Seriously guys? Must I inform you of the discrepancies of your 1611 KJV?
- In the preface to the KJV 1611 the translators do not claim that this is an inspired perfect translation. (See The Holy Bible 1611 Edition: King James Version published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982; reprint of the 1611 KJV). See also Translating for King James: Notes made by a translator(John Bois) of the King James's Bible translated by Ward Allen published by Vanderbilt University Press, 1969. The translators noted the differences in the Greek texts. The marginal note of Luke 17:36 states, "This 36th verse is wanting in most of the Greek copies."
- The KJV translators were limited in the manuscripts available to them. The Dead Sea Scrolls had not been discovered yet (1947). (See The Dead Sea Scroll Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated For the First Time into English by Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich, published by Harper San Fancisco, 1999; also see The Text of the Old Testament by Ernst Wurthwein published by Eerdmans, 1979; Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible by P. Kyle McCarter published by Fortress Press, 1986). Ancient Greek manuscripts had not yet been uncovered. Aleph, a fourth century AD codex, was discovered in 1859 by Tischendorf in the monastery of St. Catharine at Mt. Sinai. Codex Vaticanus from fourth century AD at the great Vatican Library at Rome was not made available until a photographic facsimile was published in 1889-90.(See The Text of the New Testament By Bruce Metzger published by Oxford University Press, 1964).
- The current KJV being printed differs in a number of details from the KJV 1611. There are also numerous printing errors in different editions of the KJV. The 1611 editions have "Then cometh Judas" instead of "Then cometh Jesus" in Matthew 26:36. There is the "Wicked Bible" edition of the KJV where "not" is omitted from the seventh commandment saying, "thou shalt commit adultery." William Kilburne in 1659 found 20,000 errors in six different KJV's. In 1701 Bishop Lloyd added the chronology of Bishop Ussher. Even today there are differences between the KJV published by Oxford, Cambridge, and Nelson publishers (See The English Bible from KJV to NIV: A History and Evaluation by Jack P. Lewis, published by Baker, 1981).
- The original KJV 1611 included the Apocrypha. Is only part of the KJV 1611 or is all of it inspired by God? How can it be the perfect translation if it has the Apocrypha?
- There are a number of places especially in the Book of Revelation where there is no Greek manuscript evidence for the words. For example, no Greek text says "book of life" in Revelation 22:19. The Greek says, "tree of life." I John 5:8 is a later addition not found in Greek manuscripts before the 16th century.
- The Majority Text, the Textus Receptus, and KJV all disagree. See The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text by Zane Hodges and Arthur Farstad published by Nelson, 1982. When I was in Seminary there was a big debate over the Majority text verses the Alexandrian Text (the older but fewer texts).
- A number of words are mistranslated by the KJV. The KJV is not a perfect word for word translation. There is some paraphrasing like "God save the king" (I Samuel 10:24, II Samuel 16:16, I Kings 1:25, and II Kings 11:12). About 1,000 Greek words and particles were not translated by the KJV. A number of words are mistranslated like John 20:17 which says, "Touch me not" should be rendered "Do not keep on holding me" (Lewis, 46; He lists a number of mistranslations). The Bible was not originally divided up into verse divisions. They did not understand Hebrew poetry. Chapter divisions are also questionable like where Genesis one ends. The use of italics is misunderstood by readers who put emphasis on it, instead of it being questionable reading like "unknown tongue" in I Corinthians 14 and the speaking in tongues movement.
- A number of words have changed in meaning from the KJV 1611. Some are just the opposite in meaning. For example, "let" means "hinder," "lust" means "desire" which is not all ways bad, "fair" means "beautiful" not just average, "quick" means "living" and "nephews" means "grandchildren." "Corn" means "grain" for corn was only found in North and South America by the Indians.
- There are several animals mentioned in the KJV that are mythical:
Unicorns
The "Unicorn" is mentioned nine times in the KJV (Numbers 23:22; 24:8; Deuteronomy 33:17; Job 39:9,10; Psalm 22:21; 29:6; 92:10; Isaiah 34:7). In Deuteronomy 33:17 it says the unicorn has "horns" plural, so the KJV solved this problem by translating "unicorn" as plural "unicorns." It is an unfortunate translation of the Hebrew "reem" which means "wild ox" (BDB, 910b). It seems that the LXX translation made the error which was carried over into the Latin unicornis. The idea of a unicorn probably came from seeing a rhinoceros. In the Middle Ages when fossil tusks or horns were found, they were said to come from unicorns (Gayrard-Valy, 22). At the last ICC there were rumors of unicorns in California.
Dragons
In the Old Testament the KJV uses the term "dragon" for the Hebrew words tannim meaning "jackals" and tannin meaning "serpent, or sea monster" (BDB, 1072; Gesenius, 868-9). It seems the KJV mistranslated these two separate words. Tannim is from the root tan meaning "to howl" and tannin is from the root tanan "to smoke" (Ibid.). Jackals are known for their howling, and are associated with desolate areas. Tannin or "smokers" probably came from seeing the spouts of whales or the snorting of animals which looked like smoke coming from a fire inside. Our warm breathe in winter looks like smoke. This is probably how the idea of fire-breathing dragons started. The Hebrew is not referring to any dinosaurs.
The KJV uses the term "dragon" which comes from the Greek word drakon which means "serpent." It refers to a monster with a scaly snake like body. The Greek New Testament uses drakon 12 times only in the book of Revelation which the KJV translates as "dragon" (Rev. 12-13, 16:13, 20:2). The dragon in Revelation has seven heads similar to the leviathan in Ugaritic and Psalm 74:14 (Gibson, 50, 68; Walace, 290). Satan is called a "dragon" in Revelation 20:2.
Satyr
The Satyr is a mythical creature that was half-man and half-goat. Isaiah 13:21 and 34:14 mentions this creature in the KJV. In the Hebrew there are two more occurrences in Leviticus 17:7 and 2 Chronicles 11:15 also possibly 2 Kings 23:8. "Scholars suggest that this nom. depicts some type of demon that exhibited the likeness of a goat and was closely associated with idolatry and the high places" (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis Vol.3, 1260).
There is also the mention of the cockatrice (Isaiah 11:8, 14:29, 59:5; Jeremiah 8:17) and the arrowsnake (Genesis 49:11, margin).
- There are theological problems with the KJV. The translators are coming from a Anglican Church bias. Their view of Baptism and church comes through in the translation. Church terms are used for leaders. The words at the Lord's Table "the broken body of the Lord" (I Corinthians 11:24) are used. Some also say it has a Calvinistic bias.
Conclusions
The KJV is a good translation, but it is not perfect. It is outdated. There are better modern translations that make the Bible easier to read and understand. I like the NIV Study Bible the best.
-Dr. Stephen C. Meyers
http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/kjv.htm
There is no such thing as a perfect translation of the Bible. It's just not going to happen. When you translate one work from another, it relies heavily on interpretation, in which case someone's biased opinion can easily wind up in the translation.
I still believe you all are saved, but you are missing out on the gifts of the Spirit. And I'm not saying stop using the KJV, I'm just asking that you let go of pride and realize that not even the KJV is perfect.