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Why do many put so much stock by the KJV Bible?

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
The KJV isn't an accurate translation, it's not even a good one. There are better translations these days based on better scholarship and older source texts. For those who claim the KJV is what American Christianity is built on, no it actually isn't. The Puritans favored the Geneva Bible, and detested the Church of England's KJV Bible.

Why do people put so much stock by the KJV? What makes it so special?
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
400 years of British tradition. stretching into British history. and even decades before that with the reign of King Henry VIII. the KJV itself was based on corrections and trial and error of former Biblical scholars and the request by King James to produce a better account of the Bible from the errors and experience of accumulating British experience with Biblical terminology or linguistics.
 
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esmith

Veteran Member
The KJV isn't an accurate translation, it's not even a good one. There are better translations these days based on better scholarship and older source texts. For those who claim the KJV is what American Christianity is built on, no it actually isn't. The Puritans favored the Geneva Bible, and detested the Church of England's KJV Bible.

Why do people put so much stock by the KJV? What makes it so special?
Mainly because the KJV is one of the most literal translations of the Christian Bible, the other is the Revised Standard Version which translates to modern English as spoken in the US. The Revised Standard Version is the most widely used Bible in the classroom.

Short history lesson on Bible translations.
There were four major translations in ancient times, all from the Hebrew original, the first two were done by Jewish scholars and the last by Christian scholars.
1. The first and oldest was into Greek, commonly called the Septuagint was done in around 3rd century BCE
2. Targum was a Aramaic translation dating from the 1st-6th century CE. It was not a single work but a series of works. We have in our possession 3 different translations of the Torah in Aramaic. One is a relative literal translation and the other 2 are very expansive. Paraphrasing includes additional material that is not in the original Hebrew text.
3. Pe****ta. A Syriac translation (4-5 century CE)
4. Vulgate, a Latin translation (Catholic) (405 CE)

As I said above the KJV and the RSV are the most correct literally. The Jewish Publication Society's Tanakh departs from the text literally and uses a idiomatic style. Everett Fox's "The Five Books of Moses" is the most literal translation of the Torah.
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
Really, the KJV Bible is not as widely used anymore. The Gideons, who were a major supporter of that translation, has even switched to using the New King James Version more often.

The NIV is much more popular, and I believe the number 1 selling Bible translation in the United States and Canada. The New Revised Standard Version has taken a lot of the market share as well. I believe it is number 3 in sales, but my figures are a little old as well. Even the New King James Version has greatly overdone the previous version.

Really, with better translations, we are seeing more and more people abandoning the KJV. But we also have to understand that for centuries it was "the" Bible. It wasn't until recently that better translations have come. Especially with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which has greatly helped the translation process.
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
Mainly because the KJV is one of the most literal translations of the Christian Bible, the other is the Revised Standard Version which translates to modern English as spoken in the US. The Revised Standard Version is the most widely used Bible in the classroom.

Short history lesson on Bible translations.
There were four major translations in ancient times, all from the Hebrew original, the first two were done by Jewish scholars and the last by Christian scholars.
1. The first and oldest was into Greek, commonly called the Septuagint was done in around 3rd century BCE
2. Targum was a Aramaic translation dating from the 1st-6th century CE. It was not a single work but a series of works. We have in our possession 3 different translations of the Torah in Aramaic. One is a relative literal translation and the other 2 are very expansive. Paraphrasing includes additional material that is not in the original Hebrew text.
3. Pe****ta. A Syriac translation (4-5 century CE)
4. Vulgate, a Latin translation (Catholic) (405 CE)

As I said above the KJV and the RSV are the most correct literally. The Jewish Publication Society's Tanakh departs from the text literally and uses a idiomatic style. Everett Fox's "The Five Books of Moses" is the most literal translation of the Torah.
Actually, the KJV is not the most correct literally.

The KJV suffers from the use of less than credible texts in it's translation. It was based on flawed manuscripts, and because of that, we see various interpolations in it that are not in later translations.
 

Pegg

Jehovah our God is One
The KJV isn't an accurate translation, it's not even a good one. There are better translations these days based on better scholarship and older source texts. For those who claim the KJV is what American Christianity is built on, no it actually isn't. The Puritans favored the Geneva Bible, and detested the Church of England's KJV Bible.

Why do people put so much stock by the KJV? What makes it so special?


as something becomes more popular, it becomes the norm and widely accepted by all.

The KJV became the most widely distributed and the one used by the churches...so everyone eventually came to accepted it as the 'best' one.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
I've heard it twice, from different sources, that they (the sources) considered the King James Bible to be a more pleasing read (artistic and inspiring), as well as better reflecting their own understanding of the words.
 
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Ilisrum

Active Member
I don't think that the King James Bible is the standard translation among Protestants anymore. Many have switched to the NIV. I prefer the Douay-Rheims over the KJV anyday, and if I'm not mistaken, it's still the most widely used Bible among English-speaking Catholics today.
 
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