The issue surrounding the King James Version of the Bible is one that is often full of divisiveness and full of misunderstanding. The goal of this author is to present clearly what the issue is about and to support the King James Only Position. There are many different “King James Only” mentalities around. To avoid confusion, the position of this writer is this: The King James Bible is the perfect, inerrant, accurate, inspired and glorified word of God in the English language.
Perfect: In that it is complete in all of its contents. It has no missing verses or phrases nor has it added verses or phrases that should not be there. It is complete and free from defect in the source/texts from which it was translated.
Inerrant: There are no “mistakes,” “mistranslations,” “bad renderings," "careless oversights” in the KJV. And it should be given the benefit of the doubt when faced with accusations against it.
Accurate: It is a perfectly accurate translation of the word of God from the original languages.
Inspired: In that the original autographs were given by inspiration of God, and subsequently they were preserved by God, a perfectly accurate translation of the inspired word of God makes it an inspired word of God as well, in the English language.
Glorified: Inasmuch as we give it the glory that it is due – by reading, meditating and obeying what it says
Dr. D. A. Waite presents what he calls, “The Fourfold Superiority of the King James Version.” He gives four reasons why the King James Version is the best translation. One of those four “superiorities” is not applicable in comparing all other versions, so only three of his points will be used here.
The first way in which the King James Version is superior is in the texts from which it has been translated. This is probably the area that most people have never been told about regarding the King James and all the other translations. The King James New Testament is translated from a set of Greek texts that are called the Received Text or the “Textus Receptus” in Latin. The Received Text is called that because it is the text that had been received in the church throughout the centuries. The modern versions, on the other hand, have been translated from what is called the Critical Text. Beginning in 1881 with the Revised Version, almost all of the modern translations have been changed to match this new Critical Text and its subsequent revisions. This text was compiled primarily from a few manuscripts that came from Alexandria, Egypt (specifically two major ones: Sinaiticus and Vaticanus). There are words, phrases, verses and even entire passages that are not found in these manuscripts, and the charge is made against the King James Version that they have added those into the Bible. If that were true, then passages of Bible had been lost for more than a thousand years, because those manuscripts were not being used by the church at large. The common misconception is that the modern translations are simply updating the old language of the Bible, but when it is realized that they come from different sources, a decision has to be made. The King James Bible is translated from the Received Text (Textus Receptus), and the rest of the modern versions (with a few non-popular exceptions) are translated from the Critical Text.
The second way in which the King James Version is superior is in regard to its translators. About 50 men were involved in the translation of the King James Version over a period of about 7 years. They were broken up into six different companies in three different cities, and each company was committed with a portion of the Bible to translate. After the company finished their portion, they would send it to each of the other companies to review what they translated. After agreement had been made between all the companies, a final editing committee looked through the whole thing one more time. As for the men themselves, they indeed were men that were qualified for the task. They considered the Bible to be the divinely inspired word of God, unlike many of the textual critics of modern times. They were university language professors. They were tutors of kings and queens. They were preachers and missionaries. They were taught languages as young children, and some were as conversant in other languages as they were in English. The men were suited for the task. Of course they were fallible as men, but they were diligent in their work on this project. The King James Bible came from superior texts, and they were translated by translators that were by no means inferior!
The third way in which the King James Bible is superior is in its theology. The Critical Text from which the modern translations have been translated, lack verses and phrases that support major doctrines of Christianity. The power in fasting is hard pressed to be found in the modern translations as verses like Matthew 17:21 are not found in them, where Jesus speaks of devils that come out by nothing but by prayer and fasting. The companion passage in Mark 9:29 has the verse but leaves out the word fasting. These are the only two accounts of this story of spiritual warfare, yet fasting would not be considered a part of the war when using a modern version. Other texts that teach major doctrines like the deity of Christ, the blood, believer’s baptism, the virgin birth and more, are tampered with in the modern versions. That is not to say that it is impossible to prove those doctrines from the new translations, but the support for them is often dwindled substantially. The King James comes from better texts, translated by competent translators, and as a result has better theology, better doctrine. It is superior.
These facts of the King James Bible only take a person to the point of acknowledging that the King James is the superior translation, but they cannot take a person to the point of recognition of it as being the perfect, inerrant word of God. That is where the issue of faith has to come in. God has promised that His words would not pass away, that they would be available forever. God’s word is pure – free from any defect or blemish. He said that from generation to generation His word would be available. If the modern translations have the correct texts, then for more than 1,000 years God’s perfect word was not available to His church, to His body. That would mean that He supernaturally inspired it, but then left it to be hidden away for more than 1,000 years. To believe His word that He would preserve His word, is to believe that what we have had passed down through to us in the Received Text, and consequently in the King James Version, is in fact the very words of God in the English language.
Why the King James Bible