Luke 10:42 How many things are needed? "ONE THING" or "A FEW THINGS"? Bible Babble Buffet at its Best.

[Will Kinney]

Luke 10:42 How many things are needed? "ONE THING" or "A FEW THINGS"?  Bible Babble Buffet at its Best.

 

King James Bible -  Luke 10:42 - But ONE THING IS NEEDFUL: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

 

NASB 1963-1977 editions - “But ONLY A FEW THINGS ARE NECESSARY, REALLY ONLY ONE, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

 

NASB 1995 edition - “But ONLY ONE THING IS NECESSARY, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

 

NIV 1973, 1978 and 1982 editions - "BUT ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDED. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her."  

 

NIV 2011 edition - "BUT FEW THINGS ARE NEEDED - OR INDEED ONLY ONE. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her."  

 

Did you notice that both the NASB and the NIV changed THE TEXT from one edition to another, AND that they REVERSED THEIR CHOICES?  What is going on here in Bible Babble Buffet Land?

 

This section of Luke tells of the time when Jesus came to the house of Martha and Mary, and Martha was cumbered with much serving and Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard his word. In Luke 10:42, after Jesus told Martha that she was careful and troubled about many things, he says: "But ONE THING IS NEEDFUL: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

 

The one thing that is needful is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to hear his words, and be in fellowship with him.

 

"BUT ONE THING is needful”

 

The "But one thing is needful" is the reading found not only in the Majority of all manuscripts and the TR, but also of P45 and P75, both of which predate the vaunted Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. It is also found in Alexandrinus, C original, E, F, G, H, K, M, P, S, U, V, Gamma, Delta, Theta, Lambda, Pi, Psi. And it is the reading of the Old Latin aur,  f, g1, q, the Syriac Peshitta, Curetonian, Harclean, Coptic Sahidic and Vulgate ancient versions.

 

"BUT ONE THING is needful" is the reading of Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew's Bible 1549, the Bishops’ Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1587, the Revised Version 1881, the ASV of 1901 (the highly praised precursor to the NASB), the RSV, NRSV, ESV, NKJV, Holman, Common English Bible and Dan Wallace's 2006 NET version.

 

But in the NASBs of 1963, 1972 and 1977 we read instead: "FEW THINGS ARE NECESSARY, REALLY ONLY ONE."

 

This ridiculous reading comes from the Vaticanus manuscript.   The Siniaticus goes back and forth, being corrected three times in this one phrase alone. First Sinaiticus actually read ὀλίγων δέ ἐστιν ἢ ἑνὸς = "but few things are the one" (Deep, huh?) Then a scribe changed it to read like the Majority text; and then another scribe changed it back again to read like Vaticanus.   

 

Also reading this way are the Jehovah Witness New World Translation 1961 and the 2013 J.W. Revision which say: “A FEW THINGS THOUGH ARE NEEDED, OR JUST ONE. For her part, Mary chose the good portion.”  

 

The Amplified bible of 1987 still non-sensically reads: “THERE IS NEED OF ONLY ONE THING OR BUT A FEW THINGS. Mary has chosen the good portion”. Rotherham’s Emphasized bible 1902 read this way - “OF FEW THINGS, IS THERE NEED, OR, OF ONE; Mary, in fact, hath chosen, the good part,” as does the Lexham English Bible of 2012 - “But FEW THINGS ARE NECESSARY, OR ONLY ONE THING, for Mary has chosen the better part”

 

But the NASB update of 1995 has reversed itself, and now reads as the KJB and the NIVs EARLIER EDITIONS and the ESV. Why? Not because of any new manuscript evidence recently come to light; they simply changed their minds.

 

The Catholic versions have done the same thing.  The early Douay-Rheims of 1610 and the 1950 Douay followed the Traditional texts and read like the KJB - “But ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, and Mary hath chosen that good part”.  But then the 1968 Jerusalem bible and the 1985 New Jerusalem bible followed the Vaticanus reading and read: “FEW THINGS ARE NEEDED, INDEED ONLY ONE.”

 

But now the 2009 Catholic Public Domain Version has also gone back to the Traditional reading and once again says: “And yet ONLY ONE THING IS NECESSARY. Mary has chosen the best portion”

 

Likewise the Nestle-Aland Critical Greek texts have changed over the years. Westcott and Hort originally went with the nonsensical reading ὀλίγων δέ ἐστιν χρεία ἢ ἑνός, which is not even grammatically correct and literally is “few things is necessary the one”.  So also did the Nestle 4th edition 1934 and the Nestle 21st edition 1975. I have hard copies of both of these and this is how their critical text reads.

 

 But not even the RV, ASV or even the RSV were that far gone that they actually followed this absurd reading found in their own critical Greek text editions. The first major translation to adopt it and put it in their text was the NASB in 1963 and the NASB stuck with it through 7 different editions until 1995.  Then sometime later they changed the Nestle-Aland, UBS critical texts and they now read as does the KJB with “ἑνὸς δέ ἐστιν χρεία = “but one thing is necessary.”  

 

But wait!  There is more.  The NIVs 1973, 1978 and 1984 editions had it right. The read: "BUT ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDED. Marry has chosen what is better."  But now that the UBS/Nestle-Aland critical Greek texts have changed their reading to the correct one, which reads this way, the NEW NIV 2011 edition has come out, and now gone with the OLD Vaticanus reading the the critical text editors and the NASB just got done correcting.  The New NIV of 2011 now reads: "BUT FEW THINGS ARE NEEDED - OR INDEED ONLY ONE. Mary has chosen what is better."!!!

 

    So the critical text promoters have abandoned in this place their beloved "oldest and best" manuscripts, all in the name of "the science” of Textual Criticism, don’t ya know. The question remains - Which NASB or which NIV was inspired and inerrant? The first 7 editions of the NASB from 1963 to 1977 or the 1995 update?  Or the first three editions of the NIV, or this latest one done in 2011 where it doesn't even follow the late$t $cholarly Finding$? Well, actually, there is NO NASB or NIV user who believes their ever-changing versions are the inspired and infallible words of God.

 

 The 1995 NASB update changed 20,000 words and deleted another 8000 words from the previous 1977 NASB edition. This is not fantasy. I have the book Double Jeopardy, by Lawrence M. Vance, that documents in black and white every change that has taken place between these two different editions of the NASB.   

 

What we see among these bogus bible versions that are based on the ever changing Nestle-Aland/UBS/Vatican critical Greek texts (both  the “Evangelical” NASB, ESV, NIV, and the modern Catholic versions) is the fact that they have no settled Scripture. What may be fa$hionable $cholar$hip today, will change with the wind tomorrow.  And their so called “oldest and best manuscripts”, that these new Vatican Versions are based on, are in fact among the most corrupt in existence.

 

Get yourself the King James Holy Bible and “meddle not with them that are given to change” - Proverbs 24:21 

 

[Alan]

Thanks for the study on Luke 10:42

These new versions are confusion from the spirit of the devil working in the hearts of men. "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." 1 Corinthians 14:33