Mark 9:44,46

Mark 9:44, 46
(9:44 KJV) Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. {46} Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. {48} Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

(NIV) 44 & 46 Omitted
(ESV) 44 & 46 Omitted
(RSV) 44 & 46 Omitted

(NASV) {44} [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] {46} [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]

Footnotes
Vv 44 and 46, which are identical to v 48, are not found in the early mss

(NKJV) {44} where "Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'{46} where "Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'

Footnotes
9:44 NU-Text omits this verse.
9:46 NU-Text omits the last clause of verse 45 and all of verse 46.

(1881 Revised Version) 44 & 46 Omitted

Footnotes
Verses 44 & 46 (which are identical with ver. 48) are omitted by the best ancient authorities.

(1901 American Standard Version) Verses 44 & 46 Omitted

Footnotes
Verses 44 & 46 (which are identical with ver. 48) are omitted by the best ancient authorities.

(New American Bible - Roman Catholic) Verses 44 & 46 Omitted

Footnote
44, 46 Not found in many manuscripts

(New World Translation - Jehovah’s Witnesses) Verses 44 & 46 are omitted

Footnotes
aBC omit verse 44, which reads: ”Where their maggot does not die and the fire is not put out,” as in AD. aBC omit verse 46, which reads: ”Where their maggot does not die and the fire is not put out,” as in AD.

Textus Receptus
{44} opou o skwlhx autwn ou teleuta kai to pur ou sbennutai {46} opou o skwlhx autwn ou teleuta kai to pur ou sbennutai

Hort-Westcott
Missing

Effect
There are three verses which repeat themselves in this chapter and that is Verses 44, 46, and 48. However, verses 44 & 46 have met its fate by being removed from the Greek text. It is missing in Aleph and B and was therefore left omitted by Hort & Westcott and today’s intellectual hit squads. These two verses speak of the horrors of Hell and has been removed since the Gnostics in the second century and the modern liberal unbelieving scholars of today disbelieve in Hell. These two verses are part of the triple warning the Lord Jesus Christ gave concerning our actions in life. God carried this idea over from Isaiah 66:24: (Isa 66:24 KJV) And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

They speak of eternal damnation based upon the sinful life that people lead. In verse 43 and 45, we read that the Lord Jesus is giving the warning that we are to abandon anything which causes us to stumble and He uses the hands and the feet as examples of two body members which can get us into much trouble.

(Prov 6:18 KJV) An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

(Prov 6:17 KJV) A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

The admonition of the Lord is two-fold. First, He speaks to His children and teaches them to avoid all sinful situations which will cause us to ruin our lives. Secondly, He speaks to the unbelievers that all their actions are sinful and need to be lopped off. The only way to use the hands and the feet for good is for a person to become saved because the consequences will be eternal Hell.

Hort and Westcott and the 2nd century Gnostics believed in shortening the text so what they have here is a triple warning by God that Hell is very real and unless a person becomes saved, then they will go there. Instead of keeping it in the text, they took out the first two verses and left verse 48 intact. When we read the Bible, we can see that God definitely uses repetition as a teacher. Let us take a look at an example:

(Psa 14:3 KJV) They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

(Psa 53:3 KJV) Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

(Rom 3:12 KJV) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

As we can see, here is an example of God repeating Himself three times which means that God intentionally uses this method in His Word. What the Gnostics have done is dammed themselves to Hell by subtracting from God’s Word. (Rev 22:19 KJV) And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. The sorry situation is that Christians who use these modern versions are giving approbation to the corrupted texts. They are literally defying God by using them.

Now something interesting surfaced in this study which should be of interest to all those who claim that the Jehovah’s Witness Bible is not translated from the same corrupted manuscripts as the modern versions. If you notice in the footnotes above, in the NWT, they mention that these two verses are not found in (B) Vaticanus, (a) Sinaiticus, and “C” which is the 5th century manuscript “Ephraemi Rescriptus.” These three manuscripts are part of the forty five which make up the Hort-Westcott text which lie behind every modern version used in the Protestant Church. So when you pick up your NIV, RSV, or ESV, you are using the same version the Jehovah’s Witnesses bring to your door to try and pry you away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we wonder why the power of the church has waned.

The NASV and NKJV keep the two verses in the text, however the NASV places brackets around them and then in the footnotes questions their authenticity. They claim they are not found in the early manuscripts. What manuscripts do they mean? Their statements are so nebulous yet are taken as so credible. The NKJV is also a subtle deceiver. They claim they used the Textus Receptus in translating it, yet Dr. D. A. Waite of the Bible for Today has a detailed listing of 2,000 departures from the Textus Receptus. When we come to Mark 9:44 & 46, the center column states that the NU text omits these verses. The NU text is - “N” The Nestle-Aland Text which has 27 updates. The “U” is the United Bible Societies text which has four revised editions. That is a combined total of 31 revisions as of 1983. Has God changed His Word 31 Times? God wrote one Bible and that was it.

If they are using the Textus Receptus then why are they referencing the corrupted Gnostic texts? The 1881 Revised Version and the 1901 American Standard Version both state that these verses are omitted by the best ancient authorities. Those ancient authorities are Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, two corrupted Roman Catholic Manuscripts. Can anything from Rome be in the best interest for the Protestant Christian? When you purchase an NIV, $1 goes to Rupert Murdoch who owns Harper-Collins who owns Zondervan. Rupert Murdoch is a pornographer so the richer the Christians make him, the more he can produce. The pulpits pound that pornography is an abomination, yet those same churches have purchased many NIV’s. This is nothing more than pulpit hypocrisy and church leaders need to be called into account for this.

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