Matthew 27:35 – The Reformation Text or the New Vatican Versions? Matthew 27:35 KJB – “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: THAT IT MIGHT BE FULFILLED WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET, THEY PARTED MY GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND UPON MY VESTURE DID THEY CAST LOTS.” ESV – (NIV, NASB, NET, Jehovah Witness NWT and modern Catholic versions) – Matthew 27:35 – “And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 

 

 The reading found in the King James Bible and other Reformation Bibles is a quote from the prophetic Psalm 22:18, which describes in detail the crucifixion and death of our Saviour. 

 

 It is the reading found in the Textus Receptus of Erasmus, Stephanus, Beza and Elzevir, as well as Delta, Theta, Phi, the Old Latin copies a, or, b, d, delta, g2, gig, h, q, r1, r2, some Vulgate copies, the Syriac Harclean, some Syriac Palestinian mss., the Coptic mae, Armenian, Ethiopic and Georgian ancient versions, and it quoted by Eusebius and Athanatius. All these words are omitted in the so called “Majority” text, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, S, U, V, W and Y as well as some Vulgate copies, the Syriac Peshitta, Sahidic, Boharic and some Ethiopic copies. 

 

 The question remains, Did God inspired these words in the Gospel of Matthew 27:35 or didn’t He? Do they belong in God’s Book in the gospel of Matthew or not? What we will see is that once again it comes down to the differences between the Reformation Bibles in all languages and the new Vatican Versions. 

 

 Bibles that = the KJB All these words are included in the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, Corpus Christi Manuscript 140 dated around 1000 A.D. They are also found in Wycliffe’s Bible 1395, Tyndale 1534 – “When they had crucified him they parted his garmentes and did cast lottes: to fulfyll that was spoken by the prophet. They deuyded my garmetes amonge them: and apon my vesture did cast loottes.”, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew’s Bible 1549, Bishops’ Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1587, the Beza N.T. 1599, the Bill Bible 1671, Wesley’s N.T. 1755, Worsley Version 1770, Thomas Haweis N.T. 1795, the Clarke N.T. 1795, The Thomson Bible 1808, The Revised Translation 1815, Webster’s Translation 1833, the Longman Version 1841, The Hussey N.T. 1845, The Morgan N.T. 1848, The Hewett N.T. 1850, the Etheridge Translation of the Syriac 1849, The Commonly Received Version 1851, The John Etheridge Translation of the Peshitta, The Revised N.T. 1862, the Smith Bible 1876, The Revised English Bible 1877, The Dillard N.T. 1885, Young’s 1898, New Life Version 1969, The New Berkeley Version in Modern English 1969, the NKJV 1982, the Amplified Bible 1987, and the Third Millennium Bible 1998. All these words are also in The Word of Yah 1993, the Lawrie Translation 1998, The Koster Scriptures 1998, God’s First Truth 1999, The Last Days Bible 1999, The Tomson New Testament 2002, The Apostolic Polyglot Bible 2003, The Evidence Bible 2003, Green’s Literal 2005, The Resurrection Life N.T. 2005 (Vince Garcia), Bond Slave Version 2009, The Public Domain Version 2009, Holy Scriptures VW Edition 2010, Jubilee Bible 2010, Hebraic Transliteration Scripture 2010, Biblos Interlinear Bible 2011, Conservative Bible 2011, Far Above All Translation 2011, The Work of God’s Children Illustrated Bible 2011, The Natural Israelite Bible 2012, the Hebraic Roots Bible 2012, The Modern Literal New Testament 2014 and The Modern English Version 2014 – “When they crucified Him, they divided His garments by casting lots TO FULFILL WHAT WAS SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET, “THEY DIVIDED MY GARMENTS AMONG THEMSELVES AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.” 

 

 The Catholic Versions The previous Douay-Rheims 1582 as well as the Douay version of 1950 both contained all these words – “And after they had crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: They divided my garments among them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.” (Douay-Rheims). 

 

 The more recent Catholic versions like the St. Joseph New American Bible 1970 as well as the New Jerusalem bible 1985 have omitted them and read like the ESV, NIV, Holman, NASB, NET and Jehovah Witness versions. But the Catholic Public Domain Version of 2009 and The Revised Douay-Rheims Bible of 2012 both have all these words in their text. 

 

 Foreign Language Bibles Foreign Language Bibles that contain all these words are Martin Luther’s German bible 1545, the German Schlachter bible 2000, the Spanish Sagradas Escrituras 1569, Cipriano de Valera 1602, the Reina Valera 1909 – 2011, the French Martin 1744, the French Ostervald 1996 and the French Louis Second 2007, the Italian Diodati 1649 and La Nuova Diodati 1991 – “Dopo averlo crocifisso, si spartirono le sue vesti tirando a sorte, affinch si adempisse ci che fu detto dal profeta: “Hanno diviso tra loro le mie vesti e sulla mia tunica hanno tirato a sorte”.”, the Portuguese Sagrada Biblia and the Almeida Corregida 2009, the Dutch Staten Vertaling Bible, the Czech Kralicka Bible 1613, Bible, Hungarian Karoli Bible, the Romanian Cornilescu Bible and the 2014 Romanian Fidela Bible, the Afrikaans Bible 1953, the Smith & Van Dyke Arabic bible, the Maori Bible, the Tagalog Ang Salita ng Diyos Bible 1998, The Quichua-Chimborazo N.T. 2013 (South America), and the Polish Updated Gdansk Bible of 2013. 

 

 And the Modern Greek Bible – “Αφου δε εσταυρωσαν αυτον διεμερισθησαν τα ιματια αυτου, βαλλοντες κληρον, δια να πληρωθη το ρηθεν υπο του προφητου, Διεμερισθησαν τα ιματια μου εις εαυτους και επι τον ιματισμον μου εβαλον κληρον.” As well as in the Modern Hebrew Bible – ויהי כאשר צלבו אותו ויחלקו להם את בגדיו וגורל הפילו למלאת את אשר נאמר בפי הנביא יחלקו בגדי להם ועל לבושי יפילו גורל׃

 

 So, once again we see that it comes down to either the text of the Reformation Bibles in all languages or today’s Vatican Versions like the ESV, NIV, NASB, NET, Holman, Jehovah Witness New World Translation and some modern Catholic versions. 

 

 Why do I refer to these modern versions as The Vatican Versions? It’s because the ever changing Critical Greek Text they are all based on is put out under the direct supervision of the Vatican. They come right out and tell you this in their Nestle-Aland Greek textbook 27th edition on page 45. 

 

 For more information on modern versions are Vatican versions call me 661-619-6434.

 

 Get yourself the King James Holy Bible, the one God approves of and the devil hates.