The question of Bible translation is an important one because most Christians today do not have a working knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, the original languages of the Bible. So, for those of us whose first language is English, most of us depend on an English translation in order to read God’s word. When it comes to assessing any English translation of the Bible, there are two main questions to ask: (1) Is the translation based on the best available Hebrew and Greek manuscripts? (2) Does the translation successfully render the original Hebrew and Greek texts into culturally accessible English?
Using these two questions, the vast majority of contemporary Biblical scholars agree that the King James translation is not the best English translation available today. Let’s look at both of these issues:
1) In the early 1500s, a scholar named Erasmus collected and combined some of the best Greek manuscripts available into an edition known as the Textus Receptus. Erasmus and others continued to edit this text, and the King James Version was translated from this textual tradition in 1611. For its time, it was a very good edition of the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible.
However, since then, archaeologists and other scholars have discovered many more older Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible, which are closer to the original sources than the later manuscripts used by the King James translators. For instance, since the production of the King James Bible, we have discovered the Chester Beatty papyrus manuscripts, which date back to the third century, and the Greek New Testament texts found among the Bodmer Papyri, dating back to the second century. These two collections are several centuries earlier than the texts used in the King James translation. A basic rule of translation says: All things being equal, the earlier a manuscript is, the better the chance that it reflects the original text, since there was less time for copying errors to enter into its manuscript tradition. Thus, more recent translations are able to use these earlier texts which make for a more accurate translation.
2) When it comes to the question of accessible language, the King James Version contains quite a few archaic words and phrases that we no longer use in modern English. This tends to make it difficult for contemporary English speakers to understand what the original biblical documents were trying to say. This doesn’t mean that the King James Version is a bad translation. It just means that languages always evolve, and when they have evolved for several centuries, it is best to update the language so that contemporary readers are not left confused about the meaning of old, archaic words they no longer use.
So, in light of these two considerations, while the poetic language of the King James Version can be used in devotional reading, we encourage people to use a different translation as their primary study Bible such as the NRSV, the CEB, the NASV, the NIV or the ESV.
Recommended Resources
- How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions by Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss
- In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture by Alister McGrath
