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3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Read the King James Bible

July 11, 2012 — 30 Comments

Without fail!  It happens every time I talk about bible translations.  Someone approaches me and says they’ve heard that the King James Version is the most accurate translation around.

I’m sorry.  It’s not.

  • I know its the version your family read, you’re church read and the one you’ve studied, memorized and cherish.
  • I know its the most widely distributed translation in English.
  • I know it was accurate for its time.

But it’s really time you shelve the King James Version and pick a new translation!  Here’s why.

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1. The KJV is not based on the most accurate manuscripts.

If you read the KJV you’re reading things the Biblical authors DID NOT WRITE.  It’s not that it’s translators were in some secret conspiracy to deceive the masses.  They weren’t.  They were working with the best copies they had at the time.  But these copies had errors – errors which entered the text over 1400 years of hand copying hand copies.

The vast majority of these errors were small and unintentional.  If you’ve ever tried copying a lengthy handwritten document you may have experienced some of the following.

  • errors caused by sight.
  • errors caused by hearing and transcription.
  • errors caused by lapses in memory.

But some copyists intentionally changed the text – a fact that later copiers could not rectify because all they had was the copy in front of them.  It’s similar to the errors created and passed on in the game of telephone.  The famous 4th century Bible translator Jerome said,

They write down not what they find but what they think is the meaning, and while they attempt to rectify the errors of others, they merely expose their own.

These copyists made

  • spelling and grammar changes
  • harmonistic alterations
  • factual corrections
  • conflations
  • and even support for certain doctrines

The later is clearly evident in 1 John 1:7 where the King James reads,

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

It’s great proof text for the trinity.  The problem is that no church writer quoted it when the doctrine of the trinity was being hammered out in the 3rd and 4th century.  The reason is that not one manuscript contained these words until the late middle ages.  It’s an insertion and not at all what John wrote.

And it’s not the only one.

2. The KJV is not the language we speak today.  

The King James Version may sound poetic but it’s not easily understood by the vast majority of modern English speakers.  And it’s not just because of the thees and thous.  You may have heard some of these words.  But can you tell me what they mean?

abjects, afore, agone, amerce, artificer, bethink, bewray, botch, bray, by and by, caul, chargeable, concupiscenece, coping, cotes, cumbered, dissimulation, doleful, durst, emerods, fan, felloe, firkin, froward, gainsay, grisled, holden, holpen, ignominy, lade, lees, lucre, minish, mote, paps, paradventure, platted, quick, remission, requite, shambles, sheepcote, slow bellies, superfluous, thitherward, twain, unction, wimples, wont 

OK, I’m sure you could get close to their meaning if you read them in context.  But are you sure its the right meaning and not just a faulty guess?

You can learn a lot about the English language from reading the King James Version.  But is that the point of reading the Bible?  To broaden our vocabulary?  I don’t think so.

The dedication to the King James version is the same love Catholics have for language of Latin.  It’s traditional.  It’s what we’ve always done.  But stop and ask yourself does it still work?  Is it helpful?  Or are the people in the pews just hearing someone speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:19).

3. There are better versions available!  

It’s perfectly acceptable to read the King James Version IF nothing better is available.  I’ve often read it when it was the only Bible I could find.  But that’s not often the case today!  There are two other translations, the NASB and the ESV which are based upon more accurate manuscripts and that use the King James Word-For-Word method of translation.  While the New KJV attempts to modernize some of the KJV’s language it still does not address the underlying manuscript issues.

What do you think?

In Bible, Devotions
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The Three Types of Bibles

July 9, 2012 — 2 Comments

I’ll never forget sweet Grandma Lydia’s awkward pause as she read 1 Samuel 20:30 from the Living Bible.

“Saul boiled with rage.  “You son of a b…

You could see that she didn’t know what to do.  She stood there in front of our Sunday School class, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

“Come on,” I said with a smile. “If it’s in the Bible its OK to say.”

She never read it. God bless her!

