Isaiah 11:6 says that the wolf will dwell with the lamb. The original Hebrew word used there is “zeh-av”. In every case where that word is used in the Hebrew scriptures English Bible translators have translated it as “wolf”. The Hebrew word for Lion is ”kephiyr”. Kephiyr is used a little later in that same verse (Isaiah 11:6), but not in connection with the lamb. If the original Hebrew uses the word for “wolf”, not “lion”, in connection with the lamb in Isaiah 11:6 then doesn’t that prove that the English translation of that verse as we now see it is correct, and has not been corrupted by any supernatural effect?
I can certainly understand that some people honestly think they recall a Bible verse that says the lion shall lie down with the lamb because, as Pollyjetix pointed out, lion and lamb are often linked elsewhere in Christian literature. Most notably, Revelation 5:5, speaking of Christ, uses the phrase “Lion of the tribe of Judah”, and then the very next verse, still speaking of Christ, refers to Him as a Lamb that has been slain, thus Lion and Lamb are permanently linked in our minds. Then we see in Isaiah 11:6 that both lion and lamb are mentioned (as well as wolf, leopard, kid, calf, and fatling), but since lion and lamb are the two animals that were both used as representations of Christ, those are the two that stand out in our minds, and we don’t really pay attention to the fact that Isaiah 11:6 actually places the lamb with the wolf (not the lion) and the lion with the calf and fatling (not the lamb), so in our minds we put the two memorable animals together along with the phrase “shall lie down with” (which actually is in reference to the leopard and the kid), so we get the idea that “the lion shall lie down with the lamb”. Then some preacher who has had that phrase fixed into his mind misquotes the verse that way, others like it so they repeat the misquote, it catches on, and before long it’s assumed that the Bible says, “lion shall lie down with the lamb”, because it’s assumed that a million people quoting that phrase can’t all be wrong.
The truth is none of you memorized it that way by reading it from the pages of the Bible. You may have memorized it that way by reading from some source other than the Bible, or by hearing your Pastor or Sunday School Teacher state it that way, but you can rest assured that the memory did not come from what you saw printed in the Biblical text.
Also, words like “debts” (in the Lord’s prayer) and “tables” (of the ten commandments) were always there. Those words did not just appear recently. Those words can be found in very old commentaries of the Lord’s prayer and the ten commandments, such as the commentaries Matthew Henry wrote over 300 years ago.
The reason some people remember the quote as “forgive us our trespasses” instead of “forgive us our debts” is because just a couple of verses later Jesus talks about forgiving “trespasses”. Matt 6:12, in the KJV, uses “debts”, but Matt 6:14&15, in the KJV, use the word “trespasses”. None of those verses have mysteriously changed; those are just the words the KJV translators originally decided worked best. What has changed is that some people have finally noticed that Matt 6:12 doesn’t use the word “trespasses”. That’s just the word that has been fixed into their minds because of what they remember from a few verses down the page.
The reason some people remember “tablets” instead of “tables” in passages like Exodus 34 is actually because they really are remembering correctly. Most English Bible versions do use the word “tablets”. The KJV is one of the rare exceptions that uses “tables”. For those of you who remember “tablets”, and are absolutely sure that it was the KJV, you may want to reconsider. If someone read it to you when you were six years old you don’t really know what translation you were hearing. The KJV is not the only English translation that was commonly available when you were a child. The NKJV was available back in the 1980s, the NIV in the late 1970s, the NASB in the 1960s or 1970s (NT & OT published separately), the RSV in the 1950s, the ASV since about the start of the 1900s; in fact all your life you have been hearing the Bible quoted (and misquoted) from numerous translations other than the KJV (unless you are hundreds of years old).
People (including KJV-only devotees) are commonly mistaken about which version they’re reading or hearing. For an example of this oversight see
http://www.iabhorcern.org/apps/photos/album?albumid=16004187 . The creator of that webpage believes he has a KJV Bible that was spared the supernatural alterations that the rest of the world’s KJV Bibles have been subjected to. He posted photos of some of the pages of his unchanged KJV to show what the text originally said before the Mandela effect hit. His Bible does in fact have different words than other KJV Bibles, but the reason is not that other KJV Bibles have been affected by supernatural sabotage. Take a look at the photos. He is apparently quite unaware that he has an NLT (New Living Translation). The first five photos are of pages of an NLT. Some of the lower photos are some other version; possibly TLB. You see now how easy it is for people to mistake something else for the KJV. Millions of us have probably made the same mistake (but most don’t take it as far as making an entire website, complete with pictures of some other version that we claim is a KJV).
Every now and then another one of these strange myths about the Bible catches on and gets circulated. About 10 years ago it was the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had kids, but the records of this were concealed for someone’s political purposes, or something like that. About 20 years ago it was the Bible Code craze which claimed that the Bible’s hidden messages are decoded by some process of rearranging the letters sideways or diagonally, or something like that. Now it’s this idea that words in Bibles are being mysteriously changed while they’re sitting on shelves. I realize that these conspiracy theories and alternate reality stories are fascinating and compelling; I’m a Sci-fi fan too; but 1 Tim 4:7 tells us to “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;”. “Have nothing to do with” them means we are to reject all these silly myths for what they are: fiction. “Train yourself for godliness” means that we are to learn the real message of the Bible; not all the new myths and fictitious claims that emerge every several years, but the real message that unites us to God.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”. The death of Christ for our sins, and His resurrection: that’s the message the Bible says is the thing that is “of first importance”. It does not say that looking for coded messages or magically changing words or conspiracy theories is of first importance. After all, even if “tablets” did change to “tables” and “trespasses” did change to “debts”, and we could proved it, what difference would it make? Nowhere in the Bible does it say “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
word switches should not perish but have eternal life”. Our sin has earned us the eternal wrath of God, and our salvation from that sin and it’s eternal consequences depends, not on understanding Mandela effect, but on putting our full faith in the substitutionary death of Christ that averts the eternal wrath of God. As we get sidetracked into other things it is easy to forget that that Gospel is the message “of first importance”. That is why Paul had to remind the Corinthians of that message that he preached to them (1 Cor 15:1). Some of us seem to think that the Gospel is only our introduction to Christianity; and after that we just leave the Gospel behind and go onto other things. The Gospel is not something that we are ever supposed to leave behind or grow beyond. If we think we have grown beyond the Gospel then we probably didn’t fully get it in the first place. As we dwell on the conspiracy theories and mysterious oddities that creep into the church every several years, then in a subtle and unnoticed way the Gospel gets de-emphasized and neglected, despite the fact that the Bible emphasizes it as “of first importance”. It doesn’t get proclaimed any more and we forget that the Gospel, the message of the cross, is the power of God to us who are being saved.
I suspect that all of this will fall on deaf ears to anyone who is fixated on this Mandela effect issue, but it is to those of you who are being saved that I appeal. Stop and think about the fact that for our sake He who knew no sin was made to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Ponder that, endeavor to understand it, and then be amazed. Put the substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ back into it’s place “of first importance”, as did Paul who said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
