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Bible Question: Why
does Matthew 17:21 exist only as a footnote in the King James Bible
and not as a verse?
Bible Answer: Matthew
17:21 is the last sentence in Jesus' answer to one of His disciple's
question. Jesus had given His disciples power to cast out demons,
but they could not cast out the demon causing a man to be a lunatic.
Jesus casts out the demon and then explains why they could not. There
is an interesting lesson for us. Jesus had no problem casting out
the demon. He had given His disciples power to cast out demons (Matt.
10:5-8), but they could not do what Jesus did. Why? Some will say
they lacked faith but Jesus explains that even with faith they did
not have the power of Jesus for instantaneous exorcism. They had to
pray.
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And
when they came to the multitude, a man came up to Him, falling
on his knees before Him, and saying, “Lord, have mercy
on my son, for he is a lunatic, and is very ill; for he often
falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought
him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And
Jesus answered and said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?
Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon
came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples
came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast
it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness
of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as
a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from
here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be
impossible to you. “But this kind does not go out except
by prayer and fasting.” (NASB) Matt. 17:14-21 |
Jesus
statement, "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting" is Matthew 17:21.
What
Happened? The
passage is not in several Bibles. Here are some of them: New Century
Version (NCV), New International Version (NIV), Contemporary English
Version (CEV), and the New Living Translation (NLT). The verse is
not included in the newer Bibles because the older and better manuscripts
of Matthew do not include it. The translators of the older Bibles
were not as careful in the manuscripts they used. Apparently in the
process of copying the manuscripts, someone at a much later date copied
the verse from the Gospel of Mark and added it to the Matthew account.
Here is the Mark account.
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And
He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything
but prayer.” (NASB) Mark 9:29 |
The
only difference is that "fasting" is left out.
Conclusion: But
this does not change the actual events or words that were spoken.
In fact, we should always study all of the gospels - Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John - to see what happened during each event in Jesus' life.
When He preached or when He healed someone, each gospel writer may
added his own unique account because he heard something different,
or the Holy Spirit wanted to emphasize something new. Together the
gospels give us a complete picture of what happened in Jesus' life.
So the account in Matthew should be compared to the one in Mark. When
we do this, we should include Mark 9:29 because it happened. For some
reason, the Holy Spirit did not have it recorded in the gospel of
Matthew. |
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