Something’s been sitting in a lot of our Bibles like it belongs, and people have been reading it like it came straight from the mouth of Yeshua, but it didn’t. And when I say it didn’t, I don’t mean it’s just out of place. I mean it wasn’t there. At all. In the original scrolls. It got added in later, way later, and we need to ask ourselves: Does God take that lightly? Do we? Or are we so used to tradition and emotion that we let human fingerprints smudge the edges of what’s supposed to be holy?
First of all, I’m talking about John 8:1–11. The so-called “woman caught in adultery” story. You know it: the one where the Pharisees drag a woman into the Temple, supposedly caught in the act of adultery, and challenge Yeshua. And He kneels down and writes in the dirt, and tells them, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” It’s quoted in movies. People use it to silence correction. It’s emotionally powerful. But here’s the real question: Did God say it? Or did a scribe insert it?
Because let’s just be honest: it’s not there in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts. I’m talking about the oldest Greek scrolls, like P66 (around 200 AD), P75, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, those don’t have it. It’s not even whispered. That whole section, from John 7:53 to 8:11, is absent. And in later manuscripts? It shows up in different places! Some scribes shoved it in afterLuke 21:38. Some wedge it into John but clearly bracket it, as if even the scribes knew it didn’t belong. That alone should tell you something.
Now you tell me: what kind of sacred Scripture moves around like that? What kind of holy text plays musical chairs across different books? God’s Word doesn’t need to be found a home. It already has one. His Word is pure, unchanging, eternal. Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.” No one gets to edit it.
Now people will argue, “But it sounds just like Jesus.” Okay, but let me stop you there. That’s not how Scripture works. We don’t include verses just because they sound nice. We don’t treat emotion as evidence. The devil quoted Scripture in the wilderness too, remember? Did that make him holy? No. The moment we let feelings determine canon, we’re no longer guarding the Word, we’re molding it to our image.
God doesn’t wink at that. In fact, He condemns it fiercely. “Do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you,” says Deuteronomy 4:2. That’s Torah law. And Revelation ends with a warning: “If anyone adds to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book…” (Rev. 22:18–19). You know why? Because false prophecy is a death sentence in Scripture. If a person speaks as if God said something, and He didn’t? That’s spiritual fraud. And He doesn’t just slap wrists for that, He brings judgment.
Now let me go deeper. In the ancient Greek, the style of this section is different. The vocabulary used in John 8:1–11 doesn’t match the rest of John’s writing. John, the Gospel writer, has a specific rhythm and vocabulary, clean, sharp, theological. This section reads more like a moral tale. More like something lifted from an oral story passed around later in the early church. And that’s exactly what many scholars believe, it was a floating tradition, not Scripture. Early church fathers like Origen and Tertullian? They don’t mention it. Chrysostom skips it entirely in his commentary on John. Why? Because they didn’t have it in their manuscripts either.
So here’s the truth: as touching as that story may seem, as “gracious” as people like to make it sound, it was not in the text God breathed out by the Holy Spirit. It was added. Which means we have to decide if we love God’s truth more than we love our traditions.
Some might say, “But the message is still good, it teaches forgiveness.” Okay. That’s all find and good… But that’s not the point. God doesn’t need help from anonymous scribes, or anyone else, to teach us grace. He already showed us perfect grace at the cross. He already showed compassion when He forgave Peter, restored him, and filled him with the Spirit. He already showed justice and mercy, together, throughout the Tanakh and New Testament. So no, we don’t need man’s insertions to soften God’s Word. His mercy is already perfect. His holiness is already complete. His Scripture is already enough.
So when someone adds to it, even with good intentions, they are tampering with sacred fire.
Let me say that again: You don’t improve perfection. You don’t adjust holiness. You don’t tweak the Word of the Living God to make it more palatable to modern ears or ancient drama.
Now, let’s get practical. What do we do when we see this in our Bibles? You’ll often see footnotes now. Brackets. “The earliest manuscripts do not contain this passage.” That’s your cue. That’s a red flag. That’s not there just for scholars, that’s for you. That means the Spirit is nudging you, saying: “Look closely. Don’t build doctrine on this. Don’t quote it like it’s Me.”
