About 88% of Americans have a
Bible in their home, and when they reach for their Bibles, more than half of
them are still reaching for the King James Version (KJV). Although the NIV tops
Bible sales each year (KJV and NKJV are number 2 & 3), only 19% of Americans
own that modern translation, and other modern translations take much smaller
slices of the Bible sales pie.
“KJV only” churches, of
course, believe that their translation is the only version that faithfully
embodies the Word of God. All other translations are to be rejected out of
hand. Such churches hold this faulty position based on a misunderstanding of
the ancient manuscripts behind the Bible (we will have to discuss that
misunderstanding in a future blog post).
Yet, it is interesting that
the KJV translators themselves had particular ideas about translations other
than their own, and they lay out their views clearly and forcefully in the
published Preface of the original edition of their eloquent translation.
Ironically, their views are very different from those who champion their
translation today. So here are 6 ideas the KJV translators had about other
translations of the Bible.
1.
Other translations are noble, helpful companions in the process of
translation.
In addition to the original
languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the 3 committees that worked on the
KJV used other translations, both those in English that had gone before them,
as well as translations in other languages. They used translations of the Bible
to consider how best to interpret and render the original languages in the
English of the early 17th Century. Thus, the KJV translators expressed thanks
to God for other translations as a valuable resource in their work.
2.
Other translations are part of a long, celebrated history of Christian
mission.
In their Preface, the KJV
translators detail the many, many tongues into which the Scriptures had been
translated, and they celebrate this crossing of linguistic boundaries as
important for the work of God. It seems that from the beginning of the
Christian movement, translation work was in the heart of God as a part of his
purposes. We may suggest that this work goes on to this day in the ministry of
Wycliffe Bible Translators and others, who continue to pair down the over 1,800
languages in the world that lack a translated Bible. Translation work is
important for gospel mission worldwide, a fact understood and celebrated by the
KJV translators.
3.
Other translations past and present should be celebrated rather than
condemned, having been raised up by God for “the building and furnishing of
[God’s] Church.”
According to the KJV
translators, translation work is a work of edification and education for
the church. Thus, other translations should be embraced as good, and they
should be built upon. The KJV translators, speaking of other translators, write
in their Preface, “Therefore blessed be they, and most honoured be their name,
that breake the ice, and glueth onset upon that which helpeth forward to the
saving of soules. Now what can bee more availeable thereto, then to deliver
Gods booke unto Gods people in a tongue which they understand?” They continue
later in the Preface, “Truly (good Christian Reader) wee never thought from the
beginning, that we should neede to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a
bad one a good one, . . . but to make a good one better, or out of many good
ones, one principall good one, . . . .” In other words, they saw themselves as
used by God to build upon the work of others in an ongoing process of providing
translations for the people of God.
4.
No translation is perfect, and even the poorest English translation, carried
out by responsible scholars, not only contains the Word of God but is the Word
of God.
The KJV translators give an
analogy: “As the Kings Speech which hee uttered in Parliament, being translated
into French, Dutch, Italian and Latine, is still the Kings Speech, though it be
not interpreted by every Translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so
fitly for phrase, nor so expresly for sense, every where.” They go on to note
that even a man considered handsome may have a wart or two! The apostles and
their fellow-writers of Scripture were infallible. Translators are not. So in
translation, blemishes here and there are normal but do not lessen the Word as
the Word of God. They suggest the pre-eminent example of this is the Greek
translation of the Old Testament used by the early church. It was not perfect,
but it was embraced by the apostles and others as God’s good Word.
5.
Translations (including the KJV) should be corrected and improved.
The KJV translators worked to
correct places in other translations that needed correcting—even as they did
ongoing work of correction on their own translation. They studied to correct
the work of others, and they studied to continue to improve their own
translation, seeking to grow in their understanding of God’s good Word.
Consequently, modern translators who work to correct imperfections in the KJV,
are very much working in the Spirit of the KJV translators themselves.
6.
A variety of translations is profitable for discerning the sense of the
Scriptures.
The KJV translators at points
included in the margins variations on how a passage could be translated (even
as is done in some modern translations), and they believed that people having
access to various translations is a very good thing. They suggested that the
kingdom of God does not hinge on a rigid rendering of individual words and
syllables, but that there is freedom in translating the sense of the text. They
further say that this freedom follows God’s own pattern of using various words
to express the same ideas at different points in Scripture.
Conclusion
In short, the KJV translators
wanted to do an excellent translation “to make God’s holy Trueth to be yet more
and more knowen unto the people . . .” and they saw translations other than
their own as important ministry partners in that process. They thought that the
Bible itself should be translated again and again, since it is more worthy of
such work than any body of ancient literature. Consequently, the translators of
the King James Version would be the first to affirm the importance of modern
translations carrying on their legacy for the good of the Church and the
advance of the gospel in the world.
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