Glad you came back, Huck. The thread swung off in another direction and wasn't sure if you'd see it to reply
No, not insinuating anything sinister, but accusations are out there.
I remember reading that Tischendorf only got part of it on his initial visit to the monastery,
and that he came back one or more times attempting to procure the remainder.
Can't give you the source. Read that a long time ago.
I think he returned twice more after the first time. Again, the fact that he does doesn't mean anything. Goes once, accidentally sees something valuable, takes it to see if it really IS valuable, and then goes back a couple more times to see if there's anymore, and to arrange what will happen with what turns out to be one of the most valuable finds in biblical textual archaeology. Again, I'm not entirely sure why this is an argument against the use of Sinaiticus in and of itself - feel free to enlighten me further.
Okay, the NASB:
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
Two manuscripts agree that this is translated correctly.
The KJV:
John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Five thousand manuscripts agree that this is translated correctly.
That is a blatant doctrine-of-faith issue.
There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of similar examples.
I'm picky. It matters to me.
Let's put the full passage up, so we can better deal with the issue you raise
John 6 NASB said:
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes [KVJ/TR/Maj adds here; "on me"] has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
In the above passage, I have underlined every instance where belief (or the accompanying metaphor, eating of bread) is brought up. It is quite clear in context that belief is in the context of belief in Christ, and it states in multiple other places explicitly aside from v.47 that belief in Jesus singularly is required for eternal life. Putting aside whether the earliest manuscripts are right or the majority text is right for the time being, it is clear that it doesn't change the thrust of the text, and it only matters if you
use v47 as a proof text in complete isolation from the rest of John.
In other words, it seems to me that the objection posed by KJV-onlyists at this point only stems from poor exegesis and a proof text based approach to Scripture that is actually only quite recent, and hasn't existed for most of the time of the existence of the Church (or ISrael for that matter). It's worth remembering, of course, that the original texts did not include verse numbers or chapter breaks, and for the most part don't even have punctuation! The text just runs together. So the texts were intended to be read in full, not verse by verse. In short, we rely too much on individual verses to prove things, and don't read the Bible as it was meant to be read, in large chunks.
In any case, I think there's a perfectly logical explanation for the discrepancy between the critical and majority texts. The words "on me", as per the earliest texts that we have (which realistically are the best physical proofs we have as to the original text), were probably inserted at a later date to clarify and harmonise the text. Some scribe who thought he could do a better job with Scripture, perhaps. But the reality is that the words don't really change the doctrine of the passage at all. Take them out or leave them in - John 6 is clear that belief in Jesus is required for eternal life.
The inverse, that the words were taken out, makes much less sense for precisely the same reasons. To take out "on me" at that point, and leave the clear christological nature of belief everywhere else in John 6, would not erode the doctrine. If someone were trying to corrupt the text, you would expect a much larger amount of redaction in chapter 6 then there actually is. Hence why it makes more sense that the added words were added in to clarify, rather than taken out to corrupt. While I'm happy to say that there's no theological problem with the addition of the words, it seems safe to say that they were not a part of what John originally note, which I'm sure we can agree is what's important in the biblical text.
It is the most honest, most accurate,
most complete translation we have in English,
and English is the only language I speak, read, and write.
Which is your perspective, but as we're discussing, is not quite proven. I'm happy for people to read the KJV, as it is a perfectly fine translation. I just question the bases on which it is judged to be the standard, as hopefully I've been able to illustrate somewhat above