New Testament Transmission Errors

The books of the New Testament (like all works before the printing press) were passed from one generation to the next by hand-copying. The process is, however, notoriously mistake-ridden. Thousands of copies of all or parts of the New Testament have survived into our time, and no two are exactly the same. There are several types of possible errors. Here, examples of each are given.

 
1. Confused Letters

1 Tim 3:16

Early reading: "He who (OS) was revealed in flesh" -- later reading: "God (QS) was revealed in flesh"

2. Haplography (omission of lines)

John 17:15

Original reading: "I do not pray that you should take them from the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one." The italicized words are omitted in a (4th century)

3. Dittography

Acts 19:34	In a the mob cries twice "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians."
Acts 27:37	Most mss read: "We were in all two hundred seventy six in the ship" (PLOIwSO"); but ALEPH reads "We were about seventy six in the ship" (PLOIwwSO")

4. Faulty Hearing Errors

Rev 1:5	TR/KJV follow reading: "him that loved us, and washed (lousanti) us from our sins in his blood" -- earlier mss read "him that loved us, and freed (lusanti) us from our sins by his blood" (the two Greek words are pronounced identically)
Rev 4:3	Most mss read "a rainbow (iri") that looked like an emerald" -- ALEPH and A read "priests (ierei") that looked like an emerald" (the Greek words are very similar in pronunciation)

5. Transposition of Letters

Mark 14:65

"The guards received (elabon) him with blows" becomes in some later mss "The guards threw him (ebalon) down with blows."

6. Word Sequence Alteration

Mark 1:5

pavnte" kaiV ejbaptivzonto kaiV pavnte" ejbaptivzonto kaiV ejbaptivzonto pavnte" While in all three cases, the words are the same, the meaning shifts slightly from "the whole country of Judea went out to him as well as all those from Jerusalem, and they were baptized" to "the whole country of Judea went out as well as those from Jerusalem, and all were baptized"

7. Incorporation of Explanatory Notes

John 5:3b-4

"waiting for the movement of water, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water; whoever stopped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease he had" -- these sentences are not in ALEPH and other early mss. They were probably a margin note explaining 5:7, and were mistaken as part of the text by a copyist.

8. Failure to note column edges

Luke 3:23-28

This is Luke's genealogy. A copyist read across when he should have read down, so one manuscript has "God, the son of Aram..."

9. Intentional Changes

Mark 8:31	Early mss quote Jesus, "The son of man must suffer ... and after three days rise again" -- some later mss change it to "and on the third day rise again" to make it correspond with the crucifixion-resurrection narrative.
Mark 16:9-20	The following passage was added to Mark in later manuscripts, probably because the copyist did not feel comfortable with the earlier ending in which there is no resurrection appearance and the disciples do not know Jesus is raised from the dead: Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.
Matthew 27:9	Matthew attributes a quote to Jeremiah; in some later mss the attribution is changed to Zechariah (the correct source).
John 7:53-8:11	The following was added to the gospel of John, probably because the copyist wanted to preserve the story and simply thought this an appropriate place to put it: They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."

10. Erasmus and the Textus Receptus (TR)

Rev. 22:16-21

Erasmus was assembling a single Greek NT in the early 1510s, but the only Greek manuscript of Revelation he could obtain was missing the last six verses of the book. Erasmus translated from the Vulgate into Greek.

1 John 5:7-8

Erasmus was accused by a contemporary of leaving out the lines, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." He answered that he would include them if a ms was found with the words. An English friar created a ms with the words in 1520, and pawned it off as authentic. Erasmus included the lines--which are in no ancient Greek ms at all--and the words were included in the KJV.