So what did the versions like the ESV, NIV and NASB do? They put a word in there that is NOT found in ANY Greek manuscript and say "But I have THIS against you". So far we have three different Greek readings - 1. So even among the so called “Majority” text we have three different readings in “the” Greek. Part of A says “much” πολὺ, while part D says “many things” πολλὰ. The “Majority Text” is often divided into 5 different categories they call A, B, C D and E. The so called Majority Text, by Hodges & Farstad, says “I have against you that you suffer YOUR woman…”. Other Greek texts read "MANY THINGS against thee" = κατὰ σοῦ πολλὰ, but nobody followed this reading. But not even the modern versions followed the Sinaitic manuscript here, though they DO follow it and reject the Traditional Text in many other places. In the King James Bible (and many others as well) we read: Revelation 2:20 - "Notwithstanding I have A FEW THINGS against thee (κατὰ σοῦ ὀλίγα) because thou SUFFEREST THAT woman JEZEBEL, which calleth herself a PROPHETESS, TO TEACH AND TO SEDUCE my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.ĮSV - "But I have THIS against you, that you TOLERATE that woman JEZEBEL, who calls herself a PROPHETESS AND IS TEACHING AND SEDUCING my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols."įirst of all, the Traditional Greek texts read "A FEW THINGS against thee" = κατὰ σοῦ ὀλίγα, but Sinaiticus actually says "MUCH against thee (you singular) and in the Greek looks like this - κατὰ σοῦ πολὺ.
Remember, James White and others like him are often criticizing a single word found in the King James Bible. The same types of differences and changes can be shown hundreds of times over, but it is a very tedious and time consuming work. Let me illustrate the complexity and inconsistency of the modern versions and the so called "science" of textual criticism by looking at just one verse in Revelation 2:20 and comparing the KJV, NASB, ESV and NIV. Daube (Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press, 1956) thus standing alone against the rest of tradition," and Tasker has a similar comment: "The possibility must be left open that in some cases the true reading may have been preserved in only a few witnesses or even in a single relatively late witness." - The Effect of Recent Textual Criticism upon New Testament Studies," The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed. but obviously a reading can be accepted with greater confidence, when it has stronger support."Įven Kurt Aland says: "Theoretically, the original readings can be hidden in a single mss. However, it is legitimate to ask: can a reading be accepted as genuine if it is supported by only one ms.? There is no reason why an original reading should not have been preserved in only one ms. Elliott, a modern textual critic comments on transcriptional probabilities: "By using criteria such as the above the critic may reach a conclusion in discussing textual variants and be able to say which variant is the original reading. Westcott and Hort, the very men who introduced the Critical Text methods found in the RV, ASV, NASB, NIV, themselves said: "A few documents are not, by reason of their paucity, appreciably less likely to be right than a multitude opposed to them" (Introduction to the Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament, 1881, p. It is also fallacious and hypocritical to suggest that just because a particular reading is not "in the majority of texts" that it therefore cannot be legitimate, when the very men who are behind the ever-changing modern critical text versions admit that the true reading may be found in a few or even one manuscript. One will follow a particular minority reading while the other will disagree and follow another. These modern versions often do not even agree with each other. It is admittedly a minority reading, but it should be noted that for every One minority reading found in the KJB, there are at least 20 such minority readings found in the modern Vatican Versions like the NASB, NIV, ESV, NET and Holman Standard.
The reading found in the King James Bible in Revelation 16:5 represents one of the hundreds of such textual variants.
The Book of Revelation has more textual variants than any other New Testament book. Revelation 16:5 KJB - "Thou art righteous, O LORD, which art, and wast, AND SHALT BE, because thou hast judged thus."ĮSV (NIV, NASB, NET, Holman, Catholic versions, Jehovah Witness NWT) - "Just you are, O HOLY ONE, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments."ĮSV (NIV, NASB, NET, Holman, Jehovah Witness NWT) - "Just you are, O HOLY ONE, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments."