In the short note below the author will show that the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible contains a rather striking error.
Mark Falsely Attributes Malachi Verse to
Isaiah
Mark said that the prophet Isaiah spoke of the messenger preparing the way, but he was quite wrong: "It is written in Isaiah the prophet: I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way [1]--a voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." [2] (Mark 1:1-3)
The editors of the New International Version of the Bible knew that Mark
was wrong, that's why in a footnote they identify "Malachi" as
the true author of the those words. Here are NIV's footnotes
correcting Mark:
[1] "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.." (Malachi 3:1)
[2] "A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3)
Matthew Was More Careful Than Mark
The author or authors of Matthew, who evidently felt the need
to be able to explain where Mark got his information, checked Isaiah and
found that Mark was mistaken. They knew about the mistake 1900 years
before the NIV editors did: Isaiah did not write what Mark said
he wrote, Malachi did. Thus, Matthew snipped off the first part of
Mark's verse attributed to Isaiah, which Matthew knew was really from
the prophet Malachi, and kept the part that actually was in Isaiah.
The part underlined below is the part that Matthew wisely left
out:
This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. (Matthew 3:1-3)
Conclusions
If Mark was an inspired Bible-writer, taking words breathed from the lips of the Christian god and inking them on scroll, then God must have been playing a trick on him, because Mark wrote down something that was not true. On the other hand, if Mark wasn't inspired, then it is easy to forgive his oversight, for it matters very little in the great scheme of things who actually wrote those inspiring words--unless, of course, you're a fundamentalist whose faith rests on the very shaky foundation of biblical inerrancy. King James fundamentalists are safe: the King James Version of the Bible does not make a false attribution, but the New International Version deals a death blow to the NIV fundamentalists' belief in inerrancy. Naive bible readers may suggest that the NIV editors' footnote acknowledging the true author of the contested words absolves the NIV of any blame. Nothing could be further from the truth. The NIV editors gave what they felt was a true and faithful translation, but they were unable to cover up an egregious error by Mark, so they just acknowledged it in their footnote.