And let me say this plainly: If you quote something as Scripture that isn’t God-breathed, then you are putting words in His mouth. And that’s serious. Don’t do it. Be faithful. Be Berean. If God didn’t say it, then we need to treat it like He didn’t say it, no matter how many pastors or preachers or paintings tried to make it sweet.
This isn’t about being harsh. It’s about being holy. I don’t fear man, I fear God. And if He says don’t add to My Word, then I’m going to take that dead serious. Not just for myself, but for anyone I teach.
So to the question: “Is it acceptable to God for people to add stories and say, ‘This is Scripture’?” The answer is no. Absolutely not. It’s disobedience. It’s dangerous. And it’s dishonoring to the Spirit who breathed out every single line of His Word with eternal purpose.
Let every man be a liar, but let God be true. And let His Word remain untouched, unmixed, and unapologetically pure.
✝️
And just in case you thought John 8 was the only one, let me stop you right there. It wasn’t. There are more. And when we find them, those scribal additions, those little lines that weren’t in the earliest scrolls but somehow still made it into our Bibles, we don’t ignore them. We call them out. Because silence is agreement, and I don’t agree with anyone putting words in God’s mouth.
Let’s talk about 1 John 5:7 next. Oh yes, we’re going there. Because if we’re going to stand on the authority of the pure Word, then we can’t cherry-pick which additions we’re okay with and which ones we’re not. If it wasn’t in the original manuscripts, it needs to come off the altar. We don’t offer strange fire.
Now, most modern Bibles say this in 1 John 5:7-8:
“For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”
Sounds like a clear, tight Trinity verse, doesn’t it? Problem is, it wasn’t there. That line about “the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit”? It’s known as the Comma Johanneum, and it does not exist in any Greek manuscript before the 14th century. Let me say that again: 14th century. That means for over a thousand years, the Greek-speaking church never saw that verse. Never taught it. Never quoted it. It only shows up in a handful of late Latin manuscripts, and even then it was probably added by a scribe trying to defend Trinitarian theology, not quote Scripture.
Now let’s be clear. I’m not saying God isn’t Father, Son, and Spirit. Scripture teaches the oneness of God and reveals Him in Father, Son, and Spirit throughout the Tanakh and New Testament. But that’s not the point. The point is: God didn’t say that line in 1 John. And we don’t get to prop up doctrine by adding our own verses. Even if the theology is true elsewhere, if the line itself was forged into the Word, then we reject the line. Because God doesn’t need human help to prove who He is. He already said, “I Am.”
We don’t get to say, “Well, I like how this sounds, it fits my theology.” No. If it wasn’t in the scrolls the apostles wrote, then it’s not holy writ. Full stop.
Let’s keep going. Want another one? Let’s go to Mark 16, oh yes, the long ending of Mark. Verses 9 through 20. That whole section with Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, the disciples not believing her, and then Yeshua rebuking their unbelief and commissioning them to go preach the Gospel, followed by that whole “and these signs will follow those who believe…” bit.
Now if you’re reading a King James Bible, or even many others, you probably see those verses printed like normal. But in the oldest manuscripts? Gone. Not there. Codex Vaticanus? Ends at Mark 16:8. Codex Sinaiticus? Same. Papyrus 75 and Papyrus 45? Also end early. The most ancient witnesses all stop at Mark 16:8, with the women fleeing from the tomb, trembling, saying nothing because they were afraid.
And the moment you realize that, you have to ask: Why would scribes add an ending? Simple. Because ending a Gospel with “and they were afraid” felt too abrupt. Too unfinished. So somebody, later, not inspired by God, wrote an ending that tied things up in a neater bow.
Some manuscripts even include two different endings! That tells you it wasn’t from God. Because God doesn’t give options. There’s only one Holy Spirit. And He doesn’t write two endings for the same Gospel and say, “Pick one you like best.” No sir. That’s man’s hand. And I don’t care how many miracles or commissions are in those verses, if it didn’t come from the breath of God, I don’t want it on my tongue or in my doctrine.
Here’s the through-line in all of this: reverence. We’re not hunting for errors just to nitpick. We’re standing guard. We’re the priests watching over the ark. We’re the servants who won’t let the sacred flame go out. Because this isn’t just some collection of religious sayings, it’s His Word, and we don’t touch it unless He says “speak.”
