Matthew 17:21 KJB – “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
ASV, NET, NIV, ESV, Jehovah Witness NWT, Catholic New Jerusalem – OMITTED
NASB 1963 to 1995, Holman Standard 2009 – [“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.] [brackets]
Is Matthew 17:21 inspired Scripture that belongs in the Bible or not?
The textual evidence for the inclusion of this verse is massive and universal. It is found in the Majority of all Greek manuscripts including Sinaiticus correction, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, O, S, U, V, W, X, Y, Gamma, Delta, Pi, Sigma, Phi and Omega among the uncial or capital lettered manuscripts, and is in the Diatessaron, a compilation of the 4 gospels, which dates to around 160-175 A.D.
It is included in the Old Latin copies of a, aur, b, c, d, f, ff2, g1, l, n, q, r1. It is in the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, Harclean, some Coptic Boharic, the Armenian, some Ethiopic, the Georgian and the Slavonic ancient versions. It is quoted by such early church writers as Origen, Asterius, Hilary, Basil, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Jerome and Augustine.
It is omitted mainly by the Vaticanus manuscript and Theta.
Sinaiticus original omitted the verse, but then another scribe corrected Sinaiticus and put it back in the text.
The Catholic Versions
The earlier Catholic versions like the Douay-Rheims of 1582 and the Douay of 1950 both included the entire verse but numbered it Matthew 17:20. Then the St. Joseph New American Bible 1970 numbered it as 17:21 and put the verse in the text but [in brackets].
Then the 1985 New Jerusalem bible completely omitted the verse from the text.
But they were not done yet. Now in 2009 The Sacred Bible Catholic Public Domain Version has come out and they put the entire verse back in Matthew 17:21 and not in brackets!
Other versions that entirely omit the verse are the RV, ASV (but notice the NASB puts it in brackets), the RSV, NRSV, ESV, NIV and the Jehovah Witness New World Translation.
CRITICAL TEXT VERSIONS THAT INCLUDE Matthew 17:21
The ever changing critical text gang can’t seem to agree even among themselves and several of them continue to include the entire verse in the text.
Among those critical text versions that contain the verse are Weymouth New Testament 1912, J.B. Phillips N.T. 1962, The New Berkeley Version in Modern English 1969, the Living Bible 1971, the Amplified Bible 1987, the [NASB 1995], The Last Days Bible 1999, The New Century Version 2005, the Holman Standard 2009 [in brackets], the New European Version 2010, The Voice 2012, the International Children’s Bible 2015 and the International Standard Version 2014 with NO brackets.
The entire verse of Matthew 17:21 is found in the Anglo-Saxon Gospels 1000 A.D., Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1534, Coverdale 1535, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew’s Bible 1549, the Bishops’ Bible 1568, the Douay-Rheims 1582, the Geneva Bible 1587, the Beza N.T. 1599, Mace N.T. 1729, Whiston’s N.T. 1745, John Wesley’s N.T. 1755, Worsley Version 1770, Haweis N.T. 1795, Living Oracles 1835, Sawyer N.T. 1858, The Emphatic Diaglott 1865, Darby 1890, Young’s 1898, the New Lamsa’s translation of the Syriac Peshitta 1933, New Life Version 1969, the NKJV 1982 and the Lawrie Translation 1998.
Other English Bibles that contain Matthew 17:21 are The Word of Yah 1993, The Interlinear Greek N.T. 1997 (Larry Pierce), the Worldwide English N.T. 1998, Third Millennium bible 1998, God’s First Truth 1999, Sacred Scriptures Family of Yah 2001, The Tomson N.T. 2002, The Resurrection Life N.T. 2005, English Majority Text Version 2009, Bond Slave Version 2009, Faithful N.T. 2009, The Hebraic Transliteration Scripture 2010 – “Howbeit this kind goes not out but by tefillah (prayer) and tzom (fasting).”, the Holy Scriptures VW Edition 2010, The Work of God’s Children Illustrated Bible 2011, the Online Interlinear 2010 (André de Mol), the Expanded Bible 2011, The Orthodox Jewish Bible 2011, the Conservative Bible 2011, The Far Above All Translation 2011, The Biblos Interlinear Bible 2011, the Interlinear Hebrew-Greek Scriptures 2012 (Mebust), The Word of God Bible 2012 and the Modern English Version 2014.
Foreign Language Bibles that Contain Matthew 17:21
Among the foreign language Bibles that contain Matthew 17:21 are the Spanish Sagradas Escrituras 1569, Cipriano de Valera 1602, the Reina Valera 1960-1995, the French Martin 1744, the French Ostervald 1996 and the French Louis Segond 2007, Luther’s German Bible 1545 and the German Schlachter Bible 2000 – “ Aber diese Art fährt nicht aus außer durch Gebet und Fasten.”, the Italian Diodati 1649, La Nuova Diodati 1991 and the Nuova Riveduta 2006, the Dutch Staten Vertaling, the Portuguese Almeida Atualizada 2009, the Hungarian Karoli Bible, the Russian Synodal Bible, the Romanian Cornilescu Bible and the Romanian Fidela 2014, the Czeck BKR, the Tagalog Ang Salita ng Diyos 1998, and the Polish Updated Gdansk Bible 2013.
Although the NIV English version omits the entire verse, yet the NIV Portuguese version contains the verse and not even in brackets! The Nova Versão Internacional 2000 reads: “ Mas esta espécie só sai pela oração e pelo jejum”
The Modern Greek Bible – Τουτο δε το γενος δεν εξερχεται, ειμη δια προσευχης και νηστειας.
And the Modern Hebrew Bible – אבל המין הזה לא יצא כי אם בתפלה ובצום׃
The Lord Jesus Christ said “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
He either said these words that are recorded in Matthew 17:21 of He didn’t and God put them in Matthew 17:21 or He didn’t.
All the modern versions have to offer us is a confused voice of uncertainly and doubt. Some of them omit these words and others include them. And that is exactly what Satan wants – “Yea, hath God said?”
Get yourself the King James Holy Bible and you will never go wrong.