Bible Versions F. A. Q.

Frequently Asked Questions and their brief answers,
and answers to specific criticisms of verses in the KJV.

Various questions and brief answers

What follows is a list of some of the most common questions regarding the KJV (AV1611) and Bible version subject, linked to short responses. I am thankful to Brother Sam Gipp, who has granted permission for the inclusion of portions of his book, The Answer Book. His text is credited where quoted.

• Shouldn't we value the original autographs above any mere translation?
• Was King James a homosexual?
• Aren't archaic words in the KJV in need of updating?
• Haven't there been several revisions of the KJV?
• Aren't modern translations based on better manuscripts?
• If we have a perfect Bible in English, don't we need one in every other language?
• Should the italicized words in the KJV be removed?
• Aren't there some great men who use other versions?
• Where was the Bible before 1611?
• Can someone get saved if you are using something other than the KJV?
• When someone is led to Christ by someone using a particular version, doesn't that mean that version is God's word?
• Aren't KJV believers just mean-spirited name-callers?
• Don't King James Bible believers worship the KJV? Didn't God destroy the originals because He didn't want these people to venerate them?
• Is it "heresy" to believe that the King James Bible is perfect?
• Do Christians and preachers who use other bibles hate God?
• Was the KJV inspired or preserved?
• Can a translation be inspired?
• Did the KJV translators claim divine inspiration?
• A translation can't be as good as the originals, can it?
• Isn't the Holy Spirit incorrectly called "it" in Romans 8:26?
• Didn't the King James Bible when first printed contain the Apocrypha?
• Is the NKJV an improvement of the KJV?
• Haven't manuscripts been found since the KJV was translated in 1611?
• Isn't the devil behind all the confusion and fighting over Bible versions?
• What about the "nuggets" only found in "the Greek," like agape vs phileo love?
• Didn't the Textus Receptus appear after 1611?
• Should we make an issue of Bible translations?
• Shouldn't we emphasize love for Jesus Christ rather than squabbling over Bible translations?
• Wasn't Erasmus a bootlicking papist?
• What if there really are errors in the KJV?
• Doesn't Ahazia's age in 2nd Kings 8:26 and 2nd Chronicles 22:2 prove that there is an error in the KJV?

Answers to criticisms of specific verses in the KJV

It would be an exercise in futility to attempt to catalog and keep up with every "correction" or complaint offered against the King James Bible. It is rare to find a modern preacher who refrains from offering his own personal translation of a particular word or phrase in the Bible where they do not seek to throw a whole passage out altogether. Private interpretations (in both doctrine and translation) run rampant in even fundamentalist circles because there is no respect for The Book as Final Authority. Since modern Christians have been taught that the Bible is either fallible or impossible to accurately translate, any preacher with a Greek lexicon feels free to twist or wrest a verse to get across his point, and since those listening to him have no final authority to check him against, he is left unchallenged and God's word is put in subjection to his credentials.

Though we cannot examine every claim ever made, we can address some of the most common charges against the KJV New Testament leveled by the majority of modern Greek scholars. The discerning reader will detect a pattern as he finds that the claims of the critics may initially sound impressive, but are in actuality shallow and ignorant.

(Many thanks to Dr. Thomas Holland for granting permission to include excerpts from his book Crowned With Glory here.)

• Matthew 6:13 - "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever."
• Mark 1:2 - "As it is written in the prophets"
• Mark 6:20 - "observed him"
• Mark 16:9-20 (The Last Twelve Verses of Mark)
• Luke 2:22 - "of her purification"
• John 1:18 - "only begotten Son"
• John 5:4
• John 7:53-8:11, The Pericope De Adultera
• Acts 5:30 - "slew and hanged"
• Acts 8:37 - "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God"
• Acts 9:5-6 - "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks"
• Acts 12:4 - "after Easter"
• Acts 19:2 - "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?"
• Romans 8:1 - "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit"
• 2 Corinthians 2:17 - "which corrupt the word of God"
• Titus 2:13 - "the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ"
• Hebrews 10:23 - "profession of our faith"
• 1 Peter 3:1 - "the conversation of the wives"
• 2 Peter 1:1 - "of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ"
• 1 John 5:7 (Johannine Comma)
• Revelation 22:19 -"book of life" and the last six verses of Revelation 22