"For many are called, but few are chosen" appears in some Bibles as part of Matthew 20:16, after "the first shall be last and the last shall be first." Yet it is missing in the most accurate English Bibles, without even a footnote to alert us to this fact. I am aware that this phrase appears in Matthew 22:14, but I am curious about the discrepancy. I was hoping you could shed some light on this, as I am sure there may be other examples of this as I study further. -- Ugo Ahunanya (London)
You're right--there are other examples of this in the textual record. But let's focus on the matter of Matthew 20:16.
Less accurate English versions, like the KJV, were translated without comprehensive knowledge of Greek and Hebrew grammar. Many important ancient manuscripts had not yet been discovered four hundred years ago, and the KJV was based largely on manuscripts that had been copied only in the one or two hundred years preceding its translation in 1611!
Further, the text on which some of the older English versions were based had gradually gathered accretions--extra words and sometimes even sentences--that do not appear in the oldest Greek New Testament manuscripts. These extra words probably do not amount to more than 1% of the length of the canonical scriptures. Modern translations from the original languages are right to omit them.
Interestingly--in case you are wondering--the extra portions in the late medieval manuscripts did not introduce new doctrines. They merely reiterated orthodox teaching. And in most cases, as you are noticing, words appropriate in more than one context were simply repeated at a secondary location.
The message of the Bible was unaffected. The word of God, solid as a rock, remains the same forever.
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