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In my attempt to read the Bible through from cover to cover, I run across some strange things.

II Samuel 21:19 tells us that a man named Elhanan killed Goliath. The familiar story says David killed Goliath. I consulted my fundamentalist sources (Criswell Study Bible and Liberty (Fallwell) Bible) and found additional words, not in the original text of the KJV. These words are in italics. The introduction on using the Criswell Bible explains that words in italics are inserted to complete the mean of an obscure original text. So the italics tell us that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath. Thus this verse is harmonized w/I Chr 20:5. The editors of the New Interpreters Study Bible tells us that the words about Goliath's brother were probably added by an original editor.

I can tell you that I do not like people adding words to the original text.

I just got back from Barnes and Noble. I checked several Bibles, including three KJVs from different publishing companies. Two had the harmonization words in italics. One had the words in its standard type face. The NIV, pew edition had the words w/o italics.

It seems all modern translations are biased to the point that publishers feel free to alter the text to match the publishers bias.

NRSV is the most likely not to insert or alter texts without footnotes or italics.

I've always held to the idea that correct translation should be the basis for our theological constructs. This seems to the use of theology to govern translation.
To me this is wrong.