John 7:8

Did Jesus lie?

The reading of "not yet" (ουπω ) is found in the vast Majority of all Greek texts

The reading of "NOT going" is ouk as opposed to oupw "not yet", found in the Sinaitic manuscript and D.

Even Westcott and Hort and the previous Nestle Aland critical texts (4th edition 1934) used to follow the Greek reading found in the King James Bible and in all Reformation bibles - "not YET going"

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. — 2 Timothy 2:15

Additional Documentation

The reading of "not yet" (ουπω ) is found in the vast Majority of all Greek texts that have this verse including P66, P75, Vaticanus, L,T, W, Delta and in some Old Latin copies and in the Syriac Peshitta, Harclean, Palestinian and the Coptic Sahidic and Boharic ancient versions.

The reading of "NOT going" is ouk as opposed to oupw "not yet", found in the Sinaitic manuscript and D.

Even Westcott and Hort and the previous Nestle Aland critical texts (4th edition 1934) used to follow the Greek reading found in the King James Bible and in all Reformation bibles - "not YET going", but later on the Nestle Aland, (21st and 27th editions) and UBS (United Bible Society - the Vatican/Evangelical "interconfessional text") changed their minds and have now gone with the other reading and the result is that many of these new "Catholic versions" have Jesus lying to His disciples by saying that He is not going to the Feast and then turning around and going to the Feast.

This textual change is not due to any "new manuscript discoveries".

It's the same information they’ve always had.

They chose the reading to have Jesus lying to the disciples instead of the clearer noncontradictory passage.

The Vatican has a formal agreement with the UBS/Nestle-Aland Critical Text group to create an "inter-confessional" text to help unite "the separated brethren". The UBS text is under the Vatican's supervision.

"NOT YET going"

Tyndale 1534 Coverdale 1535 The Great Bible 1540 Matthew's Bible 1549 Bishops's Bible 1568 Geneva Bible 1587 Beza N.T. 1599 John Wesley 1755 Worsley Version 1770 Thomas Haweis N.T. 1795 Alford N.T. 1870 Revised English Bible 1877 Revised Version 1881 and more.

Foreign Languages Syriac Peshitta Spanish Sagradas Escrituras 1569 Cipriano de Valera 1602 Reina Valeras 1909 Portuguese Almeida French Martin 1744 French Ostervald 1998 German Luther Bible 1545 German Schlachter Italian Diodati 1649 and the New Diodati

Modern Greek Bible - “Σεις αναβητε εις την εορτην ταυτην· εγω δεν αναβαινω ετι εις την εορτην ταυτην, διοτι ο καιρος μου δεν επληρωθη ετι.” = “I do NOT YET GO”

Modern Hebrew Bible - עלו אתם לחג את החג אני לא אעלה אל החג הזה כי עתי לא מלאה עד עתה׃ = "I am NOT YET GOING"

Youngs 1898, Rotherham 1902, Goodspeed N.T. 1923, J.B. Phillips 1962, New Life Version 1969, The New Berkeley Version 1969, the NKJV 1982, The Word of Yah 1993, God's Word Translation 1995, Interlinear Greek N.T. 1997 (Larry Pierce), Complete Jewish Bible 1998, New International Readers Version 1998, The Koster Scriptures 1998, Lawrie Translation 1998, The Common N.T. 1999, The Last Days N.T. 1999, The World English Bible 2000, Tomson N.T. 2002, The Apostolic Polyglot Bible 2003, The Pickering N.T. 2005, Resurrection Life N.T. 2005, New Century Version 2005, Easy to Read Version 2006, The Christogenea N.T. 2009, the Faithful N.T. 2009, the Holman Standard of 2009, English Majority Text Version 2009, Jubilee Bible 2010, Hebraic Transliteration Scripture 2010, Names of God Bible 2011, Expanded Bible 2011, Biblos Interlinear Bible 2011, Conservative Bible 2011, World English Bible 2012, the ISV 2014 (International Standard Version) - "I am NOT GOING to this festival YET", Modern English Version 2014, The Far Above All Translation 2014, The Open English Bible 2014, The Hebrew Names Version 2014, The Translator's Bible 2014, the Holy Bible Modern Literal Version 2015 and The New Matthew Bible 2016.

Wilbur Pickering comments on this blunder:

Serious Anomalies/Aberrations -John 7:8 oupw--P66, 75, B, E, F, G, H, L, N, T, W, X, D, Q, Y 070, 0105, 0141, 0250, f1, 13, Byz, Lect, syr p, h, pal, co sa "NOT YET" ; ouk -- À, D, K, P, lat, syr s, c , co bo "NOT".

Problem: Since Jesus did in fact go to the feast (and doubtless knew what He was going to do), the UBS text has the effect of ascribing a falsehood to Him.

Discussion: Since the UBS editors usually attach the highest value to P75 and B, isn't it strange that they reject them in this case?

Here is Metzger's explanation: "The reading ["not yet"] was introduced at an early date (it is attested by P66,75) in order to alleviate the inconsistency between ver. 8 and ver. 10" (p. 216).

So, they rejected P66, 75 and B (as well as 99% of the MSS) because they preferred the "inconsistency".

NASB, RSV, NEB and TEV stay with the eclectic text here. (end of comments by Dr. Pickering.)