Why is this scripture blank in some bibles and not in others? It is blank in the JW bible, too.

Wild_Thing

Rebelfighter pointed out in another topic that in the JW bible, Acts 8:37 is completely blank (It literally says "---"), while the KJV says:

And Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

So I searched on biblegateway.com where you can compare several different translations of the same scripture, and it turns out several bibles have Acts 8:37 completely blank!

Does anyone know why? It doesn't seem too controversial of a scripture to me, especially to the JWs since they reject the trinity anyway. I don't think there is a conspiracy or anything! I just want to know why.

Below are the comparisons from different bibles from https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Acts%208:37.

Acts 8:37 (KJ21) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 8:37 (ASV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (AMP) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart [if you have a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah and accept Him as the Author of your salvation in the kingdom of God, giving Him your obedience, then] you may. And he replied, I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (BRG) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (CJB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37
Acts 8:36-37 (CEV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
36-37 As they were going along the road, they came to a place where there was some water. The official said, “Look! Here is some water. Why can’t I be baptized?”
Acts 8:37 (DLNT) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37
Acts 8:37 (DRA) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said: If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answering, said: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (ERV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37
Acts 8:37 (EXB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
|37 Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you can.” The officer said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”|
Acts 8:37 (GNV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said unto him, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Then he answered, and said, I believe that that Jesus Christ is that Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (GNT) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37
Acts 8:37 (HCSB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
[37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
Acts 8:37 (ICB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 [Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you can.” The officer said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
Acts 8:37 (JUB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If thou dost believe with all thine heart, thou may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (KJV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (AKJV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (TLB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 “You can,” Philip answered, “if you believe with all your heart.”
And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 8:36-39 (MSG) | Whole Chapter
36-39 As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, “Here’s water. Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip off, and that was the last the eunuch saw of him. But he didn’t mind. He had what he’d come for and went on down the road as happy as he could be.
Acts 8:37 (MEV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 8:37 (NABRE) | In Context | Whole Chapter
[37 ]
Acts 8:37 (NASB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
Acts 8:37 (NCV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
[37 Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you can.” The officer said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
Acts 8:36-37 (NIRV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
36-37 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water. The official said, “Look! Here is water! What can stop me from being baptized?”
Acts 8:37 (NIV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
[37]
Acts 8:37 (NIVUK) | In Context | Whole Chapter
Acts 8:37 (NKJV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”
And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 8:37 (NLV) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 (*Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The man said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”)
Gevurot 8:37 (OJB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 [And Philippos said, “If you have emunah b’chol levavcha, it is mutar. And he answered, saying, Ani ma’amin ki Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua Ben HaElohim hu.]
Acts 8:37 (VOICE) | In Context | Whole Chapter
Philip: [37 If you believe in your heart that Jesus the Anointed is God’s Son, then nothing can stop you.
The Ethiopian said that he believed.]
Acts 8:37 (WEB) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37
Acts 8:37 (WE) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 Philip answered, `If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptised.' The man said, `I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'
Acts 8:37 (WYC) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 And Philip said, If thou believest of all thine heart, it is leaveful. And he answered, and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:37 (YLT) | In Context | Whole Chapter
37 [And Philip said, `If thou dost believe out of all the heart, it is lawful;' and he answering said, `I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God;']
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Blackfalcon98

This scripture blatantly shows the mistranslation of John 3:16 by the dubbies. Here the eunuch qualifies for baptism simply by making an expression of faith in Jesus. The Witnesses believes that one must "exercise faith" in order to gain salvation. Thus a works-based salvation is endorsed by the WTS, whereas scripture indicates the need for a faith-based salvation. Not to mention the availability of various scrolls from which to initiate a translation of scripture. Therefore, if you were a cult and needed to create a perverted translation which agrees with your doctrine.....when there is an opportunity to omit a scripture-citing some discrepancy in the source material-you would as well.

Village Idiot

At biblegateway.com you will find, in the New International Version, the following explanation under footnote "c" which is annotated right on the blank verse at 37:

Some manuscripts include here Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” - Acts 8:37 New International Version

Sometimes a scripture is found in several manuscripts but not in others. This suggests that some copyist added verses to other manuscripts. I believe that scholars tend to choose the earliest manuscript as the most "authentic" one.

GLTirebiter

Does anyone know why? It doesn't seem too controversial of a scripture to me, especially to the JWs since they reject the trinity anyway. I don't think there is a conspiracy or anything! I just want to know why.

While it is in the Douay-Rheims (DRA), newer Catholic bibles (NABRE, JB, NJB and RSV-CE) include this verse as a footnote, indicating that it is "an early gloss" and that it "does not appear in the earliest manuscripts". It also isn't in La Santa Biblia en Espanol (a Spanish-Language Catholic version).

sir82

I believe that scholars tend to choose the earliest manuscript as the most "authentic" one.

Sometimes, but not always. There are other factors (textual consistency, number of manuscripts, etc.)

But anyways, your answer is correct. Some very old manuscripts, contain the text, other very old manuscripts do not.

Different scholars have reached different conclusions about whether the original writing contained those words or not.

God, it seems, has not always been very careful in his work of ensuring that "his Word" is preserved as originally written.

Phizzy

The oldest N.T manuscripts we have of the full N.T are centuries after the autograph copies.We have a good number of bits of earlier Manuscripts. We have no idea what was written originally, or which source manuscripts that our extant ones are copies of. They in turn would be copies of copies.

We do know that redactions took place, that interpolations were introduced, that mistakes in copying happened. But it is simply a guess by Scholars as to which renderings are possibly more accurate.

Of course, none of this really matters, as what was written originally is the faulty memories and fictional inventions of the writers. Interesting as they are, they are not inspired or accurate as to actual events and people. Let alone what someone actually said, Jesus included.

Perry

There are actually over 3000 missing NT Greek words (the equivalent of the amount in 1 & 2 Peter) that is missing from the Wescott & Hort master Greek Text (and later critical master Greek texts) compared to the Textus Receptus (received text).

You can read my take on the subject here.

Viviane

There are actually over 3000 missing NT Greek words (the equivalent of the amount in 1 & 2 Peter) that is missing from the Wescott & Hort master Greek Text (and later critical master Greek texts) compared to the Textus Receptus (received text).

So the book is basically as reliable as a poop stain. Got it. Thanks for that!

Why is this scripture blank in some bibles and not in others? It is blank in the JW bible, too.

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