Translations and Manuscript Variants in the King James Version

December 20, 2014 sergebiblestudies

Culled from: https://sergebiblestudies.wordpress.com/2014/12/20/3-translations-and-manuscript-variants-in-the-king-james-version/

Ever since its publication in 1611, the King James Bible was a serious influence on civilization and western culture. It’s wordings shaped language as parts of its text became idioms and commonly known phrases. It was the most widely available english translation of the bible for centuries afterward, and therefore was a part of nearly every christian movement ever since. But the fact is that the KJV wasn’t perfect, it had errors in translation. Sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional. In addition, some older, more ancient manuscripts weren’t even yet available to KJV translators. Most of these resulting errors were insignificant, but a few were serious, even became part of christian tradition, were theologically motivated, and continued to influence later translations and editions. This post will summarize the most significant, and most famous of these errors.

TRANSLATION: The fiery furnace

In the book of Daniel we read the famous story of “The Fiery Furnace”. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into a furnace, but are protected by a divine being (traditionally recognized as Jesus). The verse of interest is Daniel 3:25

King James Version: “He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

What is interesting, however, is that the book of Daniel doesn’t really use this grammar and phrasing. The original Aramaic doesn’t emphasize the word “son” as a proper noun, and the word “god” is written in plural, as “gods”. A more literal translation (as seen in more recent translations like ESV, NIV) would be “like a son of the gods”. Read:

English Standard Version: “He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

In this literal translation, “a son of the gods” would mean to be an angel, or at least something characteristic of divine beings.

KJV translators likely wanted to connect the Old Testament with the New Testament, and skewed this translation to mean that the “fourth figure” was Jesus, and this interpretation was a common part christian tradition ever since.

TRANSLATION: Isaiah’s prophecy

Now this next one’s a bit complicated, so bear with me.

Book of Isaiah: Written in Hebrew, transcribing events of ~700 B.C.

Septuagint: Translation of the Hebrew bible (including Isaiah) into Greek at ~ 2nd century B.C.

Gospel of Matthew: Written around ~ late 1st Century A.D.

PLEASE READ ALL OF ISAIAH CHAPTER 7:

KJV, NIV, and ESV all read: At around ~700 BCE, Ahaz is king of Judea, and is being attacked by the northern country of Israel, and Syria. Isaiah tells the king Ahaz to not to worry about these events. God will give him a sign, that a virginwill conceive and give birth to a son, and when he is old enough to eat honey and curds, these attacking kingdoms will leave him alone.

Hundreds of years later, Matthew quotes from Isaiah “The virgin will conceive” as a reference to Jesus. (Basically saying the prophecy had a double meaning. One in Isaiah’s time, about the problems of the Judean king Ahaz, and the second meaning as a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus) HOWEVER: Note that when Matthew (being a greek writer) quotes Isaiah, he isn’t quoting the original Hebrew, he is quoting the Septuagint (the greek translation). This translation of Isaiah uses the word “parthenos“ (which usually implied virginity).

But Isaiah in the original Hebrew actually doesn’t explicitly say “virgin”. The text of Isaiah uses the word “almah” (which means: “a young woman who has not yet given birth”). The Hebrew DOES NOT use the specific word “bethula” (which WOULD explicitly mean virgin). A literal translation of Isaiah actually says that “a young woman will conceive” (used in academic literal translations of the bible, like NRSV, and jewish translations like JPS)

KJV translators, wanting to stay consistent with Matthew, went back to Isaiah and translated the passage to say “virgin” instead of “young woman”.

So, just to clarify, while Matthew explicitly means “virgin” when he quotes Isaiah, and Isaiah uses the general word “young woman” (which by definition of “almah”, she may or may not be married, and may or may not be a virgin)

MANUSCRIPT VARIANT: Johannine Comma: 1 John 5:7-8

New Testament (including 1 John): Originally written in Greek around ~ 1st Century A.D.

Latin Vulgate: Latin translation of the New Testament ~ 382 A.D.

Johannine Comma: Comma, meaning “short phrase”, and Johannine, meaning it is found in the writings of John. This is a very theologically significant passage, as it is the only place in the New Testament where the doctrine of the trinity is explicitly stated. Although there are other references to the trinity here and there that can be pieced together derive the doctrine of the trinity, this is the only place where it is all in one place.

King James Version: (7) For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

(8) And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

The problem however, is that the first verse is widely regarded as not the authentic words of the author of 1 John, but as an addition into the Latin Vulgate, and it can be easily seen why:

The first verse (the Johannine Comma) doesn’t exist in ANY of the oldest Greek manuscripts (older than the Latin Vulgate), or even NEWER Greek manuscripts, up until the 1500’s when the phrase was translated from Latin into Greek, and inserted into subsequent Greek copies. KJV translators used these post-1500 greek manuscripts, and the passage was included in the Bible.

Newer translations, such as ESV, NIV do not include the passage, and the text of 1 John 5:7-8 only includes what was in the original Greek:

English Standard Version: (7) For there are three that testify: (8) the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

MANUSCRIPT VARIANT: Marcan Appendix (or Mark 16)

The last few verses at the very end of Mark are referred to as the Marcan Appendix. When the KJV was being translated, Mark 16:9 – 12 were considered to be part of the original gospel of Mark. However, since then, numerous older manuscripts have been discovered which do not contain these verses.

For this reason, modern translations (like NIV, ESV, NRSV) still include Mark 16:9-12, but place these verses in brackets, and write a note that these verses are not included in the earliest manuscripts. Scholars speculate that this longer ending was attached at some point in the early 2nd century.

MANUSCRIPT VARIANT: Jesus and the woman taken in adultery

The story of the prostitute who is about to be stoned, but is then saved by Jesus is written in John 7:53-8:11. Like the Marcan Appendix, this passage was not written in the original Gospel of John, and was likely a late edition to the text.

Biblical scholars speculate that this story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery somehow became part of oral tradition some centuries after the writing of the Gospel of John. A scribe copying the gospel, might have known this story and chose to include it in a margin, as a note. Some time later, another scribe, seeing the story in the margin, and wondering why the first scribe would leave such a story about Jesus out of the text, would be writing another copy while including the story in the main body of HIS text. Now every subsequent copies of that text, and copies of those copies, ect… would include those verses.