Is the NIV Missing Verses?

Three reasons to doubt the common meme.

🎁 Help me end Bible translation tribalism, one plow boy at a time:

📖 Check out my book, Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible:

🎥 Watch my Fifty False Friends in the KJV series:

👏 Many, many thanks to the Patreon supporters who make my work possible!
Name, James Duly, Robert Gifford, Lanny M Faulkner, Lucas Key, Dave Thawley, William McAuliff, Razgriz, James Goering, Eric Couture, Martyn Chamberlin, Edward Woods, Thomas Balzamo, Brent M Zenthoefer, Tyler Rolfe, Ruth Lammert, Gregory Nelson Chase, Ron Arduser, Caleb Farris, Dale Buchanan, Jess English, Aaron Spence, Orlando Vergel Jr., John Day, Joshua Bennett, K.Q.E.D., Brent Karding, Kofi Adu-Boahen, Steve McDowell, Kimberly Miller, A.A., James Allman, Steven McDougal, Henry Jordan, Nathan Howard, Rich Weatherly, Joshua Witt, Wade Huber, M.L., Brittany Fisher, Tim Gresham, Lucas Shannon, Easy_Peasy , Caleb Richardson, Jeremy Steinhart, Steve Groom, jac, Todd Bryant, Corey Henley, Jason Sykes, Larry Castle, Luke Burgess, Joel, Joshua Bolch, Kevin Moses, Tyler Harrison, Bryon Self, Angela Ruckman, Nathan N, Gen_Lee_Accepted , Bryan Wilson, David Peterson, Eric Mossman, Jeremiah Mays, Caleb Dugan, Donna Ward, DavidJamie Saxon, Omar Schrock, Philip Morgan, Brad Dixon, James D Leeper, M.A., Nate Patterson, Dennis Kendall, Michelle Lewis, Lewis Kiger, Dustin Burlet, Michael Butera, Reid Ferguson, Josiah R. Dennis, Miguel Lopez, CRB, D.R., Dean C Brown, Kalah Gonzalez, MICHAEL L DUNAVANT, Jonathon Clemens, Travis Manhart, Jess Mainous, Brownfell, Leah Uerkwitz, Joshua Barzon, Benjamin Randolph, Andrew Engelhart, Mark Sarhan, Rachel Schoenberger

[seanelgin]

What happens these days is people feel so lied to, so held in contempt, by the media and academics in general - and these authorities have been caught so many times either outright lying, or shading for the benefit of an agenda - be it for personal gain or other - that these knee-jerk reactions have become the norm, instinctual, and authorities have to go a much longer way, and provide much more evidence to the contrary than in times past.
That's why I so greatly appreciate your patient, thorough, and thoughtful expositions on these matters - the MOST important matter, our relationship to our God. Keep up the great work, and please don't get discouraged if those of us who are not subject-matter experts are cynical and distrusting. I have been there myself, continue to do so sometimes without realizing it, which is why what you do is so important.

[BrianLassek]

The section quoting Erasmus was great. I love it when "new" issues are shown to have been addressed a long time ago.

[am]

Great point that these important topics are often over simplified. They deserve far more than a few cutting words in a sermon or memes... Thanks for all you do!

[philipmorgan]

I deeply regret telling my daughter 15 years ago, that her NIV Bible was corrupt and was missing scripture.
Now she views the Bible as not infallible.
I was lied to.

[comfy]

I think it's pretty decisive to show the history of the TR and what it's authors have to say.
KJV-onlyists seem to assume the TR is the exact text written in the apostolic age just copy pasted for centuries until someone decided to change it, instead of a renaissance era critical text based on previous manuscripts just like the modern critical text, which happened to be signed during the Reformation era and thus became standard among protestants for a long time. If someone wants to argue for it, it's better not on critical or historical grounds, but theological ones saying something like "yes they're not the oldest manuscripts, but they were the ones preserved by the church so their textual tradition is normative" or something or the sort, which is how Vulgate or Septuagint defenders argue their case, although I think making this case for the TR would be harder.

[terrymaycbc]

So informative! Thank you for your hard work on these topics. 🙏🏼

[brettstewart]

I just finished Authorized. Great book brother!

[JessicaB]

While I have a preference for the more literal translations (NKJV, ESV, CSB, KJV), if people would only pay attention to the foot notes or study notes in their Bibles, those verses are indeed included. That's not to say that the NIV isn't an ok translation, I just prefer the literal ones.

[erichoehn]

Great overview from Proverbs (hearing the matter first) and the Gospels loving your neighbor. I appreciate the way you appeal to Scripture itself, church history, and logic.

[BiblebelievingChristian]

The more i watch this video the more sense it makes. Very insightful. Thank you Mark 🙏

[firstnamelastname]

This topic started a very important journey for me. When I first got saved all I had was the little red Gideons pocket Bible with the NT and Psalms. The pastor eventually gave me an NIV which I cherished. Several years later I encountered a presentation by a man I trusted who taught about the dangers of modern translations. He showed where the NIV had "missing" verses and how certain things were different. He made it sound like I was in serious trouble for using the NIV and he was very convincing so I adopted the KJV-only position. This also caused me to go down the IFB road and started accumulating some very bad theology from the bad teachers I was listening to. This eventually lead me to James White's KJV material. I eventually dropped the KJV-onlyism and started using the NASB, and also started listening to more of James White's content. Now after about 10 years I'm Reformed. One day on the Dividing Line I saw Nathan Cravatt talking about his debate with Mitch Canupp. That lead me to the Recovering Fundamentalists podcast, which is where I discovered Mark Ward.

[ancientxtitan]

We should be glad we have these translations. I like your channel brother! Thank you!

[joshuamercer]

Mark I appreciate your dedication in continuing to make content on this topic. I do think you are addressing an issue that is a big deal for a lot of people.

[randydjustus]

Thank you, Mark. Spoken, once again, with clarity and grace. I especially loved the Erasmus quote.

[TurtleTrackin]

Excellent! Been waiting on this for a while!

I could happily attend a KJV church that said it "preferred" the KJV (or TR), or said it was "going with" the KJV (or NKJV, or TR based docs) out of an abundance of caution.

I cannot attend a church where the leadership slanders modern translations and translators, and churches that go with them as heretical. That behavior reinforces the possibility they don't understand their own Bibles.

[micahfelber]

Thanks for the excellent video and for the encouragement! I always appreciate your gracious and respectful presentation of truth.

[stevetucker]

I read that the longer ending of Mark was quoted by early church fathers before the date of the earliest extant manuscript of Mark. How do you answer to that? It seems like that would cast some doubt on the Alexandrian text type.

[charlesratcliff]

I dealt with that in Sunday school. I explained that certain verses were not found in earlier text that most modern translation uses. I told them not to worry because they can trust their translations they read and for them to read multiple translations.

[tony.biondi]

Thank you, Mark. Always helpful. Always edifying.

[katielouise]

Oh, wow! Thank you for this! My ESV, NCV, NIV & NLT don’t show Matt. 18.11 (& 17.21) but a couple have notes at the bottom stating that some Greek copies added these verses.