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I like to open discussions of translation with this particular rendering of scripture.  It’s ear-opening to say the least.

It certainly amused me, finding as I did in my daily devotions at the age of 17.   I approached my youth pastor the next Sunday, handed him my bible and said, “God gave me 1 Samuel 20:30 as a word for you” :0.

Don’t worry.  He eventually forgave me.

Such an out-of-place word causes us to wonder about the differences between Bible versions.  What makes a good translation?  Is there one better than the other?

What do you want most in a translation?  Every time I ask my students this question it comes down to these two issues:

Accuracy: we want a translation that is faithful to the original language.
Clarity: we want a translation that is easy to read and understand.

The problem for translators, however, is that these two desires are not easy to meet with equity.  Accuracy and clarity are like two sides of a scale, focus too much on one and the other side gets out of balance.

Words in one language, for instance, don’t have the same range of meaning that they do in another.  In John 3:3 for instance, Jesus tells Nicodimus, “no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born anothen.” The word anothen means a “second time” but it also means “from above.”  No English word possesses this range of meaning.  Any single word used in translation will at least partially obscure its meaning.

Likewise, the ordering of words in translation can upset the balance of accuracy and clarity.  We say, “This is my friend.”  We don’t say, “Friend my this is.”  But in Hebrew and Greek the later construction is quite natural and reveals a great deal about the the meaning of the sentence.  We know that stressing different words changes the implication of a sentence.

    • This is my friend. Neutral
    • This is my friend. As opposed to someone else’s friend.
    • This is my friend. As opposed to my enemy or something else.

The free ordering of words in Hebrew and Greek reveal the stress on any given word.  It tells us what ideas are more important and what ideas are less.  Reordering the words so they make sense in English without losing meaning can be difficult.

Finding the right balance between accuracy and clarity is the reason we find so many versions today.  To this end, Bible translations break down into three groups, each representing a particular method.

Word-For-Word translations (a.k.a formal equivalence): The translator tries to find the nearest equivalent words and to place them in as close a corresponding order to the original text as possible.  The NASB, ESV, KJV and NKJV follow this translation method.

Thought-For-Thought translations (a.k.a. dynamic equivalence): The translator attempts to grasp the meaning of the sentence or phrase and to translate that meaning in whatever words or phrases that are deemed most useful. The NIV, TNIV, NET and the NLT follow this more modern method.

Transliterations:  These “translators” follow a Thought-For-Thought method but begin with a Word-For-Word translation instead of the Greek text.  They are twice removed from the original language.  Like a copy of a copy they are interpretations on top of translations.  The Message and the Living Bible are the more popular representations of this group.

A Word-For-Word translation of 1 Samuel 20:30 reads,

Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, ‘You son of a perverse rebellious woman!’ (NASB)

Though it may not be a Word-For-Word rendering, I think the Living Bible rendering captures Saul’s thought quite nicely.

What do you think?

In Bible, Devotions
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3 Overlooked Reasons Jesus “Cleansed” the Temple

April 4, 2012 — 11 Comments

Just as with His ride into Jerusalem, there’s more to Jesus’ violent actions in the temple then the exchange rate.  Here are three all too often overlooked reasons Jesus cleansed the temple.

1. Jesus as the “Son of David” is the Builder of God’s House

In His entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus claimed to be like Solomon, the “Son of David,” and thus rightful heir to the throne.  And in the temple cleansing which follows, he demonstrates how he has taken up the responsibility given to David’s son.

In 2 Samuel 7, God says to David

When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.  He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be his father and he will be my son.

Of course David’s son Solomon built the temple.  But Jesus by entering Jerusalem on a donkey and then cleansing the temple claimed that “one greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:42).”

2. Jesus was Angry Because the Temple had become a Barrier to God’s Praise

As he overturned the tables of the money changers, Jesus said,

Is is not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’  But you have made it a den of robbers.

