Bible Version Discrepancies #6 - JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES
For most of my life I have been afraid of the "King James Version" of the Bible. I always thought that it would be like reading Shakespeare - well, it's not. Most of the time on my Sunday blog posts I referenced the N.I.V. (New International Version) but recently, when I need clarification, I refer to the K.J.V. (King James Version) and the N.K.J.V. (New King James Version). In making this small switch I discovered that there are many serious discrepancies between NIV & The King James versions. I also found out that the Bible "scholars" who compiled NIV were members of secret societies. Whether or not there was anything nefarious behind the NIV translation does not affect the goal that I have for this series. We are going to use our God-given common sense to compare these versions and come to our own conclusions.
It is important to note that the King James Version was first published in 1611 and it wasn't until 1978 that the New International Version was first published.
Even if we find serious discrepancies by comparing these two versions, I want you to know that I believe God has still been able to get His message across to us - He is not fazed by "misinterpretation". His Truth fills our heart and that is why we are able to objectively study and compare these versions without losing God's meaning.
In this series we are going to really dive deep into God's Word.
We continue our comparison study with
"John 17:6-19".
In this Scripture passage the subtitle is the same between the versions:
"Jesus Prays For His Disciples"
(this can be seen in the first picture seen below).
I decided to study this prayer because it shows us how Jesus talked with God our Heavenly Father. Jesus was almost rambling while expressing His concerns about His disciples. And He kept repeating Himself at various times. This prayer shows us that we can just be ourselves when praying to God our Father - we don't have to use "important" words or have the right timing. All we have to do is spend time with God expressing everything and anything.
Color code meaning in the pictures below:
Highlighted in yellow means that those words/sentences do not appear in one of the versions (including when references to God or Jesus appear in lower case rather than upper case)
Highlighted in orange means that the meaning of the word comparison was very different
Highlighted in green means that the meaning of the word comparison was similar or the same.
Just like the first post in this series - one of the first shocking differences I noticed was the grammar in N.I.V. - it is very disrespectful. Many words describing or referring to God or Jesus are NOT capitalized in the N.I.V. (those letters are underlined in the pictures above & below - NIV being on the left). Modern grammar rules have become relaxed in everyday life but that does not mean that this should apply to the Holy Bible!!
Next, let's focus on the words that I felt had different meanings between the versions:
revealed vs manifested
Reveal - to make publicly or generally known
vs
Manifest - easily understood or recognized by the mind
I agree that making God publicly known was part of Jesus' job but the word "manifest" seems to fit better - making the reason Jesus came in human form easy for everyone to understand. It is a little ironic because I am saying this about a word ("manifest") that I couldn't really define on my own before looking it up in the dictionary. But this is what has happened to most of us when we read the Bible - we just pass by words that we might only have a vague understanding of instead of taking time and looking up the definition to truly understand the Bible verses that we are reading.
"one doomed to destruction" vs "son of perdition"
Perdition - loss of the soul, eternal damnation
The word "perdition" is so much stronger than the phrase "doomed to destruction". When I think of "doomed to destruction" I think of a building scheduled for demolition not eternal damnation. By trying to use words or phrases that might no be so scary makes God's Word "wishy-washy".
In this second portion I think we should first define the word "sanctify."
Sanctify - to free from sin; purify
The final phrase of the featured passage today has a different meaning in the N.I.V. just by changing the words around. The TRUTH is God sending Jesus in human form to save us from sin forever. By saying "be truly sanctified" is taking Jesus out of the phrase. In the New King James Version it says "be sanctified BY the truth" - Jesus is the truth - we are sanctified by Jesus!
I pray that you will continue to reflect on these differences this week and never stop digging deep into God's Word.
Other Version Discrepancy posts:
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