In the movie Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, a Klingon High Counsellor tells the crew of the Enterprise that they really should read Shakespeare in the original Klingon. Writer and director Nicholas Meyer was thinking of how the Nazis claimed that Shakespeare was really German. It came off as a throwaway joke, especially since it was delivered by Shakespearean actor Christopher Plummer. But this being Star Trek, some fan has actually gone and translated Hamlet into the fictional language! You can buy it on Amazon along with a Klingon dictionary. However, one big translation problem was already tackled in the film. Plummer's character was to quote Hamlet's famous soliloquy that begins with “To be or not to be.” But in Klingon there are only action verbs. Working with Plummer, the language's creator came up with the Klingon equivalent: “To continue or not to continue (to exist.)”
Our sermon suggestion question is “Why is the King James version of the Bible used and no other?” Obviously, this is not quite true. Our church uses a different translation as do other churches. But there are some Christians and preachers who feel that the “Authorized” version is the only one to use and they look at all others as heretical. How and why did this happen?
First let's do a quick overview of Bible translations. The scriptures have been rendered into half of all the world's languages. It began during the Babylonian exile. Many Jews no longer understood Biblical Hebrew and so rabbis translated their Torah lectionary readings into Aramaic, the common language of the Middle East. Hundreds of years later, when Greek was the common language because of the conquests of Alexander the Great, a translation of the entire Old Testament, the Septuagint, was produced for Jews living throughout the known world. This was the Bible the authors of the New Testament knew and used.
As Christianity spread, it was translated into the the tongue of each new country or tribe that missionaries encountered. St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, the official language of the Roman empire. This eventually became the Bible used by the Roman Catholic church, which, in response to various heresies, forbade unauthorized translations into common tongues. This greatly slowed down the production of vernacular versions of the Bible in the Middle Ages.
The first complete translation of the Bible into English was produced by John Wycliffe in the late 1300s. It was both widely popular and officially banned. After Wycliffe's death, not only were his works condemned and burned, but his body was exhumed and burned as well. Still, Wyclif fared better than William Tyndale, who was tried for heresy, strangled and burned at the stake. His crime? Inspired by Martin Luther, Tyndale went back to the original Greek and Hebrew in order to translate the Bible into English. Tyndale is important because his translation influenced all subsequent English translations. He introduced new words into English like Jehovah, Passover, atonement and scapegoat. He coined the phrases “Let there be light,” “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” “filthy lucre,” “the powers that be,” “the signs of the times,” and many others.
Tyndale was arrested in Antwerp at the behest of Henry VIII. Ironically, within 4 years of his arrest and execution, 4 translations of the Bible were published in England at the behest of the same king, now head of the Protestant Church of England. All of them were based on Tyndale's translation.
Despite the fact that authorized translations were issued under both Henry and his daughter, Elizabeth the 1st, the Puritans were not satisfied with them. They petitioned King James the 1st to commission a new translation. James agreed in part because he wanted to supplant the popular Geneva Bible, published half a century earlier, which translated the word “king” as “tyrant” nearly 400 times. This Bible was the product of Calvinist scholars who had fled England under Mary Tudor, known as Bloody Mary for her policy of executing Protestants. It was not only the text of the Geneva Bible that irked James and others in the Church of England, but also the marginal notes. Among other things they undercut Biblical support for the traditional ecclesiastical arrangement of bishops and priests.
47 scholars, both Puritan and those who called themselves “high churchmen,” were arranged into 6 committees covering different sections of the Bible. Besides going back to the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts they had at the time, they also consulted previous translations, like Tyndale's. They began work in 1604 and finished in 1608. Their work was reviewed in 1609 by a general committee and published in 1611. Oddly enough, though often called the “Authorized Version,” it never was technically authorized. The king's printer stopped making copies of the Bishop's Bible, which was authorized by Elizabeth, and started printing the King James version, which became the official translation of the Church of England by default.
The King James version did not take the world by storm. The Geneva Bible remained popular and many Bible scholars were unhappy with the new translation. Basically, the King James version simply outlasted the others and became the Bible most English-speaking people grew up with. And it still sounds beautiful and dignified when read aloud in church.
Unfortunately the same thing that enabled the King James to become the most widely used English translation for 4 centuries is now making it less useful today. In the 400 years since it was first published, a lot has changed. For one thing the English language has changed. But not so much that people can't understand the King James Bible, right?
Well, try this” Proverbs 11:20 tells us that “They that are of a froward heart are an abomination to the Lord.” What does “froward” mean? For all you know, you may be unwittingly offending God right now! Admittedly that is an extreme instance but if you want to use the Bible to understand the mind of God, you shouldn't have to possess a thorough knowledge of Jacobean English as well. There are at least 170 words in the King James version that have changed meaning over time or dropped out of usage entirely. (By the way, “froward” means “willfully contrary.” The Hebrew word means “crooked, twisted, perverse, even deceptive.” Ask yourself: was “froward” an adequate translation?)
