LET’S BE HONEST ABOUT THE KJV (KING JAMES VERSION) OF THE BIBLE

OR: Is the KJV (King James Version) The Best Bible Translation — Inspired Of God, Holy, Pure And The Only One We Should Use?

Well… the KJV is the most popular version of the Bible out there.

It’s like BRANDING – You get there first, with the biggest name, and you hold your ground… Like Coca-cola — the biggest soda brand out there, but is it the best soda fountain drink? No, but it’s everywhere, so you might as well have a coke.

The KJV is just a “version” of the Bible. It’s not the best, and it’s not even the first English translation of the Bible.

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John Wycliffe made the very first English translation of the Bible. And as near as I can read the story, he did a pretty good job for a dude that lived 700 years ago. (See wikipedia article here.)

The biggest problem Whycliffe had was that HE DID NOT HAVE THE SACRED SCRIPTURES in the original Greek or Hebrew.

All he had was the Latin Vulgate translation, from the 3rd century. And that shaped and influenced how he made the very first English translation of the Bible.

Well, almost 300 years years later, in 1604, the King James Version was authorized by the ole King himself… and the boys who put the KJV together relied heavily on John Wycliffe’s work.

They did not go much out of their way to correct any boo boos Wycliffe made. The biggest “boo boo” was the way Wycliffe handled the word AION and the adjective AIONION from the Greek New Testament.

Remember, Wycliffe did not even have access to the Greek New Testament. He was using the old Catholic Latin translation from the 3rd century.

And in the 3rd century Latin version, they translated AION and the adjective form of aion (aionian) by TWO words: Eternuam and Secularum.

In the 3rd century these two words were synonyms – used interchangeably.

So, when Wycliffe got to the word “eternuam” he made up a brand new English word: ETERNAL.

When Wycliffe got to the world “secularum” he used the old English word WORLDIS – or WORLD.

Wycliffe was a great man, a scholar, but he just did not know the trouble he would cause by creating this BIG… BAD… WORD… “eternal”.

From his mistake… we get ETERNAL HELL and all the confusion that goes with it.

You see, God’s judgments are not ETERNAL punishment… but AIONIAN in nature.

What, pray tell, is the English equivalent of AIONIAN… ???

That would be EONIAN — or perhaps AGE-LASTING.

NOT everlasting.

Back to whether or not the KJB (King James Bible) is the very best translation available. Well, No.

Someone said there are over 20,000 errors made in the KJV.

20,000 errors in the King James Bible is a big number.

The only outfit I know that could have even possibly counted that many errors is the Concordant Publishing Concern.

They have been working on a “Concordant” version of the Bible since 1910 or so. That’s over 100 years.

How did they do it before the age of computers?

First of all, they made a 3X5 index card of every word in Greek or Hebrew texts of the Bible. (They did not have the help of computers and excel spreed sheets in 1910).
Then, they listed on those cards every place where THAT WORD appeared in the Bible.

Then, they tried to settle on ONE ENGLISH word to represent each ONE Greek or Hebrew word so that… the student of the Bible could conclude for themselves BY WORD USAGE that this or that word must mean this or that.
So, this effort kind of removes the middle-man translator.
So, they must have made more than 20,000 changes in translation.

See this article about the Concordant Version of the Bible.

I don’t think 20,000 errors in the King James Version of the Bible is an exaggeration. Especially when you factor in VERB TENSES, which are important to our understanding of God’s word.

Example:

Consider John 3:16. It’s a very popular verse. Here’s how the CLNT handles the verse compared to the King James Version:

KJV: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

CLNT: For thus God loves the world, so that He gives His only-begotten Son, that everyone who is believing in Him should not be perishing, but may be having life eonian.

The verb tense is striking in the CLNT. In the Greek language of the time, you’ll see it’s more of a TIMELESS verb tense than a past tense or even a present tense.

“For thus God loves the world”… timeless fact.

“…that he gives His only-begotten Son”… timeless fact.

“…believing in Him” … timeless fact.

“…not be perishing…” timeless fact.

“…may be having…” timeless.

The serious Bible student needs to grab a copy of the Concordant Literal New Testament. It opens up a new understanding of God, His purpose and plan.

Yet, still, if all you have is the KJV, you can still see God throughout that translation.

Even within the KJV you can see that the word ETERNAL and FOREVER and FOREVER AND EVER has it’s limits.

How? Consider the mountains and hills, which one KJV verse says are “everlasting” yet another verse says will be made low.

Consider a slave, if the slave wants to be a slave “forever” one KJV verse says he must bore a hole in his ear. Yet, he is only a slave as long as he lives. YET…After death, he is free from that bondage.

Consider Jonah and the whale. One KJV verse says he was in the whale’s belly 3 days and 3 nights. Another KJV verse says he was there “forever”.

Consider the rule and reign of Christ Jesus, our Lord… one KJV verse says he will reign FOR EVER AND EVER and another KJV verse says “He must reign UNTIL He places all His enemies under His feet.” The word UNTIL puts a limit on the reign of Christ.

You can use the King James Bible and discover the truth about many things. But it’s not without it’s flaws.

There’s always Young’s Literal Translation. Rotherham’s bible. The CLNT. And others.

But don’t think for a moment that the KJV is inspired by God. The KJV is an OK translation. But it’s not the end-all and be-all.

It’s poetic style is charming. After all, it is old English.

But if it’s all you’ve got… you’re doing just fine.

Grace to you.

Ace.

P.S. If you really want to get at the heart of God’s truth for today, stick to the letters of Paul.