Some passages of Scripture are difficult because they’re hard to understand. Others are difficult because they’re challenging to apply. Think about it. Which one keeps you up at night: Jude’s teaching about Enoch or Jesus’ teaching about loving your enemy? I know I struggle with the second one much more than the first.

One thing that may not come to mind when we think of difficult passages is the textual variants — those parts of the Bible that some scholars think may not have been part of the original manuscripts. When comparing the oldest versions of the Bible, there may be slight differences, such as an additional word or a missing word. In some cases, whole passages are absent.

What should we do when we come to one of those footnotes that makes us scratch our heads? I believe all of God’s Word is inspired and is useful for preaching. But textual variants make me wonder: Is this really part of God’s Word?

What Does It Mean?

Textual variants are words, sentences or even long stretches of Scripture that may or may not have been part of the original manuscripts. If it’s in the Bible, it’s in the Bible, right? Well, when you take a closer look, you may find that there’s debate about some of these passages.

We affirm that the Bible, in its original documents, is divinely inspired and without error. The problem is, we no longer have those original documents, but only copies, or copies of copies. And some of those copies had mistakes in them. Let me explain.

Every part of the Bible, whether Old or New Testament, was written before the printing press and long before photocopiers or digital scanners. If you wanted to make a copy of a certain book, it was a long process of hard work. People known as scribes performed this incredible job. One person would stand in a room and read from the Bible, while a scribe would sit and copy it down, word for word.

Since people are human and make mistakes, what happened if the reader misspoke a line? What if the writer misheard a word? What if there was a smudge on the manuscript? This is where most of these textual variants come from.

How Can We Know?

When it comes to these textual variants, what makes scholars and translators so confident about their conclusions? The process is pretty complex, but it comes down to two simple questions: How do the earliest copies read? What do the majority of copies agree on?

When scholars find a variation between two copies of Scripture, or manuscripts, they attempt to determine which copy is the oldest — the idea being that the earlier the copy, the closer it is to the original.

The oldest copies of these original texts are close to 99 percent in agreement with one another.

Scholars and Bible translators are confident, though, that the Bible we have today is almost exactly, word for word, the Bible as originally penned. The vast majority of these differences in texts are minor, like writing “your” instead of “you’re,” or “at” instead of “it.” And numerically speaking, the oldest copies of these original texts are close to 99 percent in agreement with one another.

Questions We Should Ask

What about those larger passages of Scripture? Those aren’t the result of a slip of the pen. For instance, I’m sure you’ve come to the story of the woman caught in adultery and encountered a note of caution, almost like you’re entering into a new area: “The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53–8:11.”

Let’s go a bit deeper here to see what’s going on. As people have studied the very oldest copies of the Bible, they noticed that the earliest Greek texts do not contain this story. Also, the oldest Coptic, Syriac, Gregorian and Armenian copies of the fourth Gospel exclude it as well. And the Early Church fathers all skip over this portion when writing their commentaries. It seems obvious, then, that these words were not in the original writing of John’s Gospel.

However, that doesn’t mean it never happened. It’s very likely that believers passed down this story orally through the early years of the Church. John himself may have even used this story while preaching.

To make a decision on whether we can preach from it too, we need to ask a couple of questions. First of all, is it theologically valid? If what you’re reading in this passage agrees with what you already know to be true about God, then it is.

Second, is it scripturally accurate? What I mean is, does it line up with what God reveals in the rest of the Bible? Scripture will interpret Scripture for us. And no one doctrine hangs on a single verse, especially a textual variant. Where else in the Word of God did Jesus encounter a sinful woman or an angry mob? How did He respond to them? Is this depiction of His grace and truth repeated elsewhere? The answer is, “Yes!”

Preaching It

Many leaders through the years have preached sermons from John 7:53–8:11. Maybe you’re among them. But practically speaking, how would you preach from it, knowing it’s a textual variant? Here are three steps to follow:

First, do your homework. Read the footnotes of your Bible. Read quality commentaries. Make sure you understand the issues.

Second, be honest. Your congregants read the same Bible as you and can find the same information in their footnotes. So be upfront about it. Tell your congregation why scholars consider this a variant. And let them know how this picture of Jesus lines up with what we know about God from elsewhere in Scripture.

Finally, focus on Jesus. No matter how difficult the text is, all preaching should point people to Christ. Every sermon should drip with words that bring our attention to the Cross and the empty tomb.

See also Parts 1 and 2 in this series.