The King James Bible

No English translation is without error. However, when we study the Bible we want to have the most accurate translation we can get our hands on. The King James Version (KJV) is a more literal translation than other popular translations, which is what makes it initially more difficult to read. This does not mean that translations such as the New King James (NKJ) or New International Versions (NIV) are not the Word of God. However, we will see that, in an effort to make them more “readable,” the translators have inadvertently hidden some of the Bible’s truth.

We will first look at a few examples from the NKJ and then a few from the NIV. The point here is not to condemn the other translations, but merely to illustrate that the KJV is the best one to use for in-depth Bible study. When the KJV was translated the translators gave a greater effort to translate each word whereas other English translations have sacrificed some of the word-for-word accuracy in favor of conveying the overall gist of the verse in modern phrasing.

Examples from the New King James Version (NKJ)

Genesis 22:8
KJV: “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
NKJ: “And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.”
The NKJ hides the foreshadowing that Christ Himself would be the Lamb slain.

Matthew 7:14
KJV: “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
NKJ: “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
The NKJ contradicts Matthew 11:30 which states, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” What the NKJ translators have done is placed a small amount of commentary in this verse by inserting their interpretation of what God meant by the word “strait.”

First Corinthians 1:21
KJV: “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
NKJ: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”
The KJV calls the preaching foolish and the NKJ implies that the message itself is foolish.

Second Corinthians 2:17
KJV: “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”
NKJ: “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”
Corrupting the Word of God is a more serious issue than peddling. This verse is watered down in the NKJ.

First Timothy 6:5
KJV: “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”
NKJ: “useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.”
The phrase “supposing that gain is godliness” has been changed to “who suppose that godliness is a means of gain,” which is a reversal in meaning.

Examples from the New International Version (NIV)

The NIV is the best selling English translation today.¹ Unfortunately, it is not the most suitable translation for in-depth Bible study. The biggest concern one should have with the NIV is the fact that 16 verses have been completely omitted: Matthew 17:21, Matthew 18:11, Matthew 23:14, Mark 7:16, Mark 9:44, Mark 9:46, Mark 11:26, Mark 15:28, Luke 17:36, Luke 23:17, John 5:4, Acts 8:37, Acts 15:34, Acts 24:7, Acts 28:29, Romans 16:24. Look them up in your NIV Bible; they aren’t there.

There are also some poorly translated verses. Some examples are as follows:

Joshua 3:4
KJV: “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.”
NIV: “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it."
Numbers in the Bible often have spiritual significance. Converting “2,000 cubits” into “1,000 yards” hides the number 2,000. In the historical sense of the story this conversion doesn’t impact the story, but if we are doing a number study then the units (cubits or yards) is irrelevant. It’s the number itself that carries spiritual significance.

Isaiah 14:12
KJV: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
NIV: “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!”
The NIV calls Lucifer the morning star, which may confuse the reader because Revelation 22:16 refers to Christ as the morning star.

Matthew 5:22a
KJV: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:”
NIV: “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”
Most printings of the NIV leave out the phrase “without a cause”, implying that all anger is a sin. However, Ephesians 4:26 tells us that not all anger itself is a sin. Moreover, Mark 3:5 says that Jesus was angry with the people in the synagogue. Is He subject to the judgment? No, obviously not.

Matthew 19:9
KJV: “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
NIV: “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
The NIV leaves out the last part of the verse which teaches that marrying a divorced person is a sin.

Mark 6:37
KJV: “He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?”
NIV: “But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
Again, the NIV has converted a numerical phrase to make its historical meaning more readily understood. The disadvantage to doing this is that we lose any spiritual truth that God might be teaching through the phrase “two hundred pennyworth of bread.”

Mark 10:24
KJV: “And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!”
NIV: “The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!”
The NIV omits the phrase “for them that trust in riches,” altering the meaning of this verse.

Phillipians 2:6
KJV: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God”
NIV: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped”
These are two very different statements.

1 John 5:7-8
KJV: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”
NIV: “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”
Clearly the NIV omits a large portion of this passage.

Many of the omissions and errors mentioned above are corrected in footnotes that have been inserted in many of the NIV printings. Of course, it would be more ideal to read a translation that does not require the reader to factor in footnotes in order to get the full Word of God.

Why all the Thee’s and Thou’s?

The editors of the NKJ claimed that they made the KJV clearer by “updating obsolete words.” One example of this is the updating of Old English words like “ye” and “thou” to “you.” What many people don’t realize is that words like “ye” and “thou” were no longer used in everyday speech after the 13th century. The King James Bible was translated in the 17th century so those words were long since considered “obsolete” when the KJV was translated; so why did the translators use them? Well, the Hebrew and Greek languages both contain a different word for the second person singular and second person plural pronouns. Today we use “you” for both singular and plural, as did the people of the 17th century. However, the KJV translators desired to be as faithful as possible to the original manuscripts so they could not use “you” every time because it does not distinguish between singular and plural as “ye” and “thou” do.

For clarification, here is how the Old English words are to be used:

Let’s look at an example from the KJV:
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you (plural), that he may sift you (plural) as wheat: But I have prayed for thee (singular), that thy (singular) faith fail not: and when thou (singular) art converted, strengthen thy (singular) brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32)

When we read this verse in the KJV we can know that Satan wasn’t just after Simon but he was after the other disciples as well, as indicated by the plural “you.” This serves to help us understand why “strengthen thy brethren” was added to the end of the statement. These details are hidden in all other modern translations which do not distinguish between singular and plural.

¹http://ebible.org/bible/biblefaq.htm#translation