And I’ll tell you something, God warned us this would happen. He said there would be false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and people who would “pervert the grace of God” (Jude 1:4). So is it really a surprise that some would also pervert His Word, inserting what He never said? No. But it should grieve us. And it should make us double down on only quoting what’s real.
People say, “Well, what’s the harm in leaving those verses in?” Oh, I’ll tell you the harm. The moment you build theology on a lie, even a small one, you set a foundation of sand. One that cannot hold up under the weight of truth. One that leads people into confusion, emotional religion, and misrepresenting who God is. And then when someone discovers those verses were never in the original, it shakes their whole faith. Why? Because they were told to trust the Book, but not taught how to test the text. We don’t raise up blind followers, we raise up Bereans. Lovers of the real, not defenders of the fake.
God’s Word is like fire and a hammer (Jeremiah 23:29). It doesn’t need polishing, it needs protecting.
So here’s the call: open your Bible. Look for the brackets. Read the footnotes. Ask questions. Don’t skip over those notes that say, “earliest manuscripts omit…”, those are not technicalities. They’re red alerts. They are the sirens God has allowed to remain visible so His people can wake up and choose purity over popularity. Holiness over emotion. Obedience over tradition.
I’m not angry, I’m jealous for His Word. Jealous like a prophet who knows what happens when the people let smooth words replace truth. Jealous like Moses grinding the golden calf into powder. Jealous like Yeshua flipping tables in the Temple because the house of prayer had become a marketplace. Because if His Word is holy, then I can’t be neutral when someone tampers with it.
So no, I will not quote John 8:1–11 like it’s Bible. I will not base doctrine on 1 John 5:7’s added line. I will not teach Mark 16:9–20 like it’s inspired when the manuscripts show otherwise. I will walk in fear and trembling, quoting only what He spoke, because He’s still listening.
He is not silent. He sees. And He honors those who honor His voice, and only His voice.
Have you ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer? Of course you have. Almost every believer has said it at some point in their lives, and probably from memory. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” Beautiful, right? But let’s go to Matthew 6:13, the very end of that prayer. And let’s slow down when we get to this part:
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Now stop right there. Because guess what? That line wasn’t even in the original manuscripts either. That glorious, sweeping, praise-filled doxology we all memorized from childhood? Added. It appears in some later manuscripts, but not in the earliest and most authoritative Greek ones. The earliest versions of the Gospel of Matthew? They end the Lord’s Prayer with “But deliver us from evil.” That’s it.
The rest? It was likely inserted by scribes, maybe to echo the kinds of endings people used in synagogue prayers or to give the prayer a more poetic, worshipful finish. But again, God did not say it. And we need to stop pretending He did.
Does it sound nice? Absolutely. It flows beautifully. It lifts your heart. But let me ask you: since when do we judge truth by sound and sentiment? We don’t get to romanticize additions just because they sound holy. We are called to love truth, not style.
Let’s look at John 5:4 next. Oh boy, this one’s something else.
So we’re in the pool of Bethesda, right? A place where the sick and disabled would gather. In most Bibles, you’ll see this:
“For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
Sounds mysterious. Almost mythic. But again, not in the earliest manuscripts. That whole verse? Absent in Papyrus 66, Papyrus 75, and even in the earliest versions of Codex Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. Most likely, this was added later as a marginal note by a scribe trying to explain why all those people were waiting at that pool. And then some later scribe just folded it into the text, like it belonged there.
So now you’ve got people building doctrine around angelic healing at magical water, when none of that was in the original text.
Let’s break that down. That added verse paints God like a game-show host. First one into the water wins! What kind of theology is that? Does that match the character of Yeshua, who came to the lame man who couldn’t move fast enough to get to the pool and said, “Take up your mat and walk”? No. In fact, the real point of that passage is that Jesus bypassed the whole pool thing entirely. He didn’t wait for water to stir. He brought the healing Himself. The very presence of the Messiah overrides every tradition, every ritual, every superstition. That’s the point. But that gets diluted when we let unauthorized verses speak.
And I’m not done yet. Let’s go to Luke 22:43–44. That moment in Gethsemane, where Yeshua is sweating drops of blood and an angel appears to strengthen Him. These two verses?
