Articles
The Missing Passages - Part 3
There are some translations today which have verses that others do not. This was not the result of modern translations taking away from God’s word but the result of trying to be as accurate as possible to what was originally written. The debate about who is right is complicated, and one that you and I are probably not qualified to answer. What the average person can do, though, is look at the major passages in question and determine what is being lost or gained by the translator’s decisions. How big of an impact is this on our faith?
This week, let’s consider the popular verse, Acts 8:37.
The New King James Version reads: “Then Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’”
Other translations, such as the New International Version and English Standard Version omit verse 37. Only in the footnotes will you find their explanation for skipping the verse and their translation if they had included it.
The NIV reads like this (Acts 8:36-38): “As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?’ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”
It’s a very natural reading. If you didn’t know something was missing, you wouldn’t suspect a thing. But is something missing?
Acts 8:37 is a go to verse for the necessity of confession. However, removing that verse does not remove the necessity of confession. In the NIV, ESV (et al) Jesus still says, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Mt. 10:32-33). And Romans 10:9-10 still reads, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
Obviously, the modern translations are not trying to undermine the importance of confession. The need for it has not changed.
There was more in Acts 8:37 than just an example of confession. There was also a condition put on baptism. Had the eunuch not believed, he would not have been allowed to be baptized. In other passages, we see that there were conditions met prior to baptism. For example, it was when the Samarians believed that they were baptized (Acts 8:12) and on Pentecost it was “those who received his word” who were then baptized (Acts 2:38). Even without Acts 8:37, we can see that a person must believe in order to be baptized.
But it was more than faith which Philip required of the eunuch. The faith had to be internalized and personal, as opposed to someone else believing for you (such as parents). “If you believe with all your heart you may,” Phillip supposedly said (Acts 8:37 – NKJV). Similarly, the modern translations say in Romans 10:9-10, if you “believe in your heart…you will be saved” (NIV).
Personally, I am fond of Acts 8:37 and want it to belong in my Bible. It shows confession in action. It is extremely useful and makes a concise point. But, being fond of a verse and liking how useful it is does not mean it was originally in the book of Acts. The question isn’t do we like the verse, it is what did the inspired author Luke write down? Regardless, with just a little bit of work, all of the doctrines revealed in that verse are found elsewhere. A person is not a better Christian or a lesser Christian based on if this verse is in their Bible or not.
In the case of Acts 8:37, textual critics conclude “beyond doubt” that the verse was not in the original because all of the old texts we have (older than 6th century) omit the words. That is not, however, the same thing as saying the eunuch did not confess his faith or that we don’t need to confess today.
