Originally posted by Johnv:
In fact, it is impossible for source texts to "omit" when those source texts predate the KJV. If one must argue alterations, then the only conclusion that can be made is that the KJV texts added to the older source texts of scripture, not the other way around as you claim.
I'm only arguing KJV Preferred because of Phillip's neat little trick, but the question posed here is a good one.
What about Aleph, which omits Jn. 21:25, and is the second oldest Greek MS containing the passage? Does this mean that all the others added it? Of course not, but that since Aleph frequently omits material and even whole verse by a common scribal error called homoioteleuton or plain carelessness, it probably also thus omited this one.
The same goes for Mt. 16:2-3, where only 2 MSS (Aleph B) are "older" than the ones that include the passage, and that by only 50-100 years. All others that omit the passage are from the 10th century or later! So the issue becomes not one of the oldest manuscript but one of the oldest text that is on the manuscript. And in this case, as in a host of others, a text on a manuscript from the 12th century is actually "older" than the text on a manuscript of the 4th or 5th century, and so on.
Take Mt. 17:21, where only 2 Greek MSS from before the 9th century omit the passage, whereas 4 from before that time period have it, and also hundreds that comprise the rest of the MS tradition. If you exclude all Greek MSS from after the 9th century from the discussion, then you actually are only depending on 5-10 MSS at any given place in NT, NOT 5500 as is commonly ascribed, and any discussion of the Bible's trustworthiness as maintained by scribes becomes absolutely absurd.
Yours,
Bluefalcon