1001 Errors in the Christian Bible

John -- Errors 517-523

#517

John 2: (KJV)

18 “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Compare to Mark 14: (KJV)

57 And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying,
58 We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.

John’s Jesus makes a claim that is cited by witnesses at Mark’s trial of Jesus and Mark writes that these witnesses gave false testimony.

# 518

John 2: (KJV)

13 “And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
18 “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Compare to:

Mark 8: (KJV)

10 “And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.
11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.”

The setting for John’s Jesus answering the question of what The Sign would be is Jerusalem while for Mark’s Jesus it’s Dalmanutha. Perhaps the best Sign for the Reader are the two different locations.

# 519

John 2: (KJV)

20 “Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?”

Literally, the translation should be “forty and six years was built this temple”. The Greek word for “was built” is aorist indicating the past tense of completion. KJV’s “in building” mistranslates to the present tense. The incentive for mistranslating to the present tense, which a majority of modern Christian Bibles do, is that the Temple was not completed until about 63 CE.

# 520

John 3: (KJV)

5 “Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”

No “the” before “spirit” in the Greek.

# 521

John 3: (KJV)

7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

In the Greek “thee” is singular and “Ye” is plural. Sloppy. KJV and a majority of translations are hiding the change in pronoun. Marvel instead at the bad grammar.

# 522

John 3: (KJV)

13 “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”

Contradicted by:

2 Kings 2 (KJV)

11 “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

# 523

John 3: (KJV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

A famous quote of most translations based on a practically unknown mistranslation. The underlieing Greek is “The son the unique/only one he gave”. Note that the Greek lacks “his”, KJV’s “only begotten” could be translated as “unique” and the meaning could be that Jesus was the only son God gave the world and not the only son God had. Now hearken back to:

John 1: (KJV)

18 “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

Regarding “the only begotten Son” above the earliest extant manuscripts indicate it should be “the unique god” rather than “son”. A majority of modern Christian translations here use “son”. Another example of Christian translators trying to impose a literal family relationship on the text. Keeping in mind that the original “John” has probably been heavily edited, if we go back in time to the beginning of John in its current form we still have trouble finding support for a literal family relationship between The God and Jesus. The only use of “son” in the Prologue is in 1:14 but as we saw Christians have mistranslated with the definite article, and with the proper indefinite article, “as of an only begotten of a Father”, this becomes a figurative adjective rather than a literal description. We are then left with no literal use of “son” in the entire prologue which strengthens the position that the author intended the “unique” word to refer to kind (quality) and not kin (quantity). “John” has many elements of Gnosticism in it, extreme contrasts between supposed opposing forces such as good/evil, flesh/spirit and Jesus/non-Jesus, so a Gnostic author would have a problem presenting Jesus in the flesh and therefore would not want to show Jesus as having a human type family relationship with The God. So “John” has no virgin birth, Jesus is only God’s figurative son. You Gnosty Goy.

The “unique/only” word in 3:16 is the same word previously used in “John” that the Christians keep translating as “only begotten”. But as we’ve seen John’s Prologue appears to describe as figurative father/son relationship between Jesus and The Father “unique” is probably the superior translation to “only” based on context. Therefore, the literal “The son the unique/only one he gave” (later manuscripts changed it to “His only son”) likely should be translated “the unique son he gave” with “son” having a figurative meaning.

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