A Brief History of the Origin of Modern English Bibles
The 5,600-plus extant Greek New Testament manuscripts are generally categorized into two families: (1) the Antiochian/Byzantine Majority (Traditional) Text, and (2) the Alexandrian Minority (Critical) Text. These two manuscript families have disagreed with one another for at least 1,700 years now. Most Greek N. T. manuscripts— about 99.9 percent of them—have readings that agree with one another (forming the Antiochian/Byzantine Traditional Text). Only 45 manuscripts—or less than one percent of all existing Greek N. T. manuscripts—form the Alexandrian Critical Text. These Alexandrian manuscripts not only disagree with the Antiochian/Byzantine Traditional Text, but they also starkly disagree with each other! (The two primary Alexandrian manuscripts, Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, disagree with each other over 3,000 times—in the Four Gospels alone!) The King James Bible is based on the Antiochian/Byzantine Traditional Text whereas most modern Bibles use the Alexandrian Minority Text as their source. Because of this, most Greek N. T. manuscripts agree with the KJB, while only a handful support the readings in modern Bibles.
From 1611-1881, or 270 years, the Authorized Version King James Bible served English-speaking Christians. It was the final English Bible based on the aforementioned, God-breathed, and divinely preserved Antiochian/Byzantine Greek New Testament (the “received text,” or Textus Receptus). Two Catholic, apostate Cambridge professors and textual critics, B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, had long despised the KJB’s Protestant readings. Beginning in 1853, they initiated a joint revision of the Greek New Testament (they used the aforesaid corrupt, pro-Roman Catholic, Alexandrian Critical Text to create their 1881 Westcott-Hort Greek N. T.).
In 1870, the Church of England convened and proposed a “revision” of the KJB. Westcott and Hort saw opportunity to corrupt this new Bible, so they submitted their anti-KJB, pro-Catholic, corrupt Westcott-Hort text to the Revision Committee. The resulting English Bible, the English Revised Version New Testament, was released in 1881. Although the Revised Version was supposed to be a “revision” of the KJB, it was a blatant corruption—it was based on a different Greek text (it was based on the Westcott-Hort text, itself being based on the Alexandrian text, the corrupt readings that Bible-believing Christians had rejected for the past 1,500-plus years!). Twenty years later, in 1901, the American Standard Version was published. Since then, over 200 modern English Bibles have been released (paraphrases, revisions of revisions, paraphrases of revisions, etc.). As we learn in 1 Timothy 6:10 and have seen unfold for the last 100+ years, the love of money is the root of all evil. New versions equate to copyrights, and copyrights equate to cutting a slice out of the over half a billion dollars annually in Bible sales.
Circa 1900, textual critic Eberhard Nestle revised the Westcott-Hort text to produce his Greek N. T. In the 1950s, textual critic Kurt Aland began editing Nestle’s text to create the Nestle-Aland Greek text. The United Bible Society (UBS) Greek text is nearly identical to the Nestle-Aland text. These corrupt texts (UBS & Nestle- Aland) are utilized to make the New Testament of most modern Bibles (NIV, NASB, ESV, HCSB, NRSV, NLT, CEV, RSV, TEV/GNB, New Scofield, portions and footnotes of NKJV, etc.). The KJB and modern Bibles read differently because they are based on opposing manuscripts!
If modern Bibles are corrupt, why are they so popular? Most seminaries and Bible colleges teach that the Westcott-Hort Greek is “closer to the original apostolic manuscripts” than the King James’ Greek. They claim that modern Bibles are “more scholarly” and “better translated” than the King James Bible. This is unfortunately a gargantuan lie. The graduates of these colleges (pastors, modern Bible translators, etc.) then perpetuate the deception by encouraging the common unsuspecting church members to reject/doubt the King James Bible and believe the readings found in modern Bibles.
The article above is adapted from a resource from Arc Ministries. Special thanks to them and various other resources that are worthy of your consideration on this topic:
Which Bible? Edited by Dr. Otis Fuller
The History of Your Bible: Proving the King James Bible to be the Perfectly Preserved Words of God by Terence D. McLean
Evaluating Versions of the New Testament by Everett W. Fowler
King James Bible Defended by Dr. Edward Hills
God Only Wrote One Bible by J.J. Ray
Manuscript Evidence by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
8,000 Differences Between the N.T. Greek Words of the King James Bible and the Modern Versions by Dr. J.A. Moorman
