Rev. 17:8--printer's error in Erasmus?

Logos: "Was this a printer's error in Erasmus' Greek text and was it overlooked and kept in the later editions of the Textus Receptus and in the KJV?"

The TR reading KAIPER ESTIN ("and yet is"), which does *not* appear in any manuscript, patristic, or versional witness, seems to have been a one-letter corruption (very likely a typesetter's error, given the absence of any other evidence) from the known reading KAI PARESTIN ("and is present"), found in approximately 40 MSS and as a scholium in Erasmus' own copy of Revelation (MS 1).

All other MSS (more than 150) read some form of KAI PARESTAI ("and will be present").

Even though the meaning between the TR's KAIPER ESTIN and KAI PARESTIN is altered by a shift of word roots, Moorman attempts to minimize the problem by claiming that the TR reading and the 40-MSS minority variant "can translate virtually the same as the KJV," even though this is not really the case.

In regard to the reading overwhelmingly supported by all other MSS ("and will be present"), Moorman clutches at straws, claiming that, even though "the context ... is the future Tribulation", somehow "it strains the sense to be looking at something that 'will come'".

It certainly would be easier for KJVO defenders to agree with Hills on this point, and recognize an apparent compositor's error for what it was, and from that to move to a legitimate variant reading as more accurate and therefore more acceptable. But then, the same people who maintain that "strain at a gnat" is "advanced revelation" will not be likely to alter their position in this case either.