But He turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Luke 9:55,56
Today’s text looks much different if you read it from one of the modern-language versions of the Bible. For example, the ESV renders these two verses like this: ‘But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.’ That is a very large difference! The newer versions – and this is true of most if not all of them – leave out a great deal of information that our KJV provides. Is this information important? I believe so, especially the first part of verse 56: For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. This reminder of the compassionate and merciful mission of the Lord Jesus comes after the disciples had suggested that a particular village should be destroyed for its rejection of Him. James and John felt that the rejection should be punished, and in a way they were right. But that was not the heart of the Lord Jesus; He loved those people and His greatest desire was that they would be saved. And He expressed that desire to the angry disciples. At least, He did so according to the KJV. But should those words actually be there?
One of the strongest arguments for including these words in Holy Writ is that of common sense. James and John had just suggested that fire be called down from Heaven to destroy the rejecters in the village. Given His pattern of clear explanations for His actions and His motives, the Lord Jesus is highly unlikely to have simply told them something like ‘Stop that, boys!’ He would certainly have explained what was wrong with their suggestion. And there is no reason why the Holy Spirit would have hidden that explanation from us. So the KJV version of these verses makes common sense.
This version is also in harmony with the character of the Lord Jesus. He is on His way to Jerusalem to become the Sacrifice for sins, the greatest display of God’s love for mankind that has ever occurred. It would be in harmony with that love and compassion that He would have rebuked the disciples, and that He would tell them why. This text – as the KJV relates it – gives us one of Scripture’s best descriptions of His mission of mercy.
A third argument in favour of the KJV wording lies in the choice of manuscripts from which the different versions are translated. In the early 1500s, 54 of the greatest Greek and Hebrew scholars in history worked to compile what we now know as the King James Version. For their work, they selected the set of manuscripts referred to as the Textus Receptus, or Received Text, sometimes called the Byzantine or Majority Text. This text included more than 90 percent of the existing manuscripts, of which there are more than 5,000. Modern-language versions use what is termed the Minority, or Alexandrean text. This text was rejected by Christians in the early centuries because of its many errors and omissions. Including part of today’s text.
Did the Lord Jesus come to destroy men’s lives or to save them? It depends on which version of the Bible we read. – Jim MacIntosh