“Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever has believed and has been baptized will be saved, but whoever has not believed will be condemned. These signs will follow the believers: they’ll throw out demons in my name; speak with new tongues; pick up snakes; and if they drink death, it won’t hurt them. They’ll lay hands upon the unwell and they’ll get better.”  

– Mark 16:15-18

Many ancient manuscripts of the New Testament have been found, but all are copies of the original documents that make up the complete New Testament canon. The very oldest manuscripts are considered the most accurate, and logically so – the more times a text has been copied, the greater its chance of containing errors. In fact, few manuscripts found to date are exactly the same. The bulk of differences are clerical errors in grammar or spelling that are easily reconciled. However, some major differences are the addition of certain words or passages. Since some newer manuscripts contain text that the oldest ones do not, it suggests that that text wasn’t a part of the original document, but was added later. Many instances involve including passages from one book in another. 

One of the largest and most famous of these “extra” passages is the ending of Mark’s Gospel, which describes Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, similar to the other Gospels. It also includes Jesus’ famous Great Commission, unique to Mark, which is not a part of the earliest New Testament manuscripts.

The following list details all the major passages missing in the earliest versions of the Gospels: 

• Matthew 6:13b - Ending of the Lord’s Prayer: “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

• Matthew 18:11 - “And the Son of Man came to save those who are lost.” (paralleled in Luke 19:10) 

• Matthew 23:14 - Further rebuke of the Pharisees (paralleled in Mk 12:40 and Lk 20:47) 

• Mark 7:16 - “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen and understand.” (paralleled in Mk 4:9, 23) 

• Mark 9:44, 46 - “Where their worm doesn’t die and their fire isn’t put out.” (paralleled a few verses later in Mk 9:48)

• Mark 11:26 - “If you refuse to forgive, your Father in heaven won’t forgive your sins.” (paralleled in Mt 6:15)

• Mark 15:28 - “And the Scripture was fulfilled, which said, ‘He was counted among rebels.’” (paralleled in Lk 22:37)

• Mark 16:9-20 - Mark’s account of Jesus’ resurrection, including the Great Commission.

• Luke 9:55b-56a - “And he said, ‘You don’t realize what type of spirit you have, for the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy people’s lives but to save them.’”

• Luke 17:36 - “Two men will be in the field - one will be taken and the other left.”

• Luke 23:17 - Luke’s explanation for why Pilate would release Barabbas: “Now he was obliged to release one man to them at the festival.”

• John 5:3b-4 - Description of the pool at Bethesda (see article on Bethesda for more information).

• John 7:53-8:11 - The story of the woman caught in adultery (see below). 

• John 13:32a - “If God’s glory is revealed in him…” is a strangely redundant phrase to open the verse that doesn’t appear in some of the most reliable manuscripts. 

Everyone went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he came to the Temple again and all the people came to him, so he sat down and taught them.

Then the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught having an affair.  After putting her in the middle, they say, “Teacher, this woman was caught having an affair and Moses commanded us in the Law to stone such women. What do you say?”

They were saying this to test him, so they could accuse him. But Jesus crouched down and wrote on the ground with his finger. When they kept asking him, he straightened up and told them, “Whoever among you is without sin should throw the first stone at her.”

Again he crouched down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, until he was left alone with the woman in the middle. Straightening up, Jesus asked her, “Woman, where are they? Didn’t anyone condemn you?”

“No one, Lord,” she replied.

“I don’t condemn you either,” Jesus said. “Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.”

– The Story of Jesus 20.3

[Adapted from Jn 7:53-8:11]

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