Bible Misquotations

There are numerous instances in the New Testament where passages from the Old Testament are quoted from, but when these source passages are looked up and compared with the New Testament citations thereof, we discover that they are severely mutated by the New Testament writers. In fact, they are often assigned entirely different meanings from those which were originally intended by the Old Testament authors in question. This more than suggests that the New Testament authors who made these blunders were either sadly bereft of a proper grasp of the Old Testament or, worse yet, were twisting Old Testament passages to suit their fancy. This situation also illuminates, once again, the reality that the Bible cannot be the product of divine inspiration. With that said, we will now embark on this aspect of our investigation.

In 1 Corinthians 3:19, 20 Paul wrote: “It is written…‘the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.’” Here Paul misquoted Psalm 94:11, which says: “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.” Paul substituted the word “wise” for “man,” profusely corrupting the original meaning of the passage he was quoting from.

Paul made another Old Testament citation violation in Romans 15:12: “Isaiah said, ‘There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust.’” The passage he refers to here is Isaiah 11:10, which really says: “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek.” The concern with this is that Isaiah did not say that the root of Jesse will reign over the Gentiles. He merely stated that “the root” will act as a standard or banner for the people. And notice how Isaiah referred to the standard, or banner, as “it,” and not “he,” as Paul did.

First Corinthians 2:9 finds Paul making yet another pathetic attempt at quoting from the Old Testament: “It is written, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.’” Here Paul was referencing another line in the book of Isaiah, this time from chapter 66, verse 4: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a god besides thee, who works for those who wait for him.” Paul twisted the words and meaning of this passage so much that it can legitimately be called a non-quote, rather than a misquote.

Ephesians 4:8 contains this Pauline misquotation: “Wherefore Jesus saith, ‘When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.’” Here Paul clumsily cited Psalm 68:18: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men.” Paul erred in several ways in his use of this text:

• The psalmist said “received gifts,” and not “gave gifts.”
• Paul took the liberty of changing this Psalm’s use of the pronoun “thou” (or “you”) to “he.”
• There is a vast gulf of a difference between “giving gifts to men” and “receiving gifts for men.”

In Romans 3:4 we see that Paul was at it again: “It is written, ‘That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.’” This is a misquote from Psalm 51:4: “Thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” The differences here cannot be missed: Paul talked about one being judged, whereas the Psalm in question merely referred to the act of judging. Also, Paul said “overcome,” whereas the Psalm actually said “be clear.” Once again Paul completely corrupted the original intent of his source.

Assuming Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, he did the same thing in chapter 10, verse 7: “Then said I, Lo I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.” The passage involved here is Psalm 40:7, 8, which actually says: “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) …I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Look at how Paul added the “I delight” part, and he dropped “yea, thy law is within my heart.”

Another Hebrews passage has Paul improperly quoting from Habakkuk: “Ye might receive thy promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” - Hebrews 10:36, 37. Here Paul misquoted from Habakkuk 2:3: “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” How many times does an author need to misquote before the light dawns that something foul is afoot? Habakkuk said nothing about “he,” but instead used the pronoun “it”—referring to a vision, and not to Christ. You can bargain on the fact that Paul did this on purpose. As we will see later on when we talk about “messianic prophecies,” New Testament authors were notorious for deliberately misquoting Old Testament passages to forward their agenda.

Here is another irresponsible quote in the book of Hebrews (chapter 11, verse 35), where Paul, referring back to Old Testament believers, wrote: “Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life.” This is as much of a misquote as you can get because there is no passage in the entire Old Testament that refers to people being tortured, refusing to accept release, and doing it all so they would have the hope of rising from the dead to a better life. A simple illusion was created here that such a passage existed. 

One last misquote that we should look at in the book of Hebrews is found in chapter 10, verses 5 and 6: “Sacrifice and offering thou [God] wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me; In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.” Here Psalm 40:6 was being alluded to, which says: “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.” The problems here are: 

1. “A body hast thou prepared me” is not found in the Psalm passage.
2. “Mine ears hast thou opened” is in the Psalm text, but Paul omitted it from his citation thereof.
3. The person speaking in Psalm 40:6 is the same one talking 6 verses later, in Psalm 40:12, who states: “… mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head.” If this passage applies to Christ, as Paul alleges in the book of Hebrews, then this would make Christ a vile sinner—something Christians undoubtedly are not prepared to accept. Thus, in the sinless Jesus context, Paul was totally misquoting and misapplying this Psalm passage.

We encounter another ill-quoted passage from Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:54, 55: “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’” Here Paul misquoted two scriptures. The first one is Isaiah 25:8, which says: “He will swallow up death forever,” instead of “Death is swallowed up in victory.” The second one is Hosea 13:14, where we read the words, “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction,” instead of “O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?”. The differences here, once again, are enormous. Either Paul was not that familiar with the Old Testament, or he was deliberately twisting it. Either way we have a serious perplexity here. Paul is the one who said that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” So are we to assume that God inspired Paul to misquote from the Old Testament? 

Paul wrote in Romans 11:26, 27: “So all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, ‘There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, For this is the covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.’” Here Paul misquoted and misused Isaiah 59:20, 21: “‘The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob,’ saith the Lord. ‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ saith the Lord.” The distortions of this passage by Paul lie in the facts that: 

1. The Isaiah reference said “to” Zion, and not “out of” Zion. 
2. The phrase “when I shall take away their sins,” as cited by Paul, is not found in Isaiah 59.
3. Isaiah declared that the “Redeemer” shall come “to them that turn from transgression in Jacob.” He did not say the “Deliverer…shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” as Paul claimed.

These are not minor slip-ups. 

Paul had this to say in Romans 10:6-8: “The righteousness that is by faith says: Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will send into the deep?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming.” Paul was here very loosely reciting Deuteronomy 30:12-14: “It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” The dissimilarities between these two passages, as we should come to expect by now, are numerous: 

1. Deuteronomy said nothing about “faith.”
2. Paul was talking about “him” (meaning Christ), whereas Deuteronomy was referring to “it” (meaning the law code of the Ten Commandments).
3. There is not even the most remote implication of any inference to Christ (or the coming messiah) in this Deuteronomy quote, as Paul insinuated. 
4. In Deuteronomy, there is no reference to penitence, and there is no connection to believing in Jesus or bringing him down from heaven or up from the dead. 

All that this Deuteronomy passage was saying is that the commandments, not Jesus or the word of faith, are close by, and that one need not undertake extraordinary efforts to find them.

Romans 9:33 has Paul saying: “It is written, ‘Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.’” In this instance, Paul was sloppily quoting two verses from Isaiah: 

1. “Thus saith the Lord God, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.’” - Isaiah 28:16. 
2. “He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both houses of Israel.” - Isaiah 8:14.

Paul misused these passages in several ways:

1. The prophet Isaiah said “he that believeth shall not make haste,” and not “he that believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” 
2. Both of these Isaiah texts are improperly juxtaposed by Paul. Isaiah 28:16 stated that the stone God will lay is a precious corner stone and a sure foundation—something entirely different from the stumbling stone, or a rock of offense, as related in Isaiah 8:14. 
3. It was never implied by Isaiah that the stone was “elect” or “chief” among many.

So what Paul did was deceptively combine two unrelated verses from Isaiah, in order to make them fit into his thesis.

Peter also distorted Isaiah 28:16 in 1 Peter 2:6, where he wrote: “It is contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.’” Believeth on him? Like Paul, Peter unwarrantedly added a masculine pronoun here. But there are a couple other ways that Peter distorted Isaiah 28:16: 

1. Isaiah said “shall not make haste,” whereas Peter said “shall not be confounded.” 
2. Isaiah, unlike Peter, never used the word “elect” in the passage in question.

We saw earlier how Paul, in Acts 20:35, attributed a statement to Christ that he never made, and how it was instead made by a Greek poet (“It is more blessed to give than to receive”). In addition, we also looked at a passage in the book of Hebrews (11:35) where reference was made to a non-existent quote in the Old Testament. Well, there are several other instances where Paul made similar type missteps—quoting from nonexistent Old Testament scriptures.

First we shall explore Romans 10:11, where Paul wrote: “Scripture saith, ‘Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.’” No such text can be found anywhere in the Old Testament. Paul simply pretended to be quoting from it. 

In 1 Corinthians 9:10 Paul did it again. Here he wrote: “…For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: ‘…he that plowed should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.’” Where might we find this in the Old Testament? The answer is—nowhere.

