This episode reiterates the significance of Westcott and Hort's revised Greek Text in 1881, the text upon which most modern translations rest. They wanted to incorporate newly discovered Greek manuscripts into the manuscript tradition, tweaking the Textus Receptus as needed. Importantly, the vast majority of the Greek text remained unchanged. Defenders of the Textus Receptus rejected any "tweaking," insisting that God had perfectly preserved His Word in the Textus Receptus, the underlying Greek text upon which the translators of the KJV relied. The English divine John Burgon linked the doctrine of inspiration with preservation, arguing from some prooftexts that God's providential preservation of the Scriptures followed from divine inspiration, and this miracle is evident in the KJV.
The Majority Text vs. the Critical Text
This episode marks a major shift in the discussion over Bible translations: most modern translations of the Bible reject the Majority Text (Textus Receptus) in favor of the Critical Text. The Majority Text approach established the underlying Greek Text based on the majority of manuscripts, regardless of age. Critical Text proponents reject establishing the text based purely on "majority rule," and instead maintain that newly discovered OLDER manuscripts should carry more weight in establishing the Greek text than the simple majority. The Critical Text therefore incorporates new manuscript evidence when determining the basic text from which to translate into English. The dispute then between TR proponents and Critical Text adherents can simplistically be stated as "majority rule" vs. "older is better." The argument mirrors the early 20th century dispute between fundamentalism and modernity. The episode contends that "modernity" (the discovery of new manuscript evidence) need not be rejected, but should rather be integrated in establishing the underlying text upon which translators depend.