There is a difference between New Testament Bible translations today. Depending on which one you use, it comes from one of two different types of Greek text. And it DOES matter which one you rely upon for The New Testament.
The authors of the Critical text (Wescott and Hort) claimed that the Greek Majority Text, which earlier New Testament translations are based on, are not as old nor as reliable as their Critical text. They claim the Greek Majority Text has additions, which is why their Critical text is shorter, and omits around 2,800 words that the Received Text has. They claim over time words were added to produce the Received Text. And because they allege their Critical text is older, it doesn't have those additions. None of that has ever been proven to be fact though. It was just assumed by Wescott and Hort.
What this means then, is that if you want to use a modern New Testament version, understand that you are relying on a totally different set of Greek manuscripts other than the Traditional texts used in history for the New Testament prior to the 1880s. And that newer Greek text is shorter, because it does not include something like 196 verses that are in earlier New Testament translations, like the KJV.
1. Received Text (Textus Receptus) or Byzantine Text or Majority Text, or Traditional Text -- this Greek text is based on the majority of existing Greek NT manuscripts, which is in the thousands. They make up the Byzantine tradition. This is why it is also called the Majority Text.
The higher critics wrongly claim that the Textus Receptus was created by Erasmus. That idea is false, because Erasmus in the 1500s made a Greek translation from... those Majority Text manuscripts. He only made a translation from existing Greek texts, and published it. These Greek texts were the same ones from antiquity. The title 'Received Text' was coined in the 1600s and thus the Latin name Textus Receptus means Received Text. But the source is from the Majority Text of thousands of Greek New Testament manuscripts that exist.
It is what was used for New Testament Bible translations prior to the 1880s, like the 1611 KJV, Bible translations by John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale, Matthew's Bible, The Great Bible, Geneva Bible, Bishop's Bible, etc.
2. Critical Text, or Eclectic Text -- this is mainly 2 Greek texts, the Codex Vaticanus and the Codes Sinaiticus. The conventional theory is that these Greek texts are the 'oldest and best' Greek New Testament manuscripts, as alleged by the 1800s British scholars Wescott and Hort (abbreviated as W&H). Notice the NKJV is in this group also, simply because it has notes of NU in its margin, showing the Critical Text of the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies was used which included Wescott and Hort's new Greek text.
However, that oldest and best idea of Wescott and Hort was never established as fact, and discovery of newer manuscript evidence even shows the Codex Vaticanus, and the Codex Sinaiticus are not the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.
Vaticanus was first discovered in the Vatican library in 1475 with nothing to date any previous origin. The Sinaiticus was first discovered in the 1859 by Tischendorf at St. Catherine's monastery in Greece. Tischendorf, a German rationalist, is who first claimed Sinaiticus is older than the Textus Receptus, without any such evidence. A Greek scholar and paleographer of ancient Greek text named Simonides at the monastery claimed he was assigned to write Sinaiticus (under a different title), and that it was to be presented to the Czar in hopes of getting a donation for a printing press. The translation contained many errors that required repair, and overwrites, making the translation unpresentable. All this means it is a modern work created in the 1840s. The white appearance of the Sinaiticus manuscript also gives away its modern authorship. All the ancient Greek texts show oxidation, turning the document to a bronze color.
The Critical text, plus some pieces of other Greek manuscripts claimed to have been found later, are what the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies (UBS) New Testament translations are based upon, making up about 2% of modern New Testament versions, because its main reliance is still upon Wescott and Hort's 1881 new Greek translation.
The modern New Testament translations are based on the Critical Text. NIV, New Living Translation, English Standard Version (ESV), New King James Version (NKJV), Christian Standard Bible (CSB), The Message (MSG), New American Standard Version (NASV). English Revised Version (ERV), New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), World English Bible (WEB), Updated American Standard Version (UASV). If you have a New Testament that says it's from the Nestle-Aland or United Bible Societies, often abbreviated as NU, then you're using Wescott and Hort's new Greek translation they did from Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.
www.scribd.com
www.chick.com
