Has the Bible Been Changed? The Bible Says Yes!

A Book with Many Versions

Christians often speak of “the Bible” as if it is a single, uniform book. But the reality is very different. Protestant Bibles contain 66 books. Catholic Bibles contain 73 books. Eastern Orthodox Bibles contain about 76 books. The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church uses 81 books. These are not different translations of the same text. They are different collections. Seven books found in the Catholic Bible, including Tobit, Judith, and 1 & 2 Maccabees, are completely absent from the Protestant Bible. The 1611 King James Version included these books. But by 1666, they were removed.

Verses That Appeared and Disappeared

Even within the New Testament, entire passages have been added or removed. The famous story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) is absent from the oldest manuscripts. The longer ending of Mark (16:9-20) is also missing from early texts. In the 1952 Revised Standard Version, these passages were placed in footnotes with notes explaining they were not found in the most ancient authorities. Under pressure from certain denominations, they were restored to the main text in later editions. The Bible itself has changed before our eyes.

The Most Famous Forgery

Perhaps the most famous example is 1 John 5:7-8. In the King James Version, this verse reads, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This verse, known as the Comma Johanneum, was the strongest biblical proof for the Trinity. Yet it appears in no Greek manuscript before the 14th century. Modern translations like the RSV and NIV have removed it entirely. A Christian scholar of the Bible (Bart D. Ehrman) admitted, “It is a forgery, inserted centuries after the New Testament was written.”

Early Church Leaders Admit the Problem

Christian scholars themselves acknowledge the issue. Dr. W. Graham Scroggie of the Moody Bible Institute wrote, “Yes, the Bible is human… Those books have passed through the minds of men, are written in the language of men, were penned by the hands of men.” Kenneth Cragg, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, stated, “The Gospels have come through the mind of the Church behind the authors. They represent experience and history.” This is not a book preserved letter by letter. It is a human record, edited, selected, and changed over centuries.

The Quran’s Unchanging Promise

The Qur’an presents a stark contrast. Allah challenges, “Do they not consider the Quran? Had it been from any source other than Allah, they would have found within it many discrepancies” (Q 4:82). The Quran has been preserved exactly as it was revealed, letter by letter, word by word, without addition, subtraction, or change. This is not a claim made by Muslims alone. It is a fact of history. The Bible has changed. The Quran has not. That is the difference between a human book and the Word of God.

Haj Firas Naji