Second Timothy 3:8 records this statement from Paul: “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses.” Neither of these two individuals—Jannes and Jambres—are ever mentioned in any of the five books of Moses.

Paul made another mess in 1 Timothy 1:18: “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on [or “about”] thee.” There are no Old Testament prophecies that pertain to Timothy whatsoever. 

Here is still another example of this type of snafu from Paul, as seen in Ephesians 5:14: “It is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.’” This is not to be found in the Old Testament either. And certainly Christ is not mentioned therein. Leaving the apostle Paul’s misquotations, our next venue will be examples of this same type of defect in the gospels.

Matthew 2:23 says: “He [Joseph] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘he [Jesus] shall be called a Nazarene.’” There is no such Old Testament prophecy whatsoever. While Judges 13:5 says, “For the child shall be a Nazarite,” this has no connection with a Nazarene, i.e. an inhabitant of Nazareth. This simply refers to one who has taken the Nazarite vow. But nevertheless, reading Judges 13:5-7, 16, 17 more than adequately reveals that the person in question here was Samson the Nazarite, and not any coming messiah, Christ or otherwise.

In Matthew 27:9 Mathew said this about the betrayal of Jesus by Judas: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value.’” Matthew claimed that this was a prophecy of Jeremiah, but it is actually found in Zechariah 11:12, 13. Christians have attempted to resolve this error by pointing to similar verses in Jeremiah, where the speaker was told to go to a potter’s house (18:1-3) and was commanded to buy a field (32:6-10). However, the payment for the field was 15 shekels in Jeremiah’s story, not 30, and Jeremiah’s purchase of the field was actually considered a good thing, and not a sign of despair, since Yahweh told him to buy it.

Matthew was not the only New Testament writer who quoted an Old Testament source and attributed it to the wrong author. Mark did the same thing in Mark 1:2 (where John the Baptist is being quoted): “…as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.’” The verse where this statement is found is actually Malachi 3:1: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me…”.

John the Baptist is cited in Matthew 3:3 as saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” This is an inaccurate citation of Isaiah 40:3: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” The mistakes made in Matthew are as follows:

1. Nothing is said in Isaiah about one crying in the wilderness.
2. The present tense verb “cries” shows that Isaiah was not recording a prophecy of a future event, but was instead writing about a contemporary one. 
3. Matthew mentioned “paths,” plural, whereas Isaiah referred to “a highway,” singular. And a highway can hardly be equated with a path.

Jesus is quoted in Matthew 4:10 as saying: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’” This is a considerable distortion of Deuteronomy 6:13: “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.” Nowhere does this verse say to serve God only. So what we have in Matthew 4:10 is Jesus himself doing some misquoting, or else this misquote was wrongly attributed to him. But does it really matter?

Another misquote is ascribed to Jesus in Matthew 11:10, where he is said to be speaking these words: “This is he [meaning John the Baptist], of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.’” This is a misquote of Malachi 4:1: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.” The conflicts are as follows:

1. The Malachi passage said “thy way before me” instead of “the way before thee.”
2. Malachi said “will send” rather than “send.”
3. The words “before thy face” are not found in Malachi; Jesus simply made them up.

There are still more misquotations ascribed to Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. Matthew 12:5 has him asking: “Have ye not read in the law [the books of Moses], how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?” No such statement is ever made in the law, or in any other part of the Old Testament.

We now will scrutinize another erroneous quotation said to have been made by Jesus (which we touched upon earlier): “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” - Matthew 23:35. It is vital to note that the name Barachias is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament. Also, the Old Testament Zachariah was actually the son of Jehoida, and not the non-existent Barachias, as revealed in 2 Chronicles 24:20-22. 

The editorial comments that follow appear in Matthew 12:17-21: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, ‘Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.’” This is a corruption of Isaiah 42:1-4: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighted; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law.” Here is a breakdown of Matthew’s mutilation of this passage:

1. Isaiah said “have put” rather than “will put.”
2. The Isaiah passage does not contain the words “not strive.”
3. Matthew omitted “nor lift up.”¨
4. “Streets” is used in Matthew, instead of “street.”
5. “Victory” was inserted in place of “truth” by Matthew.
6. There is no conditional “till” mentioned in Isaiah.
7. “In his name shall the Gentiles trust” is not found in the Isaiah reference.
8. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law” was left out by Matthew. 

