Matthew 17:20
 
Matthew 17:20
(KJV) And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
(1611 KJV) And Iesus said vnto them, Because of your vnbeliefe: for verily I say vnto you, If yee haue faith as a graine of mustard seed, yee shall say vnto this mountaine; Remoue hence to yonder place: and it shall remoue, and nothing shall be vnpossible vnto you.
(1587 Geneva Bible) And Iesus said vnto them, Because of your vnbeliefe: for verely I say vnto you, if ye haue faith as much as is a graine of mustarde seede, ye shall say vnto this mountaine, Remooue hence to yonder place, and it shall remoue: and nothing shalbe vnpossible vnto you.
(1382 Wycliffe) Jhesus seith to hem, For youre vnbileue. Treuli Y seie to you, if ye han feith, as a corn of seneueye, ye schulen seie to this hil, Passe thou hennus, and it schal passe; and no thing schal be vnpossible to you;
 
Counterfeit Versions
(CSB) “Because of your little faith,” he told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
(NIV) He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
(NASV) And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
(AMP) He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
(NLT) “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.
(ESV) He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
(CEV) Jesus replied: It is because you don't have enough faith! But I can promise you this. If you had faith no larger than a mustard seed, you could tell this mountain to move from here to there. And it would. Everything would be possible for you.
(NCV) Jesus answered, "Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. All things will be possible for you.
(1901 ASV) And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
(NLV) Jesus said to them, "Because you have so little faith. For sure, I tell you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to over there,' and it would move over. You will be able to do anything.
(HCSB) "Because of your little faith," He told them. "For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
(RSV) He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."
(NAB-Roman Catholic) He said to them, "Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
(NWT-Jehovah’s Witnesses) He said to them: “Because of YOUR little faith. For truly I say to YOU, If YOU have faith the size of a mustard grain, YOU will say to this mountain, ‘Transfer from here to there,’ and it will transfer, and nothing will be impossible for YOU.”
 
Textus Receptus - Traditional Text
o de ihsouV eipen autoiV dia thn apistian umwn amhn gar legw umin ean echte pistin wV kokkon sinapewV ereite tw orei toutw metabhqi enteuqen ekei kai metabhsetai kai ouden adunathsei umin
 
Hort Westcott - Critical Text
o de legei autoiV dia thn oligopistian umwn amhn gar legw umin ean echte pistin wV kokkon sinapewV ereite tw orei toutw metaba enqen ekei kai metabhsetai kai ouden adunathsei umin :
 
Corrupted Manuscripts
This verse is corrupted in the following manuscripts:
 
Omits “Jesus”
Aleph 01 - Sinaiticus - Nineteenth Century Counterfeit
B 03 - Vaticanus - Fourth century
D 05 - Bezae Cantabrigiensis - Fifth century
038 - (Majuscule) Ninth century
33 (Miniscule) - Ninth Century
 
Omits “unbelief” and renders “little faith
1 (miniscule) - Seventh century
13 (miniscule) - Eighth century
700 - (Miniscule) Eleventh century
892 - (Miniscule) - Ninth century
 
Manuscripts which agree with the Textus Receptus for this verse
 
Contains “Jesus”
Byzantine Text (450-1450 A.D.)
C 04 - Ephraemi Rescriptus - Fifth century
L 019 - Seventh century
W 032 - Fourth/fifth century
 
Contains “unbelief”
Byzantine Text (450-1450 A.D.)
C 04 - Ephraemi Rescriptus - Fifth century
D 05 - Bezae Cantabrigiensis - Fifth century
K 017 - Ninth century
L 019 - Seventh century
W 032 - Fourth/fifth century
Delta 037 - Ninth century
28 (Minuscule) - Eleventh century
565 - (Minuscule) - Ninth century
1010 - (Minuscule) - Twelfth Century
1241 - (Minuscule) - Twelfth century
 
Published Critical Greek Texts with Corruptions
 
Omit “Jesus and render “he said”
Lachmann, Karl - 1842
Tischendorf, Constantine - 1869
Tregelles, Samuel - 1857
Alford, Henry - 1849 revised in 1871
Westcott and Hort - 1881
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
 
Reads “little faith” instead of “unbelief”
Lachmann, Karl - 1842
Tischendorf, Constantine - 1869
Tregelles, Samuel - 1857
Alford, Henry - 1849 revised in 1871
Westcott and Hort - 1881
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
Here is a very subtle change which can be passed over without notice. If you will notice in the King James, the Lord tells the disciples that because of their unbelief they could not cast out the demon from the boy. Now the word in the Greek is “apistian” which means “no faith.” When you have the alpha privative in front of a word it means “no.” For example in English a person who is an atheist states there is no God. The word broken down is “a” no and theist “God.” So we see in our verse that Jesus was chiding the disciples because they had no faith. In the modern versions, they state that they have little faith. There is a great difference between none and little. If I have no money it means I am totally broke. If I have one dollar, it means I have little money but I am not totally broke. Now here is a confusing scenario that appears in this verse in the modern versions. Jesus accuses the disciples of having little faith but then goes on to say that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, then you can move mountains. He just got done telling them they have little faith and then tells them if they have small faith like a mustard seed. Well don’t they already possess the small faith needed to move mountains? In the King James, Jesus is telling them they have no faith and if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could move mountains. Which scenario removes the confusion? It is the King James because the faith goes from unbelief (no faith) to small faith which shows a progression in their faith. The modern versions go from little faith to small faith, well which direction is the progression of faith? I don’t know! Once again the King James version removes the confusion and shows a proper growth in faith from none to little.

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