You recently made a comment that in the NIV, David is “not the one who killed Goliath.” My 11-year-old son looked it up and found the NIV to read:
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
So, his comment to me was that your statement was ‘incorrect.’ I didn’t have an answer for him. Is there possibly another account of this in another portion of scripture?
Please let me know your thoughts on this so that I can talk with my son. This is not a major point obviously, but to a youngster, they want [and need] to know the ‘speaker has it clear.’
(We happen to have the NIV version and I realize it may not be a perfect translation—but I doubt you would claim that the NKJV is perfect either.)
Thanks for writing and thank you for bringing your family to fellowship with us in the grace message, and in the Lord's word rightly divided. I appreciate and respect the fact that you lead your family into the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and that you discuss the truth with your young son. I wish that I had that at 11 years and believe me, no one on earth is more sensitive to the spiritual needs of young men like your son, as I am.
Tell him that I said he is right, the passage in 1st Samuel 17 in the NIV does say that David killed Goliath. The problem is because, as you and your son are good Berean bible students, you will keep reading and eventually you will come across the same account while reading 2 Samuel 21:19 in your NIV which states:
“In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod."
In the KJV, it says that 'Elhanan' killed (not Goliath, but...) Goliath's brother, who was also at the battle between the Israelis and the Philistines when David killed Goliath.
2 Samuuel 21:19
And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
In this passage in the NIV, someone other than David is said to have killed Goliath!
You see, the bible has a way of repeating itself to provoke you to study it in its entirety to get more info and details about another passage...to compare scripture with scripture! Most people know the account of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17, but many don't go on to study out the other passages of scripture that speak about the account (found also in 1 Chronicles 20)! If your young son had read the 2 Samuel 21 account in his NIV he would have been confused, which is just what Satan desires for him. But our Apostle Paul says that God is not the author of confusion.
1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
Satan is very subtle, he will not try to corrupt 1 Samuel 17 in the modern versions because he knows that that passage is very popular. But, he will however change the account in other places in those versions. He will choose less studied-out passages (like the passage in 2 Samuel 21). Satan is always banking on our ignorance! (Which is why God, the Holy Spirit, teaches through our apostle Paul that he would not that we be ignorant of [Romans 1:13; 11:25; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13] Satan's devices).
2 Corinthians 2:11
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Again, in 2 Samuel 21:19, in the NIV, someone else other than David is said to have killed Goliath, which is not true!
When it comes to what I have said about the NIV, I say it from experience because it is the first version of the bible that I ever used when I got saved, until I found errors in it. I believed the Lord Jesus Christ when He said that "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He also said to the Father "Santify them by thy truth, thy word is truth." If we are to live by every word of God and if we are sanctified (set apart unto hm) by his word of truth, then we need to have it--and have it perfectly right! So once I found this out about 10 years ago, I prayed and searched until I found a version without error, and that version was the KJV!
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Even the so-called New King James version, or NKJV, has errors just like you said. Compare the following passages from the NKJV with the same in the KJV, and see how even the NKJV takes away from the Lord Jesus' glory. Acts 3:26, Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 2:20, Galatians 3:22, Philippians 3:9.
When you study out all these passages with your family in your study time in the NIV, and in the NKJV, and compare it with the same verses in the KJV, you will see that the other versions take away from the Lord's GLORY, and waters down his faith and his position as God's only perfect Son!
I am more than willing to sit down with you and your son to discuss these things in person, as I look not to destroy your son's faith in the Lord and his word, but to increase it! In order to do that though, he must have every word from God in a book that he can trust!
Here are more verses to study out and compare with the KJV and the NIV: Mark 1:2, Acts 8:37, Acts 9:6, 1 Corinthians 1:18, Hebrews 3:16.
I have done bible conferences about the word of God and the issues about all the different versions, we have DVDs of them in our library if you all want them.
I show the listeners how the issue with the other versions is not an issue of translation, but it is an issue of different underlying bible text. While studying this all out, I have found that the Hebrew and Greek text of the KJV is different from the other versions. The information above is just the tip of the iceberg, there is much more on this subject available to study out for yourself.
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