Sophomore year in college I had to take a speech class. One of the assignments was to do a speech on an controversial issue. I asked my speech professor during class one day if it would be appropriate to do a speech on the differences between the KJV and other versions of the Christian bible.Immediately there was an outburst from other students in the class. People were downright angry, and both the professor and I were surprised. She told me that it definitely sounded controversial, and that if I wanted to try it, to give it a shot. My best friend (an ex-pastor) and I then spent two weeks researching and putting together a presentation. The following post is basically the general information/speech I gave the class minus the pretty PowerPoint presentation and all of the pictures. (Please excuse any screwy formating below. Copied from a Word Document the formating got kind of screwed up. I fixed it as best I could anyhow).
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So, I’ve got to admit, I’m a little disappointed. I went into a bible bookstore the other day with my friend, (who’s an ex pastor). Now, a bible bookstore’s entire purpose is to sell bibles, and other religious material. They have an entire wall, filled, floor to ceiling, wall to wall with bibles. We went and looked at this wall of bibles, and there were all these really cool bibles with different covers. There was a duct tape bible, a metal bible with a cool metal cover, bibles with gator skin, suede, two toned bibles, everything. Now, I was getting really jazzed, I mean, I was going to buy a really cool looking bible, so I picked up the duct tape bible and started looking through it, but then I saw that it was a New American Standard bible, or NAS. I read the King James Version, so I was like, “Ok,” and I put that one back, and picked up the metal bible. But alas, it was the New Living Bible, still not KJV! We looked through bible after bible, and the only King James Version Bible’s we found were three, plain black bonded leather bibles… and bonded leather is the kind they attach to paper that falls apart after you use it a few times, as you can see, mine is well used (I held up my old torn apart bible).
A) So I asked my friend, “Rick, why are there no cool looking King James Bibles?” And he told me, “Most people today hate the King James Bible.” I didn’t understand this, which is what prompted me to do this speech today. Today I’m going to tell you my personal reasons for reading and using the KJV rather than other versions. By giving this speech I in no way mean to offend any person. I’m not saying my bible is better or yours is better, I am only giving my personal reasons.
2) Ok, so first I’d like to start off looking at why most people don’t like the King James Version:
1A) People say “It’s too hard to understand.” Let's have a look.
A) Matthew 8:29 KJV vs. Matthew 8:29 NAS
- As we can see, most words in this passage (blue) are the same, and very few are changed. Those that are changed are not too difficult to understand. Let’s take a look at another passage:
B) Luke 4:4 KJV vs. Luke 4:4 NAS
- Again, most words here are the same, the only thing that the NAS has changed from the King James, is that they have taken out the words “But by every word of God,” from the end of the passage. Ok, let’s take a look at one more passage.
C) Isaiah 7:14 KJV vs. Isaiah 7:14 RSV (Revised Standard Version)
- Here I have compared Isaiah 7:14 between the King James (on the top) and the RSV, or Revised Standard Version, rather than the NAS. All words (blue) are the same with the exception that “Virgin,” has been changed to “Young Woman.” We know that Young Women and Virgins are not the same. Here they are not changing words to be more easily understood, because most if not all of us should know what a virgin is.
3) Why most people don’t like the King James Version:
1B) People say, “I don’t like the Thee’s and the Thou’s.”
A) Well, let’s take a look at that briefly:
- Thee, Thou, and Ye equal You. Therefore, Thou shalt not steal equals You shalt not steal. But wait, here’s something cool! Thee and Thou, which start with a T are singular, meaning only one person, and Ye, which starts with a Y is plural, meaning more than one person. So if you are standing in a group of friends and I point to you and say Thou shalt not steal! I could be talking to the whole group, but because I used the word “Thou” I just made it personal and I’m just talking to you. If you are standing in a group of friends and I point to you and say “Ye shalt not steal,” I’m talking to the entire group, which is one cool thing that the King James Version does.
4) Why most people don’t like the King James Version:
1C) People say, “My translation is better than the King James because the words are newer.”
A) According to the KJVonlyissue.com, a website that is actually against the use of the King James Version: “In fact there are instances where the use of Archaic words are more accurate than what our modern English allows.” For example: In the KJV, shambles means marketplace. Today marketplace means something different to us. The newer versions of the KJV just say marketplace.
5) Why most people don’t like the King James Version:
1D) People say “Have you ever tried to teach a five year old on a King James? They won’t understand!”
A) Well, personally, I haven’t tried to teach a child on the King James Version bible, but:
- Before 1901 there were no new Translations so
- The King James Version was the only version people had to teach their children on, and:
- My best friend taught and saved his 4 year old daughter on the King James Version
6) Why most people don’t like the King James Version:
1E) People say “It’s just another translation isn’t it?”
A) Actually it isn’t, and here’s why:
- The King James Bible, and newer translations, are translated from: TWO Different manuscripts!
B) Lets take a look and compare these two separate manuscripts:
- After the bible was compiled, each church copied the bible WORD FOR
WORD
- 95% of the copies matched each other WORD FOR WORD
- Those 95% that matched word for word were called the Textus Receptus, or Received Text.
