The Bible’s text

Disputed verses like 1 John 5:7

Some verses found in the King James Bible are missing from the oldest manuscripts, or read differently there. Christian scholars have studied these cases for centuries and modern Bibles mark them. This topic looks at what they are, how they came about, and why they matter in Muslim–Christian discussion.

1The question

Which verses in the King James Bible are disputed, and what do they show about how the text was handed down?

2What Christians believe

Christians answer that these cases are known and openly discussed, mostly by Christian scholars. Modern translations put disputed passages in brackets or footnotes so readers can see them. With thousands of manuscripts to compare, the original wording can be recovered in almost every place.

Christians also stress that no central belief depends on a disputed verse. The Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the resurrection are taught across many passages, so removing a later addition does not change the faith.

3What the texts say

Verses missing from the oldest copies

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
1 John 5:7 · KJVRead in context →
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
Luke 23:34 · KJVRead in context →
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
Mark 16:9 · KJVRead in context →
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
John 8:7 · KJVRead in context →

A reading that changed

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
1 Timothy 3:16 · KJVRead in context →

Warnings inside scripture

How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
Jeremiah 8:8 · KJVRead in context →
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Revelation 22:18 · KJVRead in context →
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.
Revelation 22:19 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman (The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed., 2005) set out how scholars compare manuscripts, and list well-known additions: the King James wording of 1 John 5:7, the longer ending of Mark (16:9–20), and the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11). Some early manuscripts also lack Jesus’s prayer “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).

The issue is not new. Isaac Newton wrote a study of two of these verses, 1 John 5:7 and 1 Timothy 3:16, titled An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. He wrote it in 1690, and it was published after his death.

Christian scholars such as Peter J. Williams (Can We Trust the Gospels?, 2018) argue that the number of manuscripts makes the New Testament text very secure overall. Scholars on all sides agree on the facts of the main cases; they differ on what those facts mean.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an speaks of people who twisted scripture with their tongues and wrote it with their own hands, and it promises that God himself guards the final revelation:

And lo! there is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly.
Qur’an 3:78 · PickthallRead in context →
Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, "This is from Allah," that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby.
Qur’an 2:79 · PickthallRead in context →
Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian.
Qur’an 15:9 · PickthallRead in context →

Muslims do not need to claim the whole Bible is false. They point to cases that Christian scholars themselves accept, where words touching belief entered the text later, and see in them the reason a revelation preserved word for word was needed.

6Objections and responses

“These are a handful of verses among thousands. The rest of the text is secure.”

Response: Muslims agree that most of the text was copied carefully. But the disputed verses include some of the clearest proof texts once used for central doctrines, and the King James Bible, still widely read, prints them as scripture.

“Revelation 22:18–19 shows Christians guarded the text against change.”

Response: The warning shows that adding to and taking away from scripture was a known danger. It covers the book of Revelation, whose text is among the least certain in the New Testament because few early copies survive.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree on the main facts: several verses in the King James Bible are absent from the oldest manuscripts or read differently there, and modern Bibles mark them. Christians see a text that scholars can correct with confidence. Muslims see a text with a human history, in which later belief sometimes shaped the words.

Open a modern Bible at 1 John 5:7, 1 Timothy 3:16 and Luke 23:34, and read the footnotes.

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