According to KJV defender Edward F. Hills, this KJV rendering “shalt be” came from a conjectural emendation interjected into the Greek text by Beza (
Believing Bible Study, pp. 205-206).
Edwards Hills again acknowledged that Theodore Beza introduced a few conjectural emendations in his edition of the Textus Receptus with two of them kept in the KJV, one of them at
Revelation 16:5 shalt be instead of
holy (
KJV Defended, p. 208).
Hills identified the KJV reading at
Revelation 16:5 as “certainly erroneous” and as a “conjectural emendation by Beza” (
Believing Bible Study, p. 83).
In an edition of the KJV with commentary as edited by F. C. Cook and printed in 1881, William Lee in his introduction to the book of Revelation referred to “the conjectural reading of Beza’s last three editions” at
Revelation 16:5 (Vol. IV, p. 463).
James White agreed with Edward Hills that Beza’s reading at
Revelation 16:5 was a conjectural emendation, a change “made to the text without any evidence from the manuscripts” (
King James Only, first edition, p. 63).
James White claimed:
“Every Greek text--not just Alexandrian texts, but all Greek texts, Majority Text, the Byzantine text, every manuscript, the entire manuscript tradition--reads ‘O Holy One,‘ containing the Greek phrase ‘ho hosios’” (second edition, p. 237).
William W. Combs maintained that “Beza simply speculated (guessed)” in introducing this reading (
Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, Fall, 1999, p. 156).
J. I. Mombert listed
Revelation 16:5 as one of the places where he asserted that “the reading of the A. V. is supported by no known Greek manuscript whatever, but rests on an error of Erasmus or Beza” (
Hand-book, p. 389).
In 1844, Samuel Tregelles maintained that the reading adopted by Beza at
Revelation 16:5 “is not found in any known MS” (
Book of Revelation in Greek, p. xxxv).
Jonathan Stonis asserted that Theodore Beza “modified the Traditional Text against manuscript evidence by dropping the words, ’Holy One’ and replacing them with ’to be’” (
Juror’s Verdict, p. 60).
The earlier English Bibles of which the KJV was a revision did not have “and shalt be” at this verse.
Was the KJV a revision of earlier Bibles that put in doubt the eternal future of the Lord Jesus Christ according to a consistent application of Waite‘s claim?
Tyndale's New Testament, Coverdale’s Bible, Matthew's Bible, Great Bible, Whittingham's New Testament, and the Geneva Bible all have "holy" while the Bishops’ Bible has “holy one.”
Click to expand...