Blood-Bought Pilgrim
Puritan Board Freshman
This morning in my morning devotions I came across and odd textual situation in 1 John 3:16 which really sparked my curiosity, and I'm wondering if anyone on here might have some info or be able to point me in the right direction.
In my Greek New Testament (the Scrivener TR), 1 John 3:16 begins with "By this we know the love of God". When checking my understanding with my English Bible, I noticed my NKJV does not have "of God" (corresponding to "tou theou" in Greek). Of course, there are variants in the TR tradition so I assumed this might have been a place where the NKJV went with a different TR reading. I was curious though, so I grabbed a KJV and noticed that it does have the words "of God", but in italics, indicating that it was not in the Greek text but was supplied by the translators. This is where the real confusion began.
From what I've been able to glean online so far, the 1550 Stephanus edition of the TR does not have "of God", but the 1598 Beza does. I am not at all surprised by this, as I know there are variants among TR editions. What is confusing to me is why the King James would have "of God" in italics if the reading was present in the GNT upon which they most heavily relied. Are they saying they agree with the Stephanus reading but think "of God" is implied anyway? That would seem to be an odd position to take. Is it possible the KJV translators italicized it for some other reason? Additionally, Scrivener has the reading in his edition which is supposed to be based on the textual decisions of the KJV translators among the TR editions. So does this mean Scrivener thought that they thought it was original, in spite of the italics?
I know the answer to this question is of very little consequence, but I can't help but be interested. Any info on this question or suggestions for where I can do further research would be appreciated!
In my Greek New Testament (the Scrivener TR), 1 John 3:16 begins with "By this we know the love of God". When checking my understanding with my English Bible, I noticed my NKJV does not have "of God" (corresponding to "tou theou" in Greek). Of course, there are variants in the TR tradition so I assumed this might have been a place where the NKJV went with a different TR reading. I was curious though, so I grabbed a KJV and noticed that it does have the words "of God", but in italics, indicating that it was not in the Greek text but was supplied by the translators. This is where the real confusion began.
From what I've been able to glean online so far, the 1550 Stephanus edition of the TR does not have "of God", but the 1598 Beza does. I am not at all surprised by this, as I know there are variants among TR editions. What is confusing to me is why the King James would have "of God" in italics if the reading was present in the GNT upon which they most heavily relied. Are they saying they agree with the Stephanus reading but think "of God" is implied anyway? That would seem to be an odd position to take. Is it possible the KJV translators italicized it for some other reason? Additionally, Scrivener has the reading in his edition which is supposed to be based on the textual decisions of the KJV translators among the TR editions. So does this mean Scrivener thought that they thought it was original, in spite of the italics?
I know the answer to this question is of very little consequence, but I can't help but be interested. Any info on this question or suggestions for where I can do further research would be appreciated!