THE APOSTOLIC LETTER TO GENTILES

Acts 15:24; 21:24, 25

By Voy Wilks

10/06/91 

A portion of Acts15:24 was added to the manuscript from which the King James Version was translated – added in such a way as to REVERSE the meaning of the message.  The added words are enclosed in brackets, as follows: 

“For as much as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, <saying, ye must be circumcised, and keep the law>; * to whom we gave no such commandment: …” (Acts 15:24 KJV). 

The same is true of Acts 21:24, 25.  Again, the added words are enclosed in brackets. 

“Then take, and purify yourself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself walkest orderly and keepest the law.  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded <that they observe no such thing save only> * that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication” (Acts 21:24, 25 KJV). 

*           Footnotes in Twenty-six Translations: “Now recognized as not adequately supported by original manuscripts.” 

That these phrases are added is not just a recent notion.  As far back as 1836 the James Duncan Version omitted these added words.  Most versions (both Catholic and Protestant), omit these phrases.  The American Standard Version and the Lamsa Version, for example, do not contain these added words.  The Diaglott, by Ben Wilson (1863), has a notation indicating these added words do not appear in the older manuscripts. 

Again, the added words REVERSE the meaning of the message, indicating we should “forget the law.”  We can be sure these phrases were not added accidentally, but are there because of hostility to the law of Yahweh, as “Scripture indicates: 

“For the mind that is set on the flesh is Hostile to Yahweh; it DOES NOT SUBMIT TO YAHWEH’S LAW, indeed it CANNOT; …” (Rom. 8:7, 8 RSV). 

The Scriptures, as originally given, were true and correct in every scientific and historical detail, but this does not necessarily include all the words and phrases which have crept into the texts during the intervening centuries.  Thank Yahweh, these are few in number, as is indicated by the Isaiah Scrolls found in the Qumran Caves, and by ancient manuscripts found elsewhere.  Praise be to Yahweh.