Is There Really a Conspiracy Behind Missing Verses in Latest NIV, ESV Editions?
A popular Facebook post claims book publishers are participating in a conspiracy by removing certain scriptures from the latest editions of the New International Version (NIV) and English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.
The author of the post, Nichol Apostolic, says the NIV and ESV have “removed 64,575 words from the Bible including Jehovah, Calvary, Holy Ghost and omnipotent.” She also says the versions have removed 45 complete verses.
She also points out that the NIV is published by Zondervan. Zondervan is owned by HarperCollins, which, as Apostolic points out, also published the Satanic Bible and The Joy of Gay Sex.
She encourages readers to “refuse to be blinded by Satan” and to only use print versions of the NIV and ESV.
“There is a crusade geared towards altering the Bible as we know it; NIV, ESV and many more versions are affected,” she says.
So far, the post has more than 6,800 shares on Facebook.
See her full post below:
But is there really a conspiracy to erase Scripture? Biblica, the International Bible Society, says no. On its website, Biblica explains why the NIV omits or has missing verses.
The answer is that the verses missing in the newest version of the NIV are those that did not appear in some of the earliest biblical manuscripts.
“The verses or phrases that appeared in the KJV, but have been ‘omitted’ in most trusted translations today, are not found in the oldest and most reliable manuscripts,” Biblica says. “Modern translators include or reference them in footnotes. These footnotes are intended to help the reader understand that certain perceived differences in the text are due to improved biblical scholarship. The treatment of these verses has not changed recently and reflects a consensus among the majority of Bible scholars.
“It is important and comforting to note that no doctrines of the Christian faith are affected by differences between the KJV and translations such as the NIV that follow more reliable sources.”
This is not the first time a post about missing verses in Bible editions has gone viral. In 2015, a similar rumor spread online, stating that over 64,000 words and 45 verses were missing from the new version of the NIV. Some of the verbiage of the 2015 posts remains identical to the post spreading now.
The e-rumors in 2015 got so much attention that Snopes published an article to clarify that the verses weren’t omitted, but rather, were moved to the footnotes for the aforementioned reasons.