“And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Guess what? Also not found in many early manuscripts. These verses are missing from Papyrus 75 and Codex Vaticanus. They show up in some, but the best scholarship, and even early patristic commentary, raises doubts on their authenticity. Some manuscripts include them with asterisks, signaling they’re disputed.
Now don’t get me wrong, Yeshua did suffer. He was in agony. He did pray deeply in Gethsemane. No doubt. But again, we don’t need someone to embellish the scene. The fact that some copyists added these verses to heighten the emotion doesn’t justify their inclusion. Because when you do that, you turn real suffering into theatrics. And our Savior didn’t need help looking holy. He is holy.
And the moment we start needing additions to “make the Bible hit harder,” we’ve already forgotten who we’re dealing with. We’re not dealing with poetry. We’re dealing with divine fire. Flaming words, breathed by the Spirit, etched into eternity.
So what do we do?
We become watchers at the wall. We open our Bibles not just to read, but to examine. We ask questions. We follow the footnotes. We search the scrolls, just like the Bereans, who didn’t even accept the preaching of Paul without searching the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). That’s the standard.
And if we discover a verse was added, we don’t panic, we adjust. We realign ourselves with truth. We don’t cling to traditions. We cling to His voice, and if His voice didn’t say it, then we let it go. No matter how many years it’s been in our hymns, our sermons, our prayers.
This is not about destroying faith, it’s about refining it. It’s about stripping off every layer of manmade sugarcoating until only the pure gold remains.
God is not afraid of scrutiny. His Word holds up. But we need to be brave enough to pull the weeds and burn the chaff.
So the next time someone quotes a verse, don’t just smile and nod. Ask: “Did God really say that?” And if He didn’t, don’t let it stand.
Let me tell you something that should shake us awake. There are verses in your Bible that God never said. Words that sound holy. Lines that feel comforting. Stories that stir the heart. But He didn’t say them. And if He didn’t say them, then they’re not holy, they’re not safe, and they don’t belong on the lips of the Bride.
We don’t play games with Scripture. We don’t quote verses just because they “feel like Jesus.” We don’t let tradition sneak in and take a seat next to Truth. We’re not invited to edit God.
And yet, it happened.
Scribes, whether by accident or intention, added things. And the modern church, for the most part, has just accepted it. Why? Because it sounds beautiful. Because it’s familiar. Because it gives us that emotional swell in our chest when we read it aloud. But beloved, if emotion replaces obedience, we’re already off the path.
Let’s start with the one everybody knows. John 8:1–11. The woman caught in adultery. The one where Yeshua kneels down and writes in the dirt, and says, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
Oh, it’s powerful. It’s poetic. It gets quoted in movies. It’s even used to silence correction in the church: “Don’t judge, remember what Jesus said.” But here’s the truth: Jesus never said it. At least, not in any original Gospel scroll that we can prove.
That passage? Not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts. Papyrus 66? Nope. Papyrus 75? Nope. Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, some of the most reliable full manuscripts we have? It’s not there. It starts showing up hundreds of years later, sometimes placed in different locations, after Luke 21:38, or even tacked onto the end of John 7. You know what that tells you? It wasn’t original. Someone tried to fit it in. Someone tried to give it a home. And I’m sorry, but God’s Word doesn’t move around like borrowed furniture. It doesn’t drift. It stands.
Now why does that matter?
Because if you quote something and call it Scripture, and God didn’t say it, then you’ve put words in His mouth. That’s not just a mistake. That’s dangerous. That’s false prophecy. That’s playing with fire.
God said, “Do not add to the word which I command you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God” (Deut. 4:2). Revelation 22 says if anyone adds to the words of this book, plagues will be added to them. That’s how serious He is about the purity of His Word.
We’re not allowed to fill in the blanks for God. He doesn’t need our help. If He didn’t say it, we don’t pretend He did. Even if it makes for a nice sermon illustration.
Let’s keep going. You ever heard this one?
“There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”
Sounds like 1 John 5:7, right? Trinity goldmine. Problem is, it’s a forgery.
That line, called the Comma Johanneum, wasn’t in the Greek manuscripts for over a thousand years. I mean it. Not one Greek manuscript before the 14th century contains that phrase. It showed up in Latin, in a few suspect texts, and eventually made its way into the Textus Receptus, the manuscript Erasmus compiled under pressure. He even admitted he only included it because someone gave him a late manuscript that had it scribbled in the margins.
