The utter confusion of the so called “oldest and best” manuscripts.
Matthew 19:29 “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, OR WIFE, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive AN HUNDREDFOLD, and shall inherit everlasting life.”
Here the words “or wife” (η γυναικα) are found in most texts including Sinaiticus, C, E, F, G, H, K, L, W, X, Y, Delta, Theta, the Old Latin, Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta, Harclean, Coptic Sahidic, Boharic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Georgian and Slavonic ancient versions. The King James Bible along with the foreign language Reformation bibles include the word “wife” along with the word “hundredfold” . Just a few of the Bibles that read just like the KJB are Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew’s Bible 1549, the Bishops’ bible 1568 and the Geneva Bible, Young’s, World English bible 2000, NKJV and the Modern English Bible 2014 – plus many more. BUT Vaticanus, virtually all by itself, omits these two words – “OR WIFE” and so do the NASB, NIV, ESV, NET, Jehovah Witness NWT and the Holman Standard. The second important textual variant is the difference between “AN HUNDREDFOLD” (εκατονταπλασιονα) and “MANY TIMES AS MUCH” (πολλαπλασιονα). These are two very different Greek words. One literally has the word “a hundred” in it and the other one literally has the word “many” The vast majority of all manuscripts as well as the ancient versions read “AN HUNDREDFOLD”. This includes Sinaiticus, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, W, X, Delta, Theta, the Old Latin copies, the Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta, Coptic Boharic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Georgian and Slavonic ancient versions. BUT, once again, virtually all by itself Vaticanus reads “MANY TIMES AS MUCH” (πολλαπλασιονα). The Critical text of Westcott and Hort used to read this way. I have hard copies of the Nestle 4th edition 1934 and the Nestle 21st edition 1975 and both read “MANY TIMES AS MUCH” (πολλαπλασιονα). BUT later on, the Nestle-Aland/UBS Vatican supervised Critical text changed this reading for the other one that is found in Sinaiticus and most others, and NOW the Nestle-Aland/UBS texts read “a HUNDREDFOLD“ (εκατονταπλασιονα). And they did all this, not because they discovered some new textual evidence. They just changed their minds. Not even the Revised Version 1881 nor the ASV of 1901 went along with Westcott and Hort on this one, but still read “an hundredfold”, as also do the RSV, NRSV, ESV, NET, NIV, Holman, NKJV, etc. BUT the NASB, virtually all by itself except for the Jehovah Witness New World Translation STILL has the Vatican reading here and says: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive MANY TIMES AS MUCH, and will inherit eternal life.” The Catholic Confusion The Douay-Rheims of 1582 as well as the Douay Version 1950 both read exactly like the KJB has it. – “And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, OR WIFE, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive AN HUNDREDFOLD, and shall possess life everlasting.” BUT the St. Joseph New American bible 1970 includes the word WIFE but has “MANY TIMES AS MUCH” instead of “an hundredfold” And then the New Jerusalem bible of 1985 reverses itself and it now omits the word WIFE AND goes with “A HUNDRED TIMES AS MUCH”. So, in this one verse alone, both Sinaiticus and Vaticanus differ from each other twice, and most of the modern versions follow Vaticanus in one instance and Sinaiticus in the other, – but not all. The NASB differs from the others. And they call this rigamarole the “science” of textual criticism! To see MANY more examples like this showing what the so called “oldest and best” manuscripts are really like, see The true character of the so called “Oldest and Best Manuscripts”