We emphasize the connection between the money changers and “den of robbers” but often fail to see the quotation of Isaiah 56:7 in between. The temple establishment is not robbing from men.   Scholars have noted the reasonable necessity of the temple exchange based upon the law.  The temple system is robbing from the universal glory due God’s Name.

Isaiah prophesied (Is. 2)

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains.  It will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it.

The word “nations” in this passages as well as the one quoted by Jesus is gentiles. It Isaiah who prophecies,

And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant–these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

But the foreigners and gentiles by and large are not coming.  Jesus is angry because rather than a bridge, the temple has become a barrier to the worship of God among pagans.

3. Jesus was Prophetically Acting Out the Coming Destruction of the Temple.

The  word “cleanse” is not an appropriate description of Jesus’ actions here.  He’s not cleansing the temple.  He’s attacking it!  This temple must be removed.

Look to Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree to find the truth in this point.  Mark, the earliest of the four New Testament gospels, records the following scenes in this order.

  • Jesus looks for fruit on a fig tree but finding none curses it (11:12-14
  • Jesus enters Jerusalem and attacks the temple (11:15-19)
  • The disciples see the fig tree withered from the root and ask Jesus about it (11:20-25)

The sandwiching of these stories indicates that the fig tree is a symbol of the temple. The cursing of the fig tree and its subsequent withering represents Jesus attack on the temple and its subsequent destruction.

The destruction of the temple in AD 70, a generation removed from the events recorded in the gospel, is no where explicitly mentioned in the New Testament.  But there are numerous implicit details which indicate that it has already occurred or is about to occur when the gospels are written.

Jesus teaching on the mount of Olives (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) has this event in mind.  Here, Jesus once again links the temple and the fig tree.

Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.  I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.  Heaven and earth, will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Like Ezekiel and Isaiah, Jesus prophetically acts out the coming violent removal of the temple.

Jesus is Building a New House for God

But Jesus has not left a temple in ruins.  He has built a new one!  The New Testament continually indicates that the rebuilding of God’s true temple is found in the death and resurrection of His son.

In Devotions, Easter, Gospels
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The Trouble with Devotions

March 30, 2012 — 4 Comments

A number of years ago, as a youth pastor, I delivered a challenging message to the youth of my church. The students had just finished singing songs, professing their love for God. As I stood in front the room, the spiritual feeling that only true worship brings was still evident in the room.

“I have a word for you,” I told them. “I felt it as we sang. I don’t think this youth group loves Christ enough. There’s a lot of half-hearted people in this room and it needs to stop. So from now on you need to make a commitment to come every Wednesday night. if you can’t come every Wednesday then don’t bother coming at all.”

The students sat stunned in their chairs. All except for one. From the front row I could hear Trista agreeing with my every word. “Amen,” she said.

I continued. “And I’m tired of seeing people only raise one hand to the Lord in worship. If you can’t raise both hands than you’re half-hearted. From now on raise both hands or don’t raise them at all.”

I could see students start to clam up. But good old Trista there in the front row kept right on saying, “amen, amen.”

“You need to bring you’re bibles to Church. How can you say that you love God if you don’t love his word.”

Students started shaking their heads and I heard some quietly say “no.” And there Trista was “amen, amen, amen!”

“No!” I said. I had been playing and sweet Trista had walked right into the trap. (love you Trista!)

Rules Lead to Rebellion

What I wanted to demonstrate is that rules breed rebellion. When told to do something our immediate reaction is to respond, “the hell I will.” But all too often our devotions to the Lord, things like prayer, worship and reading the bible, turn from something that we desire to do into a rule that must be followed. And the devotions that we started as a simple demonstration of love for our Lord become something we despise.

This is the trouble with devotions that good things started with right intentions become a burden to bare rather than a blessing to share. This is the struggle that Paul finds himself in in Romans 7

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death…

God’s commandment’s when brought against our flesh breeds rebellion in us. This is a trap from which it seems we cannot recover. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Paul asks in verse 24.