- The 5% text that did not match word for word was called the Critical
Text. (Pie Graph shown here).
- The Textus Receptus (or the 95% text): AGREED with each other (or
matched the texts contained within)
- The Critical Text (or the 5% text): Not only DISAGREED with the
Textus Receptus (95% Text), but also:
- DISAGREED with it’s two main texts (The Vaticanus and Sinaticus)
contained within.
a) Now the bible says, “God is not the author of confusion,” (1 Corinthians 14:33), which means that he will not write one thing and mean another.
b) It also means that God WILL NOT contradict himself, as the Critical text (5% Text) does.
C) Lets take a look at the Critical text (5% text that disagrees):
- The Critical text disagrees with itself over 3,000 times in the Gospels
alone.
- The Critical text makes over 6,000 CHANGES from the Textus
Receptus (95% Text).
- Changes made in the Critical Text include: omitted words, whole omitted verses, changed words, and changes in doctrine (Doctrine being something that is agreed upon and taught by the people).
- Also: 12 ENTIRE VERSES are LEFT OUT of the last chapter of Mark 16 in most bibles translated from the Critical Text (5%)
D) Ok, let’s take a look at the Textus Receptus or (95% text that agrees) briefly:
- Every Text within the Textus Receptus (95%) AGREES with each
other.
- Graph of different bibles translated from the Textus Receptus (95% AGREES Text) and bible translated from the Critical Text (5% DISAGREES Text)
- Lets take a look at a few changes in Doctrine:
a) Here (below) we see that same verse we first compared, Matthew 8:29, between the KJV and NAS versions (KJV being translated from the Textus Receptus and NAS being translated from the Critical Text). Where I showed you what was the same before, I will now show you what is different (red):
a1) Here the NAS version takes out JESUS, suggesting that Jesus IS NOT the son of God. This is only one verse out of hundreds where “Jesus” is changed to “You,” or “Son of God,” is changed to “Son of man.” There is a book called "The Eye Opener" that contains page after page after page of changes in doctrine such as this one.
b) Below is the second verse we compared before, Luke 4:4, with the KJV on top and the NAS on the bottom.
b1) “By taking out, “But by every word of God,” the NAS just changed the ENTIRE meaning of this passage. We know Man can not live by bread alone… both verses say that. The KJV tells you what he CAN live by (but by every word of God).
c) Finally, let’s compare Isaiah 7:14 again (below).
Here the only thing that the RSV (translated from the Critical Text) has changed is they have changed “Virgin,” to “Young Woman.” By doing this the RSV attacks the doctrine that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Christ. Now young women have children all the time and are not Virgins. The KJV says “Virgin,” because it means Virgin. This passage talks about waiting for a sign. If a young woman giving birth was the sign God was going to send, it wouldn’t be much of a sign, because we’d be getting the same sign over and over again every day. This is why the word was translated to Virgin rather than Young Woman. The original word that was translated actually had three different meanings: Virgin, Young Woman, and Damsel. By looking at the context, we know that the KJV translated it correctly to Virgin. There are also other verses where Mary talks about never having known a man, meaning she never had sexual relations with a man. This also tells us that the original word was translated correctly to “Virgin.”
- So now we come to the point where we have to ask ourselves: How did we get TWO Separate transcripts, where one is flawed?
a) Here’s what happened: One of the original transcripts from the Textus Receptus made it’s way to a monastery in Alexandria Egypt
b) A man named Origen decided to Edit the Bible, to HIS BELEIFS
c) Origen and 10 other people edited the transcripts
d) Those transcripts found their way to the trash heap in the monastery, where they were later found and used for modern translations of the bible today.
- By the way: Origen was later DISOWNED by the church for heresy, or teaching false doctrine.
7) Ok, let’s review:
A) Although there are many words in the KJV not widely used today, the KJV is usually just as easy to understand as other translations, IF YOU TRY
B) Before 1901 there were no other (full) bible translations, so KJV was the ONLY version people taught their children on
C) The King James Bible and other bibles ARE NOT the same
D) The KJV and other translations are translated from TWO different texts
E) The transcripts used for the Critical Text (5% Text) DISAGREE WITH
EACH OTHER, and the Majority Text (95% Text)
F) The Critical Text (5% Text) was EDITED OVER 10 TIMES by 10 different
people, and discarded in the trash!
G) The Critical Text (5% Text), OMITS WORDS and phrases, AND
CHANGES DOCTRINE
8) (Conclusion): The Bible says: The word of God cannot be improved upon, meaning: you can’t make the bible better by putting your own beliefs in.
A) From these facts, it is clear that the Critical Text (5% Text), changed and
edited by Origen and 10 other people, is flawed, because they injected THEIR
OWN BELEIFS, into the bible
Thanks for your time! I hope this has been as much as an eye opener for you as it has been for me.
Sources Cited:
The research for this project was done in 2006 by Rick J. Tomlinson and Jessica A. Worley
Please feel free to show others the research we've done, but please do not reproduce this without express permission from me. Also, please give credit where due. Thanks,
If you would like to read a tract (comic) absolutely packed with information about how Satan tries to attack the purity of the Bible, click here.
-JAWorley
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