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Reading a bilinugal Synodal (Russian)-KJV Bible I noticed in Ephesians 2:1 the KJV inserted the three words "hath he quickened" when compared to the Russian version, which has no such words:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

The italics clearly indicate an insertion not present in the original text, but comparing different versions I also found a similar phrase in several translations, but those are in a minority. For example in the NKJV:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

the ASV:

And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,

and the WEB:

You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,

On the contrary, most translations omit those words, including the Synodal and here the NASB as a representative translation:

And you were dead in your offenses and sins,

Why did this minority of translations decide to insert these words when most translations, even the thought-for-thought or paraphrases disagree?

1 Answer 1

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The "some translations" that add "hath he quickened" (or similar) are those that follow the KJV which places this phrase in italics (as the OP's question correctly documents), admitting that it is absent from the Greek.

That is, the translators simply decided to add it with no authority from the original language of the text.

The only justification for such an unwarranted insertion may have been a similar phrase from V5, but that is in a slightly different context.

Now the phrase is absent from the Textus Receptus from which the KJV translators worked; it is also absent from the NA28, UBS5, Majority text, Byzantine text and every other text I checked; indeed, I could find that phase nowhere in any Greek MSS, nor in any textual apparatus.

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