But the biggest problem with the King James version is that we now have more and older Greek and Hebrew manuscripts than its translators did. For the Old Testament, they used the Masoretic text. The Masoretes were Jewish scholars who obsessively copied, edited and distributed the official texts of the Hebrew Bible from the 7th through the 10th centuries. This meant the translators of the King James version used a Hebrew manuscript that was put together 1000 years after the composition of the last book of the Old Testament. How much had the text changed in that millennium? They didn't know. Today we have the Dead Sea scrolls and they have eliminated most of that 1000 year gap. It shows us that the Masoretes did an amazing job of preserving the text. But it also shows us that some changes did take place. Most are minor, like changes in spelling. But today we have a much more accurate text for the Hebrew Bible.
For the New Testament, the translators of the King James version mainly used the Textus Receptus. This was an edition based on 8 Greek manuscripts and it did not cover the whole New Testament. The missing portions were translated into Greek from St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate. It was compiled by the scholar Erasmus and had been the basis for Martin Luther's German translation. It may have been the best edition of the Greek New Testament they had 400 years ago but today we have better. Most modern translations of the Bible are based on more than 5800 Greek manuscripts, plus nearly 20,000 ancient translations. Not only are they more numerous than those used by the KJV translators but they are older as well. What we have discovered is that the manuscripts they used in the early 1600s belong to a family of very corrupt texts. Copyists in this tradition felt free to fix what they saw as troublesome texts, adding comments and paraphrasing at times. And the Byzantine-type texts underlying the Textus Receptus are one and a half times as long as the more ancient Greek manuscripts. Want to see one huge addition? Look at the last chapter of the gospel of Mark. The oldest Greek manuscripts end at verse 8. Verses 9 through 16 are more recent. Modern editions of the Bible usually have these verses separated from the rest of the gospel or at least bracket and footnote this passage.
Bible scholars also understand the ancient Hebrew and Greek languages better these days. For instance, the King James version translates 1 Timothy 6:10 thus: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” But in Greek there is no definite article before the word “root” and the word it renders “evil” is plural. So most modern translations, including the literal ones like the American Standard version, translate the verse as “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” Which makes more sense. Love of money is not the root of adultery, nor arrogance, nor foolishness, nor every instance of rage or murder.
Still some people think the King James version is not just a good translation for its time but the translation for all time. Some even believe that God divinely inspired the King James version, despite the fact that this means God doesn't care enough about non-English speakers to give them inspired translations. This is akin to the Klingons thinking that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in their tongue. Plus, in view of the differences between the earliest Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and the later ones the KJV is based on, it would mean that God decided to do some revisions on his word of truth a few centuries after it was originally written down by the apostles. Now, none of the changes are major; no doctrines were changed. Even the added ending to Mark contains mostly stuff found in the other gospels. But why would God do that?
The real reason that some people say that the King James version is the only valid English translation is that (A) they have based some elaborate but non-essential pet teachings on the specific wording of certain verses or (B) because it is familiar. They love it. And that's okay as long as they realize that. There's a difference between saying you love a particular model of classic car and saying that it is the only true car and that all other cars are defective deathtraps, secretly designed by engineers who hate cars and wish to harm drivers and their passengers.
The King James version is a beautiful translation. But if you really want to understand God's word and don't know the original languages, you need to read other translations as well. Some, like the New Revised Standard and the English Standard versions, are revisions of the King James, using the latest research and discoveries, while seeking to retain some of the majestic language of the original. There are looser translations that try to make understanding the Bible easier, like the New Living Translation. There are some that try to get very close to being literal without being totally unreadable, like the New American Standard version. Then there are those that aim to balance readability and accuracy like the New International version and the New English Translation, the latter of which has the most insightful notes on verses by the translators. You can buy any and all of these in book form or even find them online at Bible.org, Biblehub.com and Biblegateway.com.
Look at it this way. God could have given us 1 account of the Ten Commandments. Instead he gave us two, one in Exodus 20 and another in Deuteronomy 5. He could have given us one official history of the kings of Israel and Judah. But besides the one that runs from the two books of Samuel through the two books of Kings, we get another in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. He could have given us one gospel of the life of Jesus. He gives us 4. God has blessed us with many translations of his word, each giving us slightly different insights into the same truths. He is generous that way. So let us enjoy his bounty! How can anyone believe that a single translation could capture every nuance of the original and be the last word on our vast and multifaceted God?
This was first preached on June 6, 2010, It has been revised and updated.
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