Thursday, July 15, 2021

When We Pick Up a New King James Version of the Bible,
Westcott-Hort Pops Out in the Footnotes


Count Tischendorf was the self-promoting snake oil salesman who sold the Western world on his find of "the oldest and best" New Testament in Greek. And then he added to his crown with the Vaticanus, making Aleph (Sinaiticus) and B (Vaticanus) the first two, best two standards for the New Testament. 

Chicago Inerrancy Conference, 1978 - My wife and I attended that meeting and received a number of free books and a copy of the New King James Version of the Bible, a product of Thomas A. Nelson (serving as TAN Publishers for virulent anti-Protestant Roman Catholics). Herman Otten sold The Truth about Luther, a TAN book, for Reformation Day. As he said about the Church Growth Movement, "I sell to both sides."

One religious book store owner said the New KJV was best thing ever.

David W. Daniels has a new book on the New King James, The Bridge Bible. Some clergy use it in the Little Sect on the Prairie, the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic), and the ELDONUTs. 

Where Is the Loyalty? Camouflage in the Footnotes

Camouflage is basic to warfare, so the enemy does not see the soldiers and equipment lined up to defend or to attack. At Ft. Knox, they camouflaged the garbage cans for a laugh, and we enjoyed the look. "The garbage will survive the first strike, no doubt."

The New King James is camouflage for Westcott-Hort/Nestle Aland. Once the credibility of that group is established, the concept of a precise, dependable translation is gone.

The NKJV publishers use the (M) to designate the Majority Text and the (NU) to cite the Nestle Aland UBS text.

Most people will skip over the footnotes, but they establish the Nestle Aland UBS text (which changes annually) as equal or superior. The so-called translation of the NKJV has already been changed once, and there is no reason to stop changing.

John 8

Mark 16

  1. Mark 16:9 Vv. 9–20 are bracketed in NU as not in the original text. They are lacking in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, although nearly all other mss. of Mark contain them.
New International Version says -

[The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20.]