The copies

Witness

Matthew jumps a verse. The prayer stops. Two strokes decide God or He.

Walk the copies. KJV often keeps the longer reading. BSB follows the older books. When a post says theft, we show you the page. A missing verse is often still in Mark. This is not a decoder ring for villains.

The gaps

A line sits in the KJV and not in the oldest copy. It is often still in Mark or Luke.

01Fasting02Lost03Widows04Ears05Worm06Forgive07Numbered08Fire09Field10Barabbas11Angel12I believe13Goads14Silas15Grace

The joins

An Amen was added. A hard stop was kept. Sweat like blood is argued. A woman the church would not lose.

01Amen02Ending03Sweat04Woman

The words

The copies disagree on God or He, on blood, on three that testify, and on God or Son.

01Comma02Blood03God or He04Son of God05God or Son

The gaps · 05 of 15 · Said once, not three times

The worm and the fire

The hard sentence is still there — once. KJV says it three times.

King James (1611)
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Berean Standard Bible
The line is not printed as 9:44 or 9:46. It remains as 9:48.

The seam

  1. 01If your hand causes you to sin

    Mark 9:43

    Cut it off. Better to enter life maimed than to go with two hands into hell, into the unquenchable fire. The warning is already this hard.

  2. 02The refrain, twice extra

    Mark 9:44

    KJV prints Isaiah’s closer here, and again at 46. The oldest copies wait until 48 and say it once.

  3. 03Where the worm does not die

    Mark 9:48

    The line is still on every page. It is Isaiah 66:24 in Mark’s mouth. The fire is not quenched. Once is enough, if you hear it.

In these copies

  • Byzantine majority
  • KJV, WEB

Not in these copies

  • Sinaiticus
  • Vaticanus
  • early Alexandrian
  • BSB, ASV, NIV

Read it this way

Isaiah’s worm-and-fire line sits at Mark 9:48 in the oldest copies. Hand, foot, and eye are three warnings. Then one closer: their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. That is the hard sentence. It is still there.

KJV repeats it after each “if your hand / foot / eye,” so the three warnings close the same way. Verses 9:44, 9:46, and 9:48 repeat the same words three times. That is memory. A copyist who felt the hammer of 9:48 wanted it to fall after every limb. It is not a cover-up of Gehenna. It is a refrain, written in.

Hell is not edited out of Mark. The oldest Mark says the hard sentence once, and lets it stand. BSB follows that. WEB and KJV let it ring three times. Count the bells if you want. Do not say the fire went out.

Still on the page: Mark 9:48 — Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Some sayThey took hell out of Mark.

Hell is not edited out of Mark. The oldest Mark says the hard sentence once.

  • KJV

    on the page

  • WEB

    on the page

  • BSB

    not printed

  • ASV

    not printed

Open Mark 9Open Mark 9

The line the text already walks — that is Foretold. Words you already say out loud sit in Words with weight. Witness is when the copies do not match.