Hebrew.—“And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years” (25).
Septuagint.—“And Nahor lived after he begat Terah a hundred and twenty-five years.”
Hebrew.—“And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife” (31).
Septuagint.—“And Terah took Abram and Nahor his sons, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai and Melcha, his daughters-in-law, the wives of his sons Abram and Nahor.”
The early Christian versions and manuscripts contain an immense number of different readings, at least 150,000. Dr. Mill discovered 80,000 different readings in the New Testament alone.
Origen, writing in the third century, says: “There is a vast difference betwixt the several editions of the scripture, happening either through the carelessness of the transcribers, or else the forwardness of some who pretend to correct and adulterate the scripture” (Commentary on St. Matthew).
Modern versions do not agree. The readings of the Catholic and Protestant versions are quite unlike: The Protestant versions themselves contain a great variety of readings. The New Version is supposed to be simply a revision of the Authorized Version. The committee that prepared it was governed by this rule: “To introduce as few alterations as possible into the text of the Authorized Version consistent with faithfulness.”
How many alterations were made? More than one hundred thousand!