Is the King James Version the Only Legitimate Version of the Bible?

Legitimate

There has been much controversy regarding which Bible version(s) should be thought about “Legitimate”. Enemies of the faith want to indicate that Christians can not even seem to agree on which version(s) may be trusted. Believers vary widely, with some expressing very logical and well reasoned conclusions, the others seeming to be guided mostly by emotion or tradition.

Lots of individuals and congregations claim the only legitimate version of the Bible is the King James Version, but is this correct? With the vast array of versions of the Bible out there,’re all other versions perhaps not to be reputable?

The Trouble of Language

Let’s start out with the extreme case. In case the King James Version is the ONLY one that’s valid, folks who don’t speak any English are God’s Word! What good would a Romans or even Esther Bible study be to some one when they didn’t understand that terminology? Should we demand that speakers of different languages first learn “Old English” before they can go through a Bible? Realistically, if we WERE to require that the Bible be studied from the language(s), they WOULD NOT be studying in “Old English”.

In actuality, scholars concur that the Bible, daily bible devotions from Genesis to Revelation, can be a composite, written over a span of a 2000 years – nonetheless “authored” by one God, as He revealed His truth to men who were led by His Holy Spirit. Since cultural change DOES occur, and since people authors were actually scattered in the time and location, there were actually several languages involved. Generally, that the Old Testament was written partially in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic. Back in Jesus’ day, both Hebrew and Aramaic were spoken, however, many New Testament scriptures were listed in Greek.

God, Himself, Was the First Translator

You might say that God, Himself initiated the translation of the Bible into various languages. Acts two accounts a remarkable event which occurred approximately seven weeks following the Resurrection. Throughout a worship / prayer meeting of this original “Church”, there was a supernatural manifestation which appeared just like a powerful wind storm. Subsequently observable manifestations, appearing some thing like flames of fire appeared and seemed to settle each of the accumulated believers.

The sound and also observable indications were so great the crowd came running from all directions. Luke (your physician, author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts) reports during the moment, there were devout Jews from many diverse nations in Jerusalem, and so they were included in the accumulated audience. To their amazement, the leaders were permitted to “preach the gospel” from the languages of this gathered multitude. “Each person heard them speaking in his language, telling of the amazing ideas that God had achieved.” Luke reports that roughly three thousand converts were added to the church daily!

God’s Word Spread

As a consequence of the amazing, supernatural phenomenon, Christians scattered throughout the known world – and where leaders went, they had access to God’s word. Probably one of those first translations was produced by / for Coptic Christians, in northern Africa. We can see the price of people using scriptures they can clearly know – but we’ll assume that most of our subscribers speak English, so we’ll focus now on this subject.

Out of the meeting, the need for a trustworthy and consistent Bible, available to “individuals” was recognized, and work began a couple of decades later, using genuine book beginning in 1611. Much of this New Testament text has been virtually identical to this prior “Plowman’s Bible, that had been released by William Tyndale not exactly a century earlier.

The KJV is generally acclaimed as a superb rendering of the first languages. It’s the most popular and widely read version of the Bible in the English vocabulary – why if we want anything else?

Things Change… People Change… Languages Change

By the 20th century, it had been widely recognized that while God’s truth had not changed, the English speech HAD. To illustrate such an alteration, consider 1 Thessalonians 4:15. The author is writing about the recurrence of the Lord, in which time He is always to “receive His own”. The KJV renders the poetry,

– 1 Thessalonians 4:15

What will a 21st century English speaker who isn’t familiar with KJV vocabulary use of the? Specifically, what exactly is the significance of “prevent”?

In the NET Bible®, that part of scripture is rendered,

“… individuals who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of people who have fallen asleep”

Surely it’s possible to see that modern people who have not “adult” in Western England or a church that uses the KJV desire a form of the Bible they’re able to correctly comprehend. There is nothing WRONG with all the KJV. It’s a valuable resource for those of us who understand it – but the evolution of our speech has made it confusing to modern people that lack a Christian heritage. If we want to reach them to the Lord, we must do so – according to the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) – “in their language”.

So which version is most useful? Regrettably, that issue is much too broad to discuss in this guide, but sufficed to state that any version that true to text and also accessible to the reader can be really a legitimate version of the Bible and could be used for the personal study.