), have aided the enemies of God, not His church. I enjoyed reading your article. The first document to be called Textus Receptus was the 1633 printing of the Elzevir Greek New Testament, which was substantially identical to the 1565 version of Bezas Greek New Testament. Thus, I treat it as my personal opinion. This is a rather dangerous way to come about your convictions and personal opinions. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. While as, in the rest of the New Testament, it is largely Alexandrian. There is a well-known error when copying manuscripts by hand called parablepsis. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) notes: And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. Ive probably researched it over the years far more than most average lay folks, but its not something I can keep top of mind all the time. Looking forward to reading more of your articles. (34 readings were changed from the NA27 to the NA28). Most of the men were curious about my reference to textual critisism so I thought Id include a link for further reading. Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek: With Notes on Selected Readings by Westcott & Hort. The NKJV is a purification of the KJV. They comprise less than 1% of all Textual Variants. So, in short, the humanist way of analyzing is starting from the human and moving to God. It makes sense, but that doesnt mean its what happened. I found a scribal error and did not want it passed down for the next 100 generations. It might be out there, but I havent see it. The Western text type is different from the other textual families mostly because of its love of paraphrase. 9. These singular reading disappeared, never to be seen again. Believing in Jesus Christ for salvation is the act of trusting Him, and depending on His ability to keep you (Acts 17:30; Mark 1:15; Luke 17:21; Acts 3:19; Acts 20:21; Acts 26:20). Do you believe We can no more touch the preserved Word of God than we can the incarnate Christ? Do you believe that we can only do our very best to discern with our human abilities and scientific approach what is correct and what is not? However, the originals were copied many, many times. The question then becomes: If you take the Majority Text theory and apply it to modern times, then theres clearly more copies of the modern Critical Text than the Majority Text. And why would you casually dismiss the spiritual corruption of Wescott and Hort, claim their critical text is based on corrupt texts, and then support the NASB? A textual critic is not someone who criticizes the Bible, but someone who tries their best to reconstruct the original text. Codex Vaticanus (B) is an excellent example of the Alexandrian Text type, and many scholars think its the most important Greek manuscript we have (again, because its the oldest.) Does it matter much if Paul wrote a owl vs an owl? If so, it opens up a new period. Its interesting that these are the men who constructed the corrupt text from which the NASB is produced. So that we could not mistake His intentions, the Lord made clear to what degree He would keep the Scriptures pure. More importantly, its patently unbiblical. There are variations within each family, but overall their Textual Variants share a familial linkage with other members of their family. He taught English on CBC TV 'Let's Speak English'. However, small changes can have large effects. (I confess I skimmed through parts) Codex Alexandrius is the third oldest (nearly) complete manuscript, dating from the early 400s. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first. The Reasoned Eclecticism theory created the modern Critical Text (NA28/UBS5), which is what most modern New Testaments are based on. Psalm 40 6. The TR had the singular in 1550 but was changed to the plural in the 1894 TR. The Reasoned Eclecticism and the Majority Text theories are two different ways to take the manuscripts we have and try to assemble the original text. However, the New Covenant superseded the Old, and at that point, the Old passed away or was rendered void Just like Jesus said. Double for all her sins.. This is a wonderful article and I enjoyed reading it as much as anything Ive read in the last year or so. Its not as simple as simply counting noses as its critics say. And all flesh shall see it together; Im going to re-quote something we looked at earlier. Textus Receptus 191 Variations in Scrivener's 1881 Greek New Testament from Beza's 1598 Textus Receptus Books Many Scanned Agros Church Matthew 1:1 Unicorn The Westcott and Hort Only Controversy New King James Version List of Omitted Bible Verses List of Bible verses not included in the ESV Pure Cambridge Edition Ephesians 3:9 Jesus is the Living Word, the Word Personified, the Word made flesh. Variants must never be treated in isolation, but always considered in the context of the tradition. In fact, its usually the first place I look for answers on questions relating to Textual Variants. I just wanted to say thanks for putting in the time and effort to write up this article and to link the sources as well (Im a scientist, so I really want to go to the original sources of information as much as possible). And, finally, when do you hope to see the church rediscover what you believe they have lost? I unrolled the cover, and discovered, to my great surprise, not only those very fragments which, fifteen years before, I had taken out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New Testament complete, and, in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of the Pastor of Hermas. He didnt say the scriptures, and not even the word; just the (Mosaic) law. (And thats not including quotes by including the early church fathers). You have to trust that scribes did indeed copy the best manuscripts. The Textus Receptus is not just the half-dozen manuscripts of Erasmus. Also, I am building my book collection and I wanted to see if you recommended any books that translate some of these Greek texts that should be considered when translating new bibles. It is the wisdom of the world that is foolishness to God. My goal in writing it was two-fold. The Textus Receptus (Latin for "Received Text") is a Greek New Testament that provided the textual base for the vernacular translations of the Reformation Period. Why dismiss the Gospels just because they are a different text type? We wont spend much time on these because the Westcott & Hort rules were more influential. Nevertheless the Hortian text has not been overthrown. These two documents are rather flawed, especially Sinaiticus. There is some evidence that Westcott & Hort didnt have a high opinion of the Bible. The reading that explains the existence of other readings should be preferred. The Elzevir 1633 text promised just that in their marketing. The KJV is based on a Greek New Testament text called the Textus Receptus, first published by Desiderius Erasmus in 1516 and subsequently revised by a number of scholars. This is particularly interesting when one turns to theEditionum Differentiae(Appendix III) in the 27thedition of NTG, which lists (among other things) the differences between NA27 and NA25. You who bring good tidings, The name first appeared in an advertising blurb in the 1630s in a different Greek New Testament published by the Elzevirs, and uncle and his nephew. Novum testamentum Graece, The German biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-74) published his monumental eighth edition of the Greek New Testament between 1869 and 1872. In your mind there are too many variable and possibilities of human error. This consideration revives the view that the Homeric vulgate was in existence before the Alexandrian period [Such] compels us to assume a central, average, or vulgate text. Im so thankful that your article was one of the first I came across. I had concluded before reading this that the Byzantine texts are likely the more accurate ones, since the Alexandrian texts have far more frequent errors and deviations between the copies. As surely as God created the stars (more than 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in the universe), and has the power to keep one from failing, and even to know everyone of them by name, He has the power to keep the very words He inspired. . Listen to this: Thats definitely possible maybe even likely but by no means certain. ejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; I will deliver them out of the power of Hades, and will redeem them from death: where is thy penalty, O death? I even purchased an interlinear bible because I wanted to know what was really said. In the end, the greatest strength of the Critical Text is also its greatest weakness: mans involvement. And it means: So, truth in the KJV isnt unwarranted, but hardly the primary meaning. I agree with you regarding English translations as well. Allen notes that the actual text of Hippocrates in Galens day was essentially the same as that of the mediaeval MSS [just as] the text of [Homer in] the first century B.C. He also says that it uses a different Old Testament text than the KJV. Im not pushing it and Im not saying its better; just that it shouldnt be dismissed out of hand. Here it is again: Which single document that we have contains the complete, inerrant New Testament without any issues at all? GNB NET NRSV, Great explanations of Varying However, the Confessional Position argues that it doesnt matter if God inspired the Scriptures if He didnt preserve them too. . Westcott & Hort believed that any place where those two manuscripts agreed: should be accepted as the true readings until strong internal evidence is found to the contrary,. (As weve seen). Mediocre might be the best description, though some would say poor. <p>Novum Testamentum Graece / Greek New Testament In . I am very thankful to have found your work. However, well only concentrate on the two most influential. We know that Gods Word has not been hidden or lost to man, since it was first spoken and recorded in Gods written revelation. O Jerusalem, Thats from the 4th century to the ~15th century; a period of 1,100 years (over a millennia) with virtually no change. Each textual family (or text type) tends to contain similar readings to other manuscripts in its family, but the readings are different from the readings of other textual families. But if youre working from poor translations like the NLT, NIV, or any of the paraphrase translations, youre basically out of luck. When Jesus quoted the OT to the Pharisees, it was clear that He considered the words to be preserved. Sorry for the delay. Long = characterized by Scribal improvement and expansion. NASB95 and NKJV are the two translations that I recommend, see my article on Bible translations for more detailed info on why. This disproportionate copying could be a good thing, as we saw in the section on whether scribes copied better manuscripts. What are Gods actual words? The original texts were written in all capital letters and there were no spaces between the words. The one thing I will mention is Hort at least was motivated to eliminate the Textus Receptus from the public eye, as he considered it vile. One reason could be that something is always lost in translation. Remember, there was no dictionary in ancient times, and thus no defined right or wrong way to spell a word. . They also discounted the entire Byzantine text type based on an assumption which has now been proved wrong. Its not just the article itself where your humility is to be commended, but even in numerous responses that you gave to comments. The KJV reads: For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Probably the most balanced view of the Vaticanus scribe is found in the quote below, in an article published to respond to someone claiming the Vaticanus Scribe made very few errors. It was a simple scribal error, easily noticed and just as easily corrected. However, proper context changes the sense radically. However, the antiquity of these manuscripts is no indication of reliability because a prominent church father in Alexandria testified that manuscripts were already corrupt by the third century. (Again, in that less than 1% where it matters) Notice they only tend to. However, theyre worth noting. Its commonly referred to as the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece after the two most significant contributors. Much to chew on. My thought was that the reader, if he had access to a manuscript, could correct anything in our words that differed from those put by the author of this work.. All who will receive Him (meaning through Gods grace are given faith to accept Him as Savior, Lord, and God of their life) are saved from the condemnation of their sins. The translation is quite in order and your accusation of intentional mistranslation is unfounded. Even if two scribes (40%) did, the majority of scribes (60%) will have preserved the correct reading. Thanks again and God bless you. The Codex Vaticanus also contains several of the deuterocanonical books, namely: the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Judith, Tobit, Baruch, and the Letter to Jeremiah. Something that the TR can not boast nor the modern critical texts. The meaning of TEXTUS RECEPTUS is the generally accepted text of a literary work (such as the Greek New Testament). And, finally, when do you hope to see the church rediscover what you believe they have lost? And every mountain and hill brought low; . 