Bible Translations: The Three Major Textus Receptus Translations

The mother and son Bible translator team of Verna and James Linzey discuss the major translations of the Bible that have been developed from the Greek New Testament known as the Textus Receptus.

The three major Bible translations based on the Textus Receptus are the Authorized King James Version (1611), the New King James Version (1982), and the Modern English Version (2014). The latter two are updates of the original KJV.  Developing an appreciation for how these Bible translations came into being starts more than 500 years ago. In 1516 a Dutch Roman Catholic monk, Desiderius Erasmus, compiled the first complete Greek New Testament from Byzantine text-type manuscripts. He only had a half dozen manuscripts dating from the 13th century, and where he had gaps or lacunae in the manuscripts he used the Latin Vulgate to fill in those sections, especially the last six verses of Revelation.[1] In Elzevir’s Greek NT published in 1633, the term Textus Receptus is used in the preface to provide appellation to the Greek NT published by Erasmus and then subsequently revised by Stephanus, Beza, and Elzevir.

In 1526, William Tyndale translated Erasmus’ Greek New Testament into English.

Tyndale then revised it by 1534. The Tyndale Bible, which included the Pentateuch and Jonah, became the basis of the Authorized KJV, which would not be published until almost a century later. William Tyndale’s translation from the Textus Receptus comprises about 90% of the KJV and 80% of the RSV.[2] Nevertheless, between the Tyndale Bible and Authorized KJV there were the Coverdale (1535), Matthew (1537), Taverner (1539), Great Bible (1539), Geneva Bible (1560), Bishop’s Bible (1568), and Douay-Rheims (NT in 1582 and OT in 1609-10). The KJV 1611 was partly in response to the Catholic Douay-Rheims edition as well as motivation for a “political” Bible to bring together different religious factions under the Church of England.

A century later, the Oxford University Press produced a standard KJV text that would reflect a

more up to date English style for the 18th century. This was the 1769 KJV update edited by Dr. Benjamin Blayney. In addition to the full revision with respect to the English language, it standardized the KJV punctuation and spelling. This update is the edition commonly used today.

Then in 1979, Thomas Nelson publishers asked 130 scholars to edit a New Testament update of the Authorized KJV, eliminating much of the archaic language. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982. Along with the numerous other English translations from the previous four centuries, the NKJV was based on the TR, but more strictly speaking the Byzantine-Majority text tradition. Thousands of Greek manuscripts and fragments (not the least of which the 900+ Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1945) had been discovered in the last two centuries so textual scholars had the opportunity to reconstruct earlier and better readings of the TR using the Byzantine-Majority text-type manuscripts.[3]

After the turn of the century, in recognition of the need for further updating of an English language TR Bible, 47 scholars were named to a new committee on Bible translation to publish the Modern English Version (MEV). Their goal was to produce a KJV-style translation in a more modern English vernacular while remaining faithful to the original sources. While the TR was still the base text, MEV translators kept the poetic beauty of the KJV as a watershed English translation and simply updated the English to be more meaningful and intelligible to modern readers. In addition, they incorporated what we have learned about the ancient languages, culture, and geography of that time to render a more accurate translation.

To appreciate how language changes over the centuries, compare 1 Corinthians 1:21 in the original Tyndale Bible with the updates:

Hath not God made the wysdome of this worlde folisshnes? For when the worlde thorow wysdome knew not God in ye wysdome of God: it pleased God thorow folisshnes of preachinge to save them yt beleve. (Tyndale, 1534).

For seeing the world by wisdom knew not God in the wisdom of GOD, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (Geneva Bible, 1560/1599).

For after that, in the wisedom of God, the world by wisedome knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching, to saue them that beleeue (KJV, 1611).

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (KJV, 1769).

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (NKJV, 1982).

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (MEV, 2014).

The life calling of these significant Bible translators and scholars was to glorify God so that the lost world might come to a saving knowledge of Jesus through reading an accessible and understandable English Bible translation.

PR

Link to James F. Linzey’s author page.

Notes

[1] Daniel B. Wallace, “Why I Do Not Think the King James Bible Is the Best Translation Available Today” Bible.org https://bible.org/article/why-i-do-not-think-king-james-bible-best-translation-available-today

[2] “William Tyndale: Father of the English Bible” Christianity.com (April 28, 2010). http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/translator-william-tyndale-strangled-and-burned-11629961.html

[3] On the other hand, English translations like the NRSV, NASB, NIV, ESV, HCSB, NLT, and The Voice Bible are all based on the Alexandrian text-type manuscripts.