"Where The Worm Dieth Not" (Mark 9)

[hillsbororiver]

Mar 9:44  Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mar 9:45  And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

Mar 9:46  Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

There have been many debates over the above scripture as well as a justification by many that these verses prove an eternal hell fire of pure torture without any hope of relief. This (Mark Chapter 9) is the only place in the NT where these phrases exist

At the last Conference Ray presented "How We Got The Bible" and one of the highlights (of many) was the list of "Spurious Passages Of The New Testament." Beneath the title is a brief explanation of how this came to light.

"On authority of Professor C. Tischendorf's notes on the readings of the two oldest manuscripts: The Sinaitic and the Vatican # 1209. The following words, found in our Common Version (King James Version) are not found in the oldest manuscripts.

You can find the entire transcript (thanks to Kat's diligence) here; http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5815.0.html

If we read a compilation of what is in the oldest manuscripts the above verses (and the message it implies) becomes much different.

Mark 9:44 (does not exist)

Mark 9:45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell,

Mark 9:46 (does not exist)

Casts a different "light" so to speak, doesn't it?

You can find more information on Professor Tischendorf's history here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_von_Tischendorf  (and many other sources).

His Peace and Wisdom to you,

Joe

[Deborah-Leigh]

Thank you for bringing that into perspective Joe.

It is amazing that Babylonian leaders will consider what is unscriptural as scriptural and what is anti scriptural as truth.

I often wonder if the leaders who have been through the Bible Colledges and have supposedly studied the earlier writings, if they click of if they just are blind. Do they know and ignore or do they not know and never knew?

Peace to you

Arcturus 

[Fedex Guy]

It's worth noting (especially for anyone who's new to this) that here Jesus is quoting part of an O.T. passage:

And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. (Isa. 66-24-25)

Here the worms were feeding on dead bodies, not living souls.

From the passage in Mark comes the bizarre speculation that there are some kind of immortal worms in hell. Sometimes they're flaming worms, sometimes they're 8 feet long, always tormenting human souls. It would be funny if it didn't terrorize so many sheep.