18. However, getting to the original text of the Bible is rather like striving to be righteous; well never get there but that doesnt mean the struggle is in vain. 5. The definitions and theories were laid out very distinctly and well sourced. This accidental skipping could account for a very significant portion of the longer Byzantine Textual Variants. Now that you understand the three text types/families, well move onto discussing the most popular of the three theories. Im not sure I would agree, but Im not sure Id disagree either. WoW! You are using an out of date browser. However, you didnt answer my question: do you acknowledge that the Textus Receptus is a work of Textual Criticism? Every translation in every language, and every manuscript on which theyre based, differs. This is so helpful. (With a good chuckle. More importantly, Erasmus references in sundry of his letters some of the manuscripts he used. If youd like a sampling of these differences, this page has a list with almost 300 of these variations at the bottom. Fortunately, they just arent that bad. The parallels to the NT transmissional situation are remarkably similar, since the Homeric texts exist in three forms: one shorter, one longer, and one in-between. The Word of God is truth (Hebrews 4:12; Psalms 18:30; Psalms 19:8; Psalms 119:140; II Samuel 22:31; Proverbs 30:5). It occurs 76 times in the Greek new testament and the primary meaning of head as part of the human body occurs in 62 of the 76 places. Welcome to Mood FM Belize 106.3! One appears to be of mediocre quality, the other of good quality. The Doctrine of Preservation of Scripture is the foundation problem that exists with those who question the authority of the Bible. Is there not an element of faith in your critique? Only the reading which best satisfies the requirements of both external and internal criteria can be original. These are the two most competing textual forms, textual families, text types if you want to call them that, that we have for our New Testament manuscripts. Lets further assume the persistence of errors, which assumes every mistake is copied down to every manuscript after it. I know what you will say, because its your go-to answer to all your critics, Show me the inerrant text! So you start with the human evidence, not with faith in Gods promises. Further, if you take Robert Estienne at his word when he says he didnt use Erasmus Greek Text as a source for his Greek text, then Erasmus had literally nothing to do with the King James Version or the original Textus Receptus. In fact, when you see a Bible footnote that says the earliest and best manuscripts, they are almost universally talking about these two manuscripts, and only these two manuscripts. Again, over 75% of all Textual Variants are not meaningful, even if they are viable. Its worth noting that Codex Sinaiticus is far longer than 130 pages. Its curious that Codex Vaticanus is given the position of most important when the actual quality of the transcription leaves something to be desired. This is our example, but Because Im These two passages go together because 1 Peter 1:24-25 is quoting Isaiah 40:8. I did a quick search and found this article on a website I often look at for textual variant information. It is accepted as being the closest text to that used for the English King James translation in 1611. They have thrown the baby out with the wash. Look at your own readers. That is what is required. What Textual Variants? I would like to cite this article. Persecution under Marcus Aurelius (161-180). All four Gospel writers apply verse 3 to John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus. http://www.jesusisprecious.org/bible/nkjv/alexandrian_corrupt_source.htm, The information in this article is to be greatly commended and respected, but far more, the humility from which it is written. (Side note: Ive spent some time in the marketing world in my life. However, getting to the original text of the Bible is rather like striving to be righteous; well never get there but that doesnt mean the struggle is in vain. Taken literally, you are saying that the pure Word of God was originally inspired, but no one today could ever claim to hold that pure Word in their own hands. Differences Between the Majority Text and the Textus Receptus by Luke Wayne | Oct 31, 2018 | Minor Groups & Issues, King James Onlyism It is extremely common for King James Only advocates to conflate the "Majority Text" (M-Text) with the " Textus Receptus " (TR), or the tradition of printed Greek texts behind the King James Version. These . Im really glad you enjoyed the article. They were originally written on either papyrus (essentially paper) or possibly parchment (animal skins) which have long since degraded with time and use. As soon as the numbers of a minority exceed what can be explained by accidental coincidence, their agreement can only be explained on genealogical grounds. This is especially interesting because they also said the Antiochian (Byzantine) text was the dominant text in the second half of the 4th century (the later 300s). The typical examples of how to break this model are well-covered in this YouTube video. And the rough places smooth; 5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Well look at the verses they use to support this statement lower down.) The Elzevirs were notable printers, and their editions of the Greek New Testament were accurate and elegant. Believe we can the incarnate Christ the end, the humanist way of analyzing is starting from the other good! You acknowledge that the TR had the singular in 1550 but was changed to the,! And your accusation of intentional mistranslation is unfounded the last first between the words to be commended, overall... 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