This next commentary was also made by Matthew: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, ‘I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.’” - Matthew 13:35. Here we have a bad attempt being made at quoting from Psalm 78:2, 3: “I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.” The issues are: 

1. The Psalms passage said nothing about “things which have been kept secret since the world began,” but only mentioned “dark sayings of old.” 
2. “Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,” as found in Psalm 78, is the very opposite of “secret,” as mentioned in Matthew.
3. In the Psalms reference it said “a parable,” while Matthew used the plural form, “parables.”

Luke 4:17-21 provides us with these remarks: “Then was delivered unto him [Jesus] the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written; ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’ And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down….And he began to say to them, This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke portrayed Jesus here as grossly misquoting from Isaiah 61:1, 2, which says: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” The troubles here abound: 

1. Isaiah mentioned nothing about healing the blind.
2. “Opening of the prison to them that are bound” is what Isaiah said, and not “to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
3. Jesus omitted the part about proclaiming “the day of vengeance of our God.”
4. The Isaiah quote was a statement made by Isaiah concerning himself—that he was appointed by God to tell the exiled, broken, downtrodden, afflicted, captive Jews that the day was coming when they would allegedly be saved, eat the riches of the Gentiles, and have eternal joy. Thus Jesus was brazenly pulling this Isaiah passage out of context and giving it a meaning that was never intended by its author. 

Luke 24:46 also portrays Christ as apparently having been badly acquainted with the Old Testament. This verse has him saying: “It is written, thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.” But there is no Old Testament prophecy that says the coming messiah would rise from the dead the third day.

Mark 9:13 depicts Jesus as voicing these sentiments: “I say unto you, That Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.” Where is such a prophecy to be found that foretold how Elijah would be mistreated when he returned? It is nonexistent. 

In Matthew 5:43 Jesus is quoted thusly: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies.’” While the saying “love your neighbor” is certainly in the Torah (Leviticus 19:18), the “hate your enemies” part is nowhere to be found in the context of that verse, or anywhere else in the Old Testament. 

It hardly needs to be emphasized that such mishaps as these are far too frequent and much too serious to ignore or casually brush off, especially when Jesus is the source thereof.

John’s gospel is no exception to this rule; it too contains misquotes by Christ. John 7:38 is one of them, which plays host to this statement made by him: “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, ‘out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’” Where is such a statement to be found in the Old Testament? Search for yourself—it simply is not there. 

Another misquote in John is John 20:9, which says: “As yet they [the disciples] knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” What Old Testament scripture explicitly states that Jesus (or the messiah) would rise from the dead?

The apostle Peter did his share of misquotations, one example of which we have already covered (1 Peter 2:6). But we shall now scrutinize several more.

Acts 1:20 has Peter declaring: “It is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein.’” This is a distortion of Psalm 69:25: “Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.” Notice how this Psalms text said “their” habitation and “their” tents, and not “his,” like Peter did. This Psalms verse was actually an appeal by David to God for aid in his struggle with his enemies, and had nothing to do with Judas, as Peter implied.

Peter made a further quotation trespass in Acts 2:16, 17: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ‘and it shall come to pass in the last days,’ saith God, ‘I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh’…” This is a perversion of Joel 2:28: “It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh…” Focus your attention on how Joel merely said “afterward,” and not “in the last days.” But aside from that, can the era of the apostles really be called the “last days” when roughly 2,000 years has passed since then? 

This next statement was also made by Peter in the book of Acts (2:30): “God had sworn with an oath to him [David], that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.” Peter was here mutilating Psalm 132:11, 12: “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.” The conflict here is hard to miss: The Psalm passage stated that all of David’s descendants who keep God’s covenant will sit upon David’s throne. There is no hint whatsoever that only one individual (Christ) was to receive this promise. 

Moving on to Peter’s first epistle (2:22), we read: “Who [meaning Jesus] did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” This is a total butchering of Isaiah 53:9: “Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” Look how Isaiah said “violence” and not “sin”—a very big difference.

The apostle James also got into the misquotation act. In James 4:5 he wrote: “Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, ‘The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?’” What scripture was he talking about here, you may ask? There is no such scripture.

So many improper quotations of the Old Testament are found in the New Testament that we are urged to ask: Does the New Testament ever properly cite the Old Testament?