difference between manuscripts is Mark 16. Most of the oldest manuscripts end at verse 8. For some reason, someone at a later date, decided to add verses 9-20.

So, these differences raise a couple of important questions: 1) Are the documents reliable? Can the Bible be trusted? 2) What do we do with these passages? First, yes, the documents are reliable. Despite minor differences in manuscripts, inclusion or exclusion of these passages does not affect any major theological tenets of our faith. God is still God. We are still sinners. Jesus still saves us and makes us holy by His grace. Second, when it comes to my teaching or practice, I do not consider these as having any authority. For instance, the long ending of Mark 16 talks about snake handling. Umm...no thank you. I don't teach that or do that.

 

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