God’s Love Sets Us Free

But Paul has the answer. We find it in Romans 8 – one of the greatest, if not the greatest chapters in all the Bible. It’s worth quoting in full.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation— but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all— how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s free gift of His Son has taken away the commandment and given us a new spirit which cries out in love and thankfulness to God. Be mindful of your motivations. Check your heart. Remember this is why you do your devotions.

What do you think?

Originally posted February 18th, 2008.

In Bible, Devotions, Life
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5 Must-Read Letters By People Who Knew Jesus’ Apostles

March 29, 2012 — 6 Comments

The New Testament is a collection of books, letters and sermons written by Jesus’ disciples and or their disciples.  But the early Christian didn’t cease writing after the New Testament.  Here are 5 must-read letters written in the decades after the passing of the Apostles.

Didache

The Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is a discipleship manual in three parts.  The first outlines the ethical teaching of the Church (chapters 1-5) and the second concerns its ritual teaching such as baptism, communion and leadership (chapters 6-15).  The book concludes with a brief exhortation to endure to the end (chapter 16).

The Didache is likely the earliest book outside the New Testament.  This is strongly suggested in the fact that apostles and prophets still move freely between churches.  The Didache sees this as a blessing but is also wary of those who might take undue advantage.  It states,

Let every apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not remain more than one day; or two days, if there’s a need. But if he remains three days, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle goes away, let him take nothing but bread until he lodges. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.

Interestingly enough the ethical teaching in the Didache has much in common with  Matthew’s gospel  and may have been written in a community near where Matthew was composed.

1 Clement

1 Clement is a letter written by the church of Rome to the church of Corinth.  The author or authors are troubled that the Corinthians have ousted their senior leaders for younger ones.  A situation which, they are convinced, has arisen out of envy.

Let us therefore, with all haste, put an end to this [state of things]; and let us fall down before the Lord, and beseech Him with tears, that He would mercifully be reconciled to us, and restore us to our former seemly and holy practice of brotherly love.

Clement reminds the Corinthians of Paul’s letter to them but He is also deeply indebted to the book of Hebrews.  Indeed some in the early church believed Hebrews was written by Clement.  At the very least 1 Clement, like Hebrews, was written in Rome before the end of the first century.

Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Romans

Not much is known about Ignatius’ of Antioch.  What we do know about the man comes from seven surviving letters he wrote on his way to martyrdom in Rome.  The letters give a profound glimpse into one bishops thoughts before he will be ordered to renounce Christ under the threat of a painful execution.  He writes to the church of Rome,

I am afraid of your love, lest it should do me injury.  For it is easy for you to accomplish what you please; but it is difficult for me to attain to God, if ye spare me.

But like an athlete readying himself for the fight he shouts

Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ.

Polycarp’s letter to the Phillipians

Ignatius writes one of these letters to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna and one time disciple of the Apostle John.  Soon after Ignatius’ death, the church of Philippi sent word to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and one time disciple of the Apostle John, requesting that he collect copies of Ignatius’ letters for their own use.  Polycarp’s letteris a treasure trove of New Testament allusions.  Though he says very little that is new, his book wonderfully encapsulates the teaching of the Apostles.

These things brethren, I write to you concerning righteousness, not because I take anything upon myself but because you have invited me to do so.  For neither I, nor any other such one, can come up to the wisdom of the blessed and glorified Paul.  He, when among you, accurately and steadfastly taught the word of truth in the presence of those who were then alive.  And when absent from you, he wrote a letter, which if you carefully study, you will find to be means of building you up in that faith which has been given you, and which has been given you…

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

The only narrative in this list, the Martyrdom of Polycarp is a riveting account of Polycarp’s own martyrdom in Smyrna.  Ignatius’ letters only hint at what might await him.  This document actually describes by those who witnessed it the fate that befell Polycarp when he refused to deny Christ.

Polycarp declared, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

Follow the hyperlinks above and begin exploring these letters yourself.

In Church, Devotions, Life
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