For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. – Luke 19:10

Today's Scripture Reading (December 15, 2020): Luke 19

Too often, we know only part of the story. I am continually amazed when a friend contacts me with some salacious news that they had heard, only to be disappointed when a little more research proves that what they heard was only part of the story. Maybe what we need is a new Paul Harvey to rise up with the commitment to tell us "the rest of the story" while possessing the ability to entertain, encouraging us to listen.

In Christian circles, there are many half-truths that we seem to like to tell or post on Facebook, which makes our argument. These comments are usually only part of the story, and either we have never heard the rest of the story, or we are critical of the rest of the story, so we keep it back, becoming authors of a half-truth.

An example of this kind of half-truth is part of the story of the missing Bible verse. According to proponents of the King James translation of the Bible, the proof of how evil the translators of the New International Version were is highlighted by the fact that the NIV translators removed an entire verse out of the Bible. (And yes, that is true.) Actually, most translations now have entirely removed the verse, including new printings of the King James Version. Still, that fact doesn't help the story intended to harm the New International Version.

The verse in question is Matthew 18:11. If you are reading Matthew in the NIV, you might notice that Matthew 18:10 is followed by Matthew 18:12; there is no verse11, just a notation indicating that the verse has been removed. According to the tale's tellers about the evil NIV translators, the total removal of a verse is because the NIV interpreters disagreed with the verse's theology. Hence, they altered the Bible, taking the verse out of Matthew. By removing the verse, they shaped the theology of Jesus into something more palatable. But, if you want to find out what Jesus really thought, you need to read the King James Bible, and not one that was printed within the last decade. You need to find a King James Bible that includes Matthew 18:11.

So, what does the missing verse proclaim? "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." It is Luke 19:10, and the verse has not been removed from Luke's writing. And why was it removed from Matthew but retained in Luke? Well, it does not appear in all the ancient manuscripts of Matthew, just a few. And the thought fits better in Luke. There is no doubt that Jesus had said that he "came to seek and to save the lost." But the idea flows better at the end of Zacchaeus's story than it does at the beginning of Matthew's tale of the wandering sheep (although you could make an argument for its inclusion in Matthew). Still, in the manuscripts where Matthew 18:11 exists, it feels like some scholar added to the story to try to get the message across. Therefore, it was removed, or more precisely, placed in the footnotes of Matthew 18

But here, in the conclusion of the story of a lost son of Abraham named Zacchaeus, the verse shines, and the heart of Jesus is revealed. And that is the rest of the story.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 12