Is the NKJV an improvement of the KJV?
Related articles: NKJV Examined, The
The following is from Sam Gipp's The Answer Book.
QUESTION: The New King James Version is based on the Antiochian manuscripts. Is it an improvement over the King James Bible?
ANSWER: No.
EXPLANATION: The New King James Version is to the English Bible what the Alexandrian manuscripts are to GreekÄa corruption of a pure text by men who hold the deplorable doctrine that the Bible cannot be perfect (regardless of what they may say when they preach) and must be corrected by the feeble intellect of man.
The New King James Version, unlike most modern translations, is based on the correct Antiochian manuscripts instead of the corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts. Unfortunately, the men doing the translation work view the Bible as imperfect. They would vehemently deny this charge in public because their jobs depend on it, but in FACT they do not believe that ANY Bible is perfect. Not even their own New King James Version! Thus, to them, the Bible is lost ("settled" in heaven) and the minds of scholars are the only hope of rescuing its "thoughts" from oblivion.
Many of the men on the board of translators may indeed be great preachers and pastors, but that by no means entitles them to correct the Bible.
Sincerity cannot improve on perfection. Thus, instead of "making a good thing better" they have only managed, for all of their trouble, to make a "perfect thing tainted".
It must be remembered, there is a great deal of prestige in sitting on the board of translators of a "modern" version of the Bible (Matthew 23:5-7).