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One Missing Word That
Made Jesus a Liar

God is no liar.  Remember these words:

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?5

When God says He will do —or not do— something, you can be sure He will keep His word. So if a Bible changes something to make God look like a liar —watch out!

That is not from God —period.

Believe it or not, some Bibles and perverted Greek texts actually turn our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, into a liar. See for yourself in the following story.

The Lord Jesus had just spent the last few months in Galilee. The Jewish leaders wanted Him dead —as fast as possible.6 The Lord knew it. But Jesus is God. He chose the time and the place of His death, not man.

Yes, He was going to die at Jerusalem, but not until the exact moment He had known since the foundation of the earth.7 So He ministered in Galilee and avoided Judea. But things were about to change.

Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.8

Each year, every single Jewish male was required to attend three feasts in Jerusalem: Unleavened Bread (the 7 days that began with the Passover feast), Pentecost (50 days after Passover) and Tabernacles (around September-October). They were known as the Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals).9

Jesus’ half-brothers10 James, Joses, Simon and Judas,11 were packed and ready to leave. The caravan was already moving down the road. (These “early birds” wanted to get a good room before they were all filled up.) You can almost hear them calling out: “Come on, let’s go.”

Then they saw Jesus.

Why wasn’t He packed? He wasn’t going to stay home during a required feast, was He? That wasn’t like Him. That “goody two-shoes” never acted like everyone else in the family. He never broke a rule.

It was like Moses was living in their house. They didn’t believe in Him12 and were probably a little jealous of all the attention He got. So they did what many siblings do: they mocked their big brother. James, the next oldest, probably did most of the talking:

...Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.13

Were they encouraging Jesus? Not hardly. Jesus’ entire hometown of Nazareth had lost out on seeing any big miracles in their midst because of their unbelief.14

So the brothers hadn’t seen Jesus’ miracles either. They had only heard stories about them… and they had their doubts. (Don’t let the brothers’ “holy speech” fool you.)

They continued:

For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.15

They were basically saying, “You can’t be a public figure and hide in secret, Jesus,” sarcasm dripping from their every word. “If You are able to do miracles, show the world.”

“If thou do these things?”

Their words echoed the words used by the Tempter:

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread...16

If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down...17

What could Jesus do? It looked like He had two options:

Option A: Stay in Galilee and break the Law of Moses.
Option B: Go on out in public and possibly get killed by the Jewish leaders.

Which would Jesus choose? According to some Bibles, this is what happened next:

You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee.18

This Bible version says Jesus chose option A: to stay in Galilee and for the first time in His life, break the Jewish law that He Himself had given to Moses. But wait. The story is not over. Look at the next verse:

But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.19

So according to this Bible version, He didn’t break the Law of Moses after all. He just lied to His brothers about what He planned to do.

Do you understand the doubt this Bible version creates?

First it says the Lord Jesus told his brothers he was not going to the feast. So his brothers thought He was going to break the Law of Moses intentionally. That’s a crime against God.

They would have gone up to Jerusalem thinking, “Jesus broke the Law”? They would never again feel the same about Him. Now they would object whenever anyone called him “blameless” or “sinless.” They could say, “Jesus broke the Law. It was all a lie.”

If this Bible version were true, that’s what they would have thought all the way up to Jerusalem. But that’s not all.

One day at the feast, they would have looked over and seen Jesus. He sneaked down into Jerusalem.

“Okay,” they would have thought, “so He didn’t break the Law of Moses after all. Instead, Jesus just lied to us, His own brothers.”

How would they ever believe Him again?

His own brothers would never believe Him when He said that He was “the way, the truth, and the life.”20

The Bible says clearly that God never lies. But this Bible makes it look like Jesus lied. So does this Bible falsely imply that Jesus is not God? That’s what it says.

Ouch.

Do you see the trouble this defective Bible makes? The lies it pushes? How can you even call this a Bible?

Don’t worry. It’s not the real Bible. This Bible depended on an ancient manuscript that was headed for the fireplace. That manuscript was so messed-up that it was “corrected” by up to 10 different people over the years, until they gave up on it and finally abandoned it in a desert monastery.21

Yes, the translators of this Bible put their faith in a piece of trash and changed their Bible version to match it.

That Bible also depended on the Roman Catholic Latin Vulgate.

And do you know what caused all this confusion? One missing English word, three letters: y—e—t.22

Look again at that crucial verse­ in a complete Bible:

Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.23

That is completely different. Now it makes perfect sense. Jesus wasn’t going to go with His brethren, but He still intended to go. He just went in His own timing, away from the crowds, almost in secret. The next two verses back that up perfectly:

When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.24

Oh, what a huge difference one little word makes. I don’t know about you, but I could never trust a Bible that is based on flawed manuscripts and makes the Lord Jesus into a liar.

The following 21 English Bibles are all missing that little word “yet” from John 7:8:

That’s a lot of Bibles. And they cannot be the perfect words of God. They are the imperfect words of man.

But brace yourself. We’re just getting started.