F. J. A Hort of the famed Westcott and Hort 1881 critical Greek New Testament wrote, “It will not be out of place to add here a distinct expression of our belief that even among the numerous unquestionably spurious readings of the New Testament there are no signs of deliberate falsification of the text for dogmatic purposes.” — B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1882), 282.
Hort goes on to say: “The licence of paraphrase occasionally assumes the appearance of wilful corruption, where scribes allowed themselves to change language which they thought capable of dangerous misconstruction; or attempted to correct apparent errors which they doubtless assumed to be due to previous transcription; or embodied in explicit words a meaning which they supposed to be implied … Accusations of wilful tampering with the text are accordingly not unfrequent in Christian antiquity: but, with a single exception, wherever they can be verified they prove to be groundless, being in fact hasty and unjust inferences from mere diversities of inherited text. The one known exception is in the case of Marcion’s dogmatic mutilation of the books accepted by him: and this was, strictly speaking, an adaptation for the use of his followers; nor had it apparently any influence outside the sect.” (Introduction, pp. 282-83).
There are some incredibly significant issues in the Greek text behind the Byzantine family of Greek manuscripts, especially the KJV (Textus Receptus) that were not in the original manuscripts. We have John 7:58-8:11. Mark 16:9-20, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 John 5:7, Luke 2:33 (Mark 1:11; Luke 3:23), Matthew 17:21; Matthew 18:11; Mark 7:16; Mark 9:44, 46; Mark 11:26; Mark 15:28; Luke 17:36; Luke 22:43-44, Luke 23:17, Luke 23:34; Acts 8:37; Acts 15:34; Acts 24:7, Acts 28:29, to mention just a few.
It is true, that, at times, scribes would at times alter the words of their texts in order to make them more obviously orthodox, so as to prevent Christians who held unusual views or even heretic views could not misuse them. But overall, we do not see this being excessively the case. And, while it might add to our sociohistorical understanding of the text, it does not in any way impede the primary task of the textual scholar of determining the original words of the original texts.
LEARN MORE
FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS: Introduction-Intermediate New Testament Textual Studies
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949586987
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List of Major Textual Variants In the Greek New Testament In English Translation
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