Let me make this plain: that verse was never in the Bible God wrote. It was inserted. A well-meaning scribal insert to defend doctrine, but still a lie. We don’t support the truth by telling lies.
Now someone might say, “Well, the Trinity is real, so what’s the harm?” The harm is you’re building a foundation on sand. If people find out that line’s a forgery, they might throw out the whole doctrine, not realizing the Trinity is revealed through the whole of Scripture, not one line. That’s what false additions do, they weaken true theology by attaching it to lies.
Next: Mark 16:9–20.
If your Bible includes those verses, the appearances of Yeshua after the resurrection, the commission to preach, and the line “these signs shall follow those who believe…”, take a closer look. The oldest scrolls? Don’t have them. Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Papyrus 75, they all end at verse 8.
That means the long ending of Mark was added after the fact. And get this, there’s more than one ending! Some manuscripts have two different versions of the ending. One short. One long. That’s not divine. That’s human meddling.
Yeshua doesn’t need a dramatic ending tacked on to make the Gospel powerful. His resurrection is enough. His words are enough. His Spirit is enough. If Mark’s Gospel ended at verse 8, that’s because God wanted it that way. It’s not our job to “fix” it.
Let’s hit Matthew 6:13 now. The end of the Lord’s Prayer. You probably memorized it like this:
“For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Powerful, right? Just one problem: He didn’t say it. That line is not in the earliest Greek manuscripts of Matthew. It appears later. Added in by church tradition, maybe because someone thought the prayer felt unfinished.
But look, Yeshua’s prayer was already perfect. He taught us to end with, “Deliver us from evil.” Period. He doesn’t need a flourish at the end. And the moment you tack on your own words to the King’s speech, you’ve made yourself editor of God. That’s treason.
Want another? Let’s go to John 5:4, that strange verse about an angel stirring the waters of the pool of Bethesda. That whoever stepped in first would be healed.
Now first of all, that doesn’t even sound like the heart of God. “First one in gets the miracle”? What kind of God do people think we serve? That’s more like a pagan lottery than holy healing. And the earliest manuscripts? Don’t have that verse. Most scholars agree it was added to explain verse 3. Somebody decided to add a “why” that God never gave.
So what did Yeshua do when He got there? He ignored the whole myth and healed a man who couldn’t get to the water. That’s the true Gospel. That’s the Son doing what the Father shows Him. He didn’t need magic water. He was the living water.
Let me hit one more: Luke 22:43–44, the angel strengthening Yeshua in Gethsemane, and the line about Him sweating drops of blood. Powerful. Emotional. Intense. But again, absent in many early texts. Some manuscripts include it, some omit it, some mark it with asterisks to show it’s disputed.
Look, I’m not saying Yeshua didn’t agonize in the garden. Of course He did. But again, we’re not here to theatricalize holiness. We’re here to keep it pure. If God didn’t say it, we don’t preach it. If the line doesn’t show up until centuries later, it’s not Scripture.
You seeing the pattern yet?
The enemy loves mixing things. He doesn’t always delete truth. Sometimes, he just adds something beside it. Just like Eden. God said, Don’t eat from the tree. But by the time Eve repeats it, she says, “We must not even touch it.” Where’d that extra rule come from? Not from God. But once you accept one small addition, the whole thing gets twisted.
That’s what’s happened to the Word. Add a little here. Insert a line there. Just enough to shift the tone, just enough to make people quote things God never said.
But not in this house. Not in this generation. We’re waking up.
We’re peeling back the layers of manmade additions and traditions and emotional insertions, and we’re saying, “Only what You’ve spoken, LORD. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
Because the Bride doesn’t need poetic lies. She needs living fire. The pure, holy, untampered breath of God, line upon line, word upon word, scroll upon scroll.
So if you’re ready to love the real Word, even if it costs you the familiar, then welcome. We’re rebuilding the altar. And every forged verse has to go.
Because He is coming back for a pure Bride. And that means pure worship. Pure doctrine. Pure Scripture.
Nothing added. Nothing missing. Only Him.
In Yeshua’s Holy name, Amen!
And THAT is…
