NKJV and KJV--both translated from same texts
Although the NKJV does not come from the Alexandrian text, neither is it based on the same Textus Receptus as the KJV. . If you do the research you will find that the KJV Old Testament is based on the Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text. But the NKJV is based on the Biblia Hebraica.
The NKJV was translated from the same original language texts as the KJV.
KJV defender David Sorenson admitted that the NKJV’s N. T. “is translated from the Textus Receptus” (
Touch Not, p. 240). Sorenson also listed the NKJV as being “based upon the Received Text” (p. 10). In his list of formal equivalent translations, Einwechter included the NKJV along with the KJV and he noted that the NKJV is “based on the TR“ (
English Bible Translations, pp. 17, 29). KJV-only author Samuel Gipp acknowledged that the NKJV “is based on the correct Antiochian manuscripts” (
Answer Book, p. 104). Gary Zeolla confirmed that the NKJV is “based on the same Greek text as the KJV, the TR” (
Differences, pp. 20, 66). Kerby Fannin listed the NKJV and MKJV as being “based on the Received Text” (
While Men Slept, pp. 469-470).
Arthur Farstad, executive editor of the NKJV, wrote: “The text of the New King James Version itself is the traditional one used by Luther and Calvin, as well as by such Catholic scholars as Erasmus, who produced it. Later (1633) it was called the
Textus Receptus, or ‘TR’” (
NKJV in the Great Tradition, p. 111). In note 9, Farstad commented that “deeper reflection led us to adhere to the traditional King James text” (p. 116). Farstad quoted the following from the guidelines for the making of the NKJV: “the Traditional texts of the Greek and Hebrew will be used” (p. 34).
Concerning the NKJV, James D. Price, who was executive editor for the NKJV's Old Testament, observed: “
Constant reference was made to the printed edition of the Hebrew Bible used by the translators of 1611, the second Bomberg edition edited by Jacob ben Chayyim. In those few places where the Bomberg text differed from the Stuttgart edition, the Bomberg reading was followed” (
King James Onlyism, p. 307).