Category: Textual Criticism

From: THE SOVEREIGN CREATOR HAS SPOKEN – New Testament Translation with Commentary…, Wilbur N. Pickering, ThM, PhD, p. 583 (p. 615 in the paperback)

Pickering’s translation of Matthew 18:18 (compare to NKJV, below):

18“Assuredly I say to you, whatever (pl.) you (pl.) may bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.b

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From: THE SOVEREIGN CREATOR HAS SPOKEN – New Testament Translation with Commentary…, Wilbur N. Pickering, ThM, PhD, p. 540-1 (p. 594-5 in the paperback)

Pickering’s translation of Mark 16:17-18 (compare to NKJV and NIV, below):

17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; 18 they will remove ‘snakes’;c and if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them at all;d they will lay hands on sick people, and they will get well.”e

[emphasis, including underlining, mine]

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5) Are we to handle snakes?
Mark 16:18

In the NKJV, Mark 16:18 reads like this: “they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”a

The NIV renders ‘they will pick up snakes with their hands’, the ‘with their hands’ being based on just over 2% of the Greek manuscripts. As we know, there are those who take this translation literally, and believe that they must handle poisonous snakes in obedience to God. I respect their sincerity, but believe they have been misled by a faulty translation.

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