Lord’s Library editors offer an Acts 8:37 meaning with commentary on why the verse is missing from new Bible versions, for your edification.
When trying to understand the meaning of Acts 8:37 and see why it’s missing in modern versions, first see the verse: “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” In the King James Bible, this verse stands as a declaration of personal faith in Jesus Christ—a crystal-clear affirmation that belief precedes baptism.
In almost every modern Bible version—the ESV, NIV, NASB, CSB, and others—this verse is completely missing, replaced either by a footnote or a silent jump from verse 36 to 38. The critical text crowd justifies its omission by claiming that Acts 8:37 is “not found in the oldest and best manuscripts.”
But what they’re really doing is removing the clearest profession of faith in the Book of Acts—a verse that affirms salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ before any ritual or outward action.
Acts 8:37 Missing Meaning
Let’s look at the context. The Ethiopian eunuch, after hearing Philip preach Jesus to him from Isaiah, sees water and asks, “What doth hinder me to be baptized?” In modern versions, Philip’s answer is strangely absent. The narrative leaps from the eunuch’s question straight to the baptism in verse 38, leaving the reader with the impression that baptism requires no confession of belief at all.
But in the King James Bible, verse 37 answers that question definitively: faith in Christ is the prerequisite. Philip says, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest,” and the eunuch responds, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” That’s the Gospel. That’s salvation. That’s the entire point of the book of Acts—faith in Christ alone. And that’s the verse modern translators have chosen to erase.
The justification for this removal rests on the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, those two 4th-century Alexandrian Manuscripts that form the foundation of the Nestle-Aland critical text. Because these two manuscripts omit Acts 8:37, modern editors treat the verse as marginal.
But here’s the reality: the verse is found in the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, is present in the Old Latin, quoted by early church fathers like Irenaeus and Cyprian, and aligns perfectly with the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. It was never questioned until modern textual criticism.
Why this verse? Why are verses that support salvation by faith, the deity of Christ, the power of the Gospel, and the call to repentance and belief that get deleted? Removing it opens the door to baptismal regeneration doctrines, to ritual without repentance, to a Gospel without belief. It replaces the Biblical order with confusion. And confusion is always the devil’s goal.
The King James Bible preserves Acts 8:37 because it follows the Received Text. It simply gives you the truth—pure, whole, and uncut. And that truth is this: before you go down into the water, you must go to the cross by faith. Philip made that clear. The eunuch understood it. And the Spirit of God confirmed it by recording it in Acts 8:37.
If your Bible jumps from verse 36 to 38, you are missing one of the most important declarations of saving faith in the New Testament.
We leave you with Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19:
- Deuteronomy 4:2: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”
- Revelation 22:18-19: “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
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