Demonstrable Errors in Modern Versions Part 2: John 7:8–10
The idea behind this series of posts is for me to point out selected errors in modern bible versions which are demonstrable. That is to say that we can objectively, definitively show them to be factually wrong or incorrect in some fashion, whether doctrinally, historically, or otherwise. John 7:8–10 in the modern versions is a crystal-clear example of the first of these. It presents a serious doctrinal challenge to the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. This is obviously quite a weighty accusation, however I hope the skeptical reader will take the time to briefly consider what is said here.
John 7:8–10 in the King James Bible reads as follows:
John 7:8–10 Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. (9) When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.
(10) But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
In the KJB, the text is straightforward and clear. The context shows us that Jesus dwelt in Galilee during this time, but deliberately avoided Jewry, or Judea, since the Jews in that area sought to kill him. His brethren encouraged him to go to Judea in order to show them his mighty works. Jesus explains in verses 6–7 that his time had not yet come to go into Judea. This leads us to verses 8–10. Jesus tells his disciples “I go not up yet unto this feast” — notice that little three-letter word “yet” — this means that he was telling his brothers that he would in fact go up to the feast, he simply wasn’t going up yet, because it was not yet time for him to do so. Then we read in verse 9 that he abode for a while in Galilee, before going up secretly to the feast, presumeably to avoid being spotted. In the KJB, Jesus’s brothers were aware of the fact that he would be going up to the feast. Now let us consider the same passage in the ESV:
John 7:8–10 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” (9) After saying this, he remained in Galilee. (10) But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.
The ESV, by omitting that little word “yet”, gives us a very different picture of our Lord. In the ESV, Jesus tells his disciples that he is not going up to the feast. He then gives the reason as to why he is not going up to the feast, namely, because his time had not yet fully come. In the ESV, the latter part of verse 8 is ambiguous. We know that Jesus is not saying that it wasn’t yet time for him to go up to that particular feast, because he already said that he was not going up, and this is the reason why he wasn’t going up. He gives no indication to his brethren that he would be going up to the feast, but on the contrary gives the impression that he would not be going up. Then we read in verse 9 that Jesus remained in Galilee for some time, and verse 10 says that he went secretly up to the feast after his brothers had gone.
The conclusion is rather unambiguous: the ESV, as well as the NIV and other modern versions, depicts Jesus as a liar in this passage. There is simply no way around this. Scholars and writers since ancient times have noted this. Interestingly, John Gill points out in his commentary on this text that this faulty reading:
occasioned Porphyry, that great enemy of Christianity, to reproach Christ, as guilty of inconstancy, or of an untruth, since he afterwards did go up
Porphyry of Tyre was a mid-third century Greek philosopher who wrote a book against Christianity.
The late Bruce M. Metzger, who is widely recognized as one of the most renowned “conservative” evangelical textual critics, in his Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament page 216, seems to acknowledge that there is an actual error in the original text:
This is not the first time that Metzger concedes to an error in the New Testament, as we will hopefully see in a future post. One of Metzger’s disciples, Daniel B. Wallace, in his comments on this verse from the NET Bible likewise acknowledges a “tension” between verses 8 & 10, but that the bad reading is to be preferred because it is the “more difficult reading”, despite being included in “most mss” including “most of the better witnesses”:
Most mss (P B L T W Θ Ψ 070 0105 0250 ƒ M sa), including most of the better witnesses, have “not yet” (οὔπω, oupō) here. Those with the reading οὐκ are not as impressive (א D K 1241 al lat), but οὐκ is the more difficult reading here, especially because it stands in tension with v. 10.
To Wallace’s credit, he at least attempts to give some sort of defense for this horrible error, albeit a weak one:
As for Jesus’ refusal to go up to the feast in v. 8, the statement does not preclude action of a different kind at a later point. Jesus may simply have been refusing to accompany his brothers with the rest of the group of pilgrims, preferring to travel separately and “in secret” (v. 10) with his disciples.
Wallace’s explanation is incoherent. He gives no justification whatsoever for the claim that Jesus’ statement in the modern versions “does not preclude action of a different kind at a later point”. He merely asserts it without justification. Moreover, even if we grant that he was simply “refusing to accompany his brothers” and “preferring to travel separately and in secret”, this still does not explain how his statement doesn’t qualify as an out-right lie, in fact it completely goes along with that idea.
This example should hopefully make your ears perk up if you have been skeptical up to this point. This is stands as a blatant doctrinal error in the ESV and other modern versions, and a serious one at that.
