Question of the Week: Why are verses like John 5:4 left out of certain bibles?
Verses: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
The Bible is the inspired, preserved, infallible, and authoritative word of God. This position was not something later Christians came up with, but was upheld since the first words to claim to be from the True and Living God were penned by Moses. These standards include a complete lack of errors in the history or doctrine that they put forward, a consistency with God’s character as He’s revealed Himself throughout history, and the sources themselves to be supported by miracles to know God is acting through them and supporting their ministry. Since the capstone on scripture was placed at Revelation showing us the full counsel of God’s word, any new revelations are to be dismissed out of hand. What about the verses we call into question? John 5:4 is an example of this. It doesn’t contradict anything in the passage, but rather serves to explain why the lame man was so eager to be put into the pool when Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made well. Nor is the information in the passage in any way in conflict with the writings of John about Jesus’ earthly ministry. The only reason it’s called into question is because we do not have examples of it in the earliest manuscripts of John that we have. This absence of evidence has led some to not take any chances and consider it a note left by a scribe rather than John’s original writings. Most do not take this position nor need to. If we were to take everything that is held even slightly in question in scripture and remove it, no major doctrine of Christianity will be affected as a result. We recognize the originals as being inspired and without error. The preservation of that message according to the evidence we have shows that while it may not have been done with a printing press, we’re reading and believing the same thing Christians were believing in the first century.
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