Mark 7:16
 
Mark 7:16
(KJV) If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
(1611 KJV) If any man haue eares to heare, let him heare.
(1526 Tyndale) If eny man have eares to heare let him heare
(1382 Wycliffe) If ony man haue eeris of hering, here he.
 
Counterfeit Versions
(CSB) Omitted
(NIV) Omitted
(NASB) ["If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."]
(THE MESSAGE) Omitted
(NLT) Omitted
(ESV) Omitted
(CEV) Omitted
(TNIV) Omitted
(NCV) Omitted
(RSV) Omitted
(NAB-Roman Catholic) Omitted
(NWT-Jehovah’s Witnesses) Omitted
 
The HCSB and NKJV both footnote this verse as not being in the oldest manuscripts. They both cast doubt upon this verse as if they completely excluded it. In the NKJV they always refer to the NU text. The “N” stands for the Nestle Aland text and the “U” stands for the United Bible Societies text. Both of these have their roots in the Hort Westcott text. The NKJV refers to these corrupted texts 859 times in the New Testament thus casting doubt on 859 verses. How then can the New King James be a legitimate update of the Old King James since the Old King James does not cast a shred of doubt upon those 859 verses? The NKJV is not really a language update but another modern translation which places doubt upon the verity of the word of God. There are 7,957 verses in the New Testament. By doubting 859 of them, the New King James Version questions the trueness of 11% of the New Testament. Is that the kind of a Bible God would give us? I think not!
 
Textus Receptus - Traditional Text
ei tiV ecei wta akouein akouetw
 
Hort-Westcott - Critical Text
Omitted
 
Corrupted Manuscripts
This verse is corrupted in the following manuscripts:
Aleph 01 - Sinaiticus - Nineteenth Century Counterfeit
B 03 - Vaticanus - Fourth century
L 019 - Eighth century
Delta 037 - Ninth Century
 
Manuscripts which agree with the Textus Receptus for this verse
Byzantine Text (450-1450 A.D.)
A 02 - Alexandrinus - Fifth century
D 05 - Bezae Cantabrigiensis - Fifth century
W 032 - Fourth/fifth century
Theta 038 - Ninth century
1 (Minuscule) - Seventh century
13 (Minuscule) - Eighth century
 
Published Critical Greek Texts with Corruptions
Omit entire verse
Tischendorf, Constantine - 1869
Tregelles, Samuel - 1857 (in brackets or margin)
Alford, Henry - 1849 revised in 1871 (in brackets or margin)
Westcott and Hort - 1881
Weiss, Bernhard - 1894
Nestle - 1927 as revised in seventeenth edition in 1941
Nestle-Aland - 1979 - Twenty Sixth Edition
Nestle-Aland - 1993 - Twenty Seventh Edition
United Bible Societies - 1983 - Fourth Edition
 
Affected Teaching
This verse is in the midst of the chapter which deals with the Word of God versus the traditions of men. This chapter is one of the most hated by “works gospels.” The statement which the Lord Jesus Christ makes, “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear” is focused upon those who are truly saved. All human beings are born with ears and those who heard the Lord Jesus had physical ears but what is in view here are those who can understand spiritual truths, those with spiritual ears. The Gnostics did not believe in the Holy Spirit as being the third person of the trinity and therefore did not believe that He indwells the true believer, giving to them the spiritual ears which have the ability to understand the spiritual truths of the Bible. This is also one of the ways a person can tell if they are saved by the way they respond to spiritual truths. If they can understand them, then they have spiritual ears but if they are just heard with unsaved ears, then the spiritual truths are not understood. Once again the modern versions engender doubt upon a great spiritual truth of the Bible. If we remain with the King James Bible our faith remains intact rather than being fragmented in doubt and disbelief which spews from the modern versions.

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