Words Added to the Scriptures in the Common Version.
Italic letters are used in the common version to denote the words and phrases, which have been added by the translators to complete what they supposed to be the sense. Many of these are mere human additions to the words of inspiration. A few examples will make this plain.
In the 19th Psalm, David, contemplating the glory of God in the material heavens, exclaims:
“Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.”
But lest this might impart an erroneous impression, he adds,
“No speech! No language! Their voice is not heard! but their line hath gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”
As Addison says:
“What though nor real voice nor sound
Amidst their radiant orbs be found?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine
The hand that made us is divine.”
But in the common version this idea is completely changed by the addition of italic words, making the psalmist say:
“There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”
“To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of my Father.”
The meaning here is plain. Christ gives it only to those for whom it is prepared by the Father. This meaning is completely changed by the words inserted in italic, which make the passage read:
“It is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”
By these words it is represented that Christ has not the power to give, thus contradicting his declaration that all power is given to him in heaven and earth.
In many passages the word man is inserted, limiting or destroying the sense of the original, which is none or no one. In John x, 29, our Saviour says of his sheep, “No one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” Our version makes it, “No man is able. So in Hebrews x, 12, the word man is inserted, where it is not in the original.” The manhood of Christ is not here referred to, but his priesthood.
2 Cor. iii, 3: “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men, manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,” is changed by inserting the useless and perverting words, “For as much as ye are.”