Robinson and Pierpont on the Textus Receptus
[NOTE: I realize that I dropped the ball last week, so this week, I’m including an extra-long quote from Robinson and Pierpont. This is taken from the introduction to their Byzantine Textform. Enjoy!]
Certain partisans claiming to affirm a “Majority Text” position have abused that term to promote a sole objective of defending the Textus Receptus and ultimately the exclusive advocacy of the King James Version. To Achieve such an end, however, all recognizable principles of textual criticism must be discarded by them; their ultimate struggle becomes purely theological, and that in the extreme. God and the TR/KJV are pitted against Satan and the Alexandrian Text. The Alexandrian manuscripts are thoroughly depreciated. In their eyes Westcott and Hort become “closet Jesuits,” bent on destroying the “orthodox Bible” by substituting the readings of “heretical” manuscripts. Those who accept any text besides the TR and KJV are “liberal,” “heretical,” and or dupes of a “Catholic conspiracy.” Some authentic “Majority Text” advocates have been unfairly lumped with this extreme position, even though these individuals have made it plain that they are not in sympathy with such an absurd agenda.
The Present editors desire to make it absolutely clear that they are not tied to such an agenda in any way. Neither the Textus Receptus nor any English translation is in view under the Byzantine-priority theory – only the restoration of readings considered most closely to reflect the original form of the Byzantine text, and ultimately the autograph. The Byzantine Textform does not concur with any Receptus edition, and clearly not with any English version presently available including the KJV or NKJV.
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