This past Sunday, I finished preaching through Romans 16:17-23. Next week, we’ll turn to the grand doxology in Romans 16:25-27. If you were following along in your Bible, or your phone, you likely noticed Romans 16:24 was missing.
So, where did it go?
It’s a fair question. No one’s trying to hide anything. It’s not an editing error. It’s a matter of textual evidence and pastoral honesty.
If you open a King James Version, Romans 16:24 reads, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. It’s a beautiful blessing. It is also a blessing Paul already gave the church earlier in Romans 16:20.
Modern translations, like the Christian Standard Bible, do not print this verse. You’ll find it in a footnote that reads, Some manuscripts include. There is a good reason for this.
The earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts, those closest to the original writing of Paul, do not have Romans 16:24. It simply isn’t there. The text flows naturally from Tertius and Gaius sending greetings to the final praise of God. A later copyists, probably wanting to give the letter a familiar liturgical closing, added the benediction. It was a pious addition, not a conspiracy.
This is why I trust a translation like the CSB. Our goal is not to preserve what a 17th-century translator thought was there. Our goal is to get back to what the Apostle Paul actually wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
My job as your pastor is to preach the text. The whole text. And nothing but the text. And I do not have the authority to preach a verse that the best evidence suggests Paul never penned. It is not my word to add.
Let me be clear, you aren’t missing any truth. The exact same blessing, The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you, is right there in verse 20. Loud and clear. Exactly where God preserved it. We will rest in that truth. And next week, we will turn our eyes to the final verses of the letter.
This past Sunday we finished Romans 16:17–23. Next week we turn to the doxology. Not a missing verse. Not a hidden truth. Just a faithful translation. Now you know.