A Commentary on Textual Additions to the New Testament

The Greek edition of the New Testament known as the Textus Receptus that was current in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has thousands more words than earlier manuscripts of the second through fourth centuries. Major English translations based on the Textus Receptus, such as Tyndale’s New Testament and the King James Version (KJV) have all these extra verses, phrases, and words included in the text.

The aim of Philip Wesley Comfort’s work is to clearly identify these additions for English readers and then explain why they are added. Scribes often made insertions – “scribal gap filling” – based on their knowledge of the other gospels, other passages of Scripture, Christian theology, and oral traditions. By understanding the sources and probable reasons for the insertions, students and teachers of the Bible can make informed translation and interpretive decisions.