Depending on your preferred Bible translation, there may or may not be a “verse 26” in Mark chapter 11, or there might be a a footnote. Let’s take a look at this “verse 26” to see what it says, and then talk about the implications of whether or not Mark originally wrote it as part of what became the Gospel of Mark.
[But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your offenses.”]
Mark 11:26 NASB2020
https://bible.com/bible/2692/mrk.11.26.NASB2020
Even the NASB, which includes this verse in brackets, has a footnote that says, “Early mss do not contain this v”, which its its shorthand way of letting us know that, “Early manuscripts do not contain this verse”.
Although you may have heard of Jewish scribes carefully copying each letter of the Old Testament, in a process that gives us a high degree of confidence in its accuracy, the same wasn’t necessarily true of the New Testament. That might sound like heresy, but I hope that you’ll hear me out as I explain what I believe the implications of that are.
First, remember that the early Christians were expecting Jesus to return any day, and almost certainly during their lifetimes. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, for instance, seems to have been written to those who were concerned that fellow Christians had died before Jesus returned. What would happen to them? (They will be just fine, by the way.) After a while, though, when Jesus’ return wasn’t as soon as they had expected, and as fewer eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry remained to testify first-hand, there was value in writing down additional details for those who couldn’t hear the accounts from the original followers of Jesus. (And, I’m glad that they did!)
However, as the history of the early church was collected (which includes writings outside of the Bible, too), some copyists may have added their own insight, or information from another gospel that they knew about, especially if they were treating these accounts as church history, rather than as a new book of the Bible. Still, thanks to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, and multiple copies of Bible books, we can be confident about the overwhelming majority of passages from the Bible. And, when translators let us know about something that isn’t 100% consistent among the manuscripts that we have, we are reminded that the source material must be even better for the other passages (i.e., where they don’t have to make this comment).
So, what do we do in a situation like this? The good news is that we don’t have to abandon our confidence in the Bible, just because someone may have added a note of their own in a certain copy. The available copies of Bible books are well studied, and if there are any variations, we can learn about them transparently as we seek to get to the truth that God gave us in the first place. Perhaps more importantly, though, we can remember that God (specifically, the Holy Spirit, I believe) inspired the entire Bible, so He can also help us understand it, even if details about textual variants and translations aren’t always clear from mere human knowledge. We can also check elsewhere in the Bible to see if a verse in question is supported or refuted by content whose background we’re more sure about.
In that light, how about this “verse 26”? For one thing, it seems to correlate to the previous verse: if Jesus took the time to mention that God would forgive our sins if we forgave others, it seems logical that if we chose not to be forgiving, we shouldn’t expect God to forgive us.
In addition, the NIV translators give us another hint, referencing a passage in Matthew. I encourage you to read Matthew 6:12-15 (whether from the preceding link, or in your own Bible). These verses include part of what we call the Lord’s Prayer from the Sermon on the Mount. Because we don’t find footnotes about any significant manuscript variations for these verses in Matthew, as compared to Mark 11:26, it seems clear that Jesus taught both sides of this message (i.e., if we do or don’t forgive others), regardless of whether or not He happened to say it after Peter’s comments about the withered fig tree.
We could also find other passages, like Matthew 18:21-35 (when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone), or Luke 6:37 (when Jesus was teaching about judging others), to help us understand principles about forgiveness.
As a result, when we find something that even the translators of the Bible aren’t sure of, we shouldn’t give up. These aren’t contradictions in the Bible. It just means that we, living almost 2000 years after the last book of the Bible was written down, don’t have access to the original text, so we may need to do a little homework. In many cases, like this one, I think that you’ll find that listening to the Holy Spirit and looking at the Bible as a whole (rather than arguing about a few differences between manuscripts), will show us the truth clearly enough. Now, whether we like the truth that the Bible teaches, including the fact that we should forgive others…well, that’s another challenge for all of us!
From Sunday School lesson prepared for November 16, 2025
References:
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Mark, by Allen Black. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 