[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Revelation 22:19 (KJB)
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,
God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city,
and from the things which are written in this book.

Originally Posted by Diligent

If you had bothered to actually read some of the posts here, you would have found that there are quite a few very learned men who can answer questions just like the one you asked.

While perhaps not "learned" in a technical sense, the Revelation question is fascinating and I have checked it a bit. Please note that Revelation has a unique textual history and presumptions from other NT books should generally be checked at the door.

A quick check showed that "book of life" may not have Greek pre-TR manuscript support (probably a couple of, or a few, dozen MSS. Hoskier indicated 2 or 3 manuscripts have "book of life" however they may all be post-TR and influenced by the TR). "Book of life" is rich in support in the Latin lines, in the Bohairic, in other lines, in references from early church writers (I am not sure if "tree of life" has any early writer references) and internal consistency. Offhand, the closest similar situation I know would be "her purification" in Luke 2:22, except that the Reformation Bible scholars, afaik, agreed 100% on "book of life" in all their editions, while "her purification" was an excellent Beza correction to earlier TR editions.

My research showed the following church writer references are given as supporting "book of life".

Ambrose (c 390 AD)
Bachiarius (c 420)
Andreas of Cappadocia (c 500)
Primasius of Adrumentum (552 AD) - Commentary on Revelation
Speculum treatise (mss c. 8th century, many consider as Augustine 427 AD origin)
Haymo of Halberstadt (9th century) - Commentary on Revelation
Pseudo-Augustine (1160)

At this time I know of no (0) early church writer references that support "tree of life".

And then in general there is support for "book of life" in the following lines and texts (Latin given in some specifics, due to significance). In some cases the lines may be split, so this is only meant as an evidentiary overview. Remember that Revelation is relatively rare (in the Peshitta Syriac it was one of the books not originally included) with a far smaller number of manuscripts than the Gospels and even, in general, the Epistles.

Bohairic Coptic
Old Latin line
Latin Vulgate
Syriac
Armenian
Ethiopic
Arabic
Tepl

Latin Manuscripts
Codex Fuldensis (~ A.D. 545)
Codex Karolinus (9th century);
Codex Ulmensis (9th century);
Codex Uallicellanus (9th century);
corrector of Codex Parisinus (9th century)
Codex Oxoniensis (12th to 13th century);
Codex Sarisburiensis (thirteenth century);

I hope that helps as a start. The internal aspects are extremely strong, especially for those who look at the Bible as a book of faith and truth and consistency. However I am addressing here textual support.

Shalom,
Steven Avery