Some manuscripts include 'ton huion ton prwtotokon' My search shows Byzantine text (based on the altered and unreliable Alexandrian Codex) from 1991 and 1894 Textus Receptus with prwtotokon.
Biblical texts based on the oldest versions of the Bible, the so-called unicals (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus) do not have "firstborn." These are NAS, NIV, Wycliffe, 1881 Westcott-Hort.
Those based on the unreliable and altered Alexandrian Codex do. Apparently the Russian Synodal version, the modern Byzantine text, and KJV have the insertion "firstborn."
The Bible has been altered, added, erased, copied in error, and so on and is anything but a pristine word of God it was originally written. There are so many instances of human tempering with the originals that we cannot even conclude in some cases which versions are true and which are falsifications. Instead, the experts use "probability" and other indirect "evidence" (which hinges on existing information and can change with any new discovery).
Which only makes proof-texing, so dear to Portestants, even more delusional then simple out-of-context phrases are.
Here are some facts about KJV and various Bibles in general:
- In the preface to the KJV 1611 the translators do not claim that this is an inspired perfect translation
- The KJV translators were limited in the manuscripts available to them (unical Vaticanus, Sinaitucus) have been uncovered around 1860
- The current KJV being printed differs in a number of details from the KJV 1611. There are also numerous printing errors in different editions of the KJV. The 1611 editions have "Then cometh Judas" instead of "Then cometh Jesus" in Matthew 26:36. There is the "Wicked Bible" edition of the KJV where "not" is omitted from the seventh commandment saying, "thou shalt commit adultery." William Kilburne in 1659 found 20,000 errors in six different KJV's
- A number of Church leaders in the 19th century realized that there were numerous translation errors in the KJV and called for a new translation which resulted in American Standard Version. The KJV is about 92% the same as the Tyndale translation
- The original KJV 1611 included the Apocrypha
- There are a number of places especially in the Book of Revelation where there is no Greek manuscript evidence for the words. For example, no Greek text says "book of life" in Revelation 22:19. The Greek says, "tree of life." I John 5:8 is a later addition not found in Greek manuscripts before the 16th century.
- The Majority Text, the Textus Receptus, and KJV all disagree
- A number of words are mistranslated by the KJV. The KJV is not a perfect word for word translation. There is some paraphrasing like "God save the king" (I Samuel 10:24, II Samuel 16:16, I Kings 1:25, and II Kings 11:12). About 1,000 Greek words and particles were not translated by the KJV.
- A number of words are mistranslated like John 20:17 which says, "Touch me not" should be rendered "Do not keep on holding me" (Lewis, 46; He lists a number of mistranslations). The Bible was not originally divided up into verse divisions. They did not understand Hebrew poetry. Chapter divisions are also questionable like where Genesis one ends. The use of italics is misunderstood by readers who put emphasis on it, instead of it being questionable reading like "unknown tongue" in I Corinthians 14 and the speaking in tongues movement.
- A number of words have changed in meaning from the KJV 1611. Some are just the opposite in meaning. For example, "let" means "hinder," "lust" means "desire" which is not all ways bad, "fair" means "beautiful" not just average, "quick" means "living" and "nephews" means "grandchildren." "Corn" means "grain" for corn was only found in North and South America by the Indians.
- There are several animals mentioned in the KJV that are mythical: unicorns, dragons, satyr There is also the mention of the cockatrice (Isaiah 11:8, 14:29, 59:5; Jeremiah 8:17) and the arrowsnake (Genesis 49:11, margin).
- There are theological problems with the KJV. The translators are coming from a Anglican Church bias. Their view of Baptism and church comes through in the translation. Church terms are used for leaders. The words at the Lord's Table "the broken body of the Lord" (I Corinthians 11:24) are used. Some also say it has a Calvinistic bias.
- The King James translators used the third edition of the Greek New Testament published by Stephanus in 1550. KJV was based on the third edition of the Greek New Testament issued by the Parisian publisher Stephanus (Latinized form of Estienne) in 1550 There is no Greek manuscript that agrees exactly with either of these. Both of them are conflate texts.
Something to thnk about next time we text-proof or call someone else dishonest.
Consider also the following facts (same lik) about the Bible in general:
- twelve verses of the Gospel of Mark were not part of the original
- 95% of the known Greek NT manuscripts were copied after A.D. 700, more than six centuries after the NT was written.
- Among manuscripts copied before A.D. 400 (three centuries after the NT was completed) there are none of the Textus Receptus type (Byzantine family)
- Although we see about 100 writers using the so-called Alexandrian, Western and Caesarean text families in quotations from before A.D. 400, the first person known to have used the Byzantine type of text is John Chrysostom, who died in A.D. 407
- As for Codex Alexandrinus:, somehave have speculated that the principal scribe who prepared it could not read Greek, because spaces sometimes interrupt the middle of a word!