[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 2, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. This material cannot be placed on BBS or Internet sites without express permission from the author. All rights reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0.]

Is The King James Bible Dependable, or Has It Changed?

By Dr. Donald A. Waite

When we say the King James Bible is "God's Word kept intact," what do we mean by "intact"? The word "intact" comes from the Latin word intactus--from in (meaning "not") and tactus (meaning "touched"). It means "not touched." It means "not harmed." Nothing harms or defiles it. That is what we mean when we say "GOD'S WORD KEPT INTACT." If we really want to know what the Hebrew in the Old Testament says and what the Greek in the New Testament says in the English language today, the KING JAMES BIBLE--in my studied opinion--is the only translation that completely and accurately reflects, in English, the original Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek. This brief study will attempt to convince the reader of the truth of this statement, and--failing of this--will at least show clearly why I believe it.

When we use versions other than the King James Bible, we cannot be absolutely certain that in ever verse, sentence, and word, they accurately translate the Hebrew and Greek words God has given us. Instead, we have man's words all mixed up in them throughout. This is done by their use of "Dynamic Equivalency" which permits them to ADD, SUBTRACT, and/or CHANGE God's Words. You say, "Well, the King James Bible was translated in 1611. That is over three hundred eighty-one years ago. That is quite a long time. Doesn't that time span make the King James Bible difficult to understand?"

If you come across some words used in our King James Bible that have changed their meaning since 1611, there's a Bible Word List published by the Trinitarian Bible Society of London, England, that lists them all with a brief definition of each [order B.F.T. #1060 from Bible for Today, 900 Park Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108]. There are only 618 of these words out of 791,328 in the King James Bible.

Using this little booklet will save you the time of looking these words up in a dictionary (although all of them are in a good dictionary). They are right there, with a brief explanation of what they mean. I've looked at all these 618 and have come up with only 257 words that I would really have to look up if I were not familiar with the King James Bible. Maybe you would have to look up more than that, but all 618 are listed. For instance, "draught" which would be "drain," or "sewer." The word "fan" is "a winnowing fan." "Press vat" is a "vat of a wine press." "Ossiphrage" is a "vulture which breaks the bones of its prey." There may be a few other words you don't understand, but the meaning can be found by a dictionary or a small pamphlet like this one which you can keep in your Bible.

THE DEFICIENCIES OF OTHER ENGLISH VERSIONS

Let me tell you what the difficulty is in trying to find the Words of God if you are not using the King James Bible. You don't know which English words are actually found in the Hebrew or the Greek. Unlike the King James Bible, most of the modern versions don't use italics to tell us what has been supplied for sense, though NOT in the original languages.

The New American Standard Version uses italics occasionally where they depart from the Hebrew or Greek, but there are so many other words added, subtracted, or changed, that you just don't know what the original words are. What you have to do is what I had to do. I read the entire NASV, from Genesis to Revelation, listening to the King James Bible on a cassette tape recording, while looking at the New American Standard Version and underlining in red some of the significant alterations and changes. Then I compared these changes with the Hebrew and Greek texts that underlie the King James Bible (which I accept as the true and accurate original language texts). I found over 4,000 examples of addition, subtraction, and change regarding the Words of God. [This study is available in B.F.T. report #1494-P.]

To be certain of the accuracy of any version other than the King James Bible, you would have to check every Hebrew and Greek word. This is much more difficult than using this simple word list to look up the mere 618 words with which you might not be familiar. The little pamphlet [mentioned earlier] is an accurate guide. There are only a few words to look up.

You have the same lack of accuracy, though in not as many places, in the New King James Version. I found over 2,000 examples of Dynamic Equivalency in that version, where the editors had added to, subtracted from, or changed God's Words. As I did the research, I indicated in red, on the version I used, the changes from the King James Bible, and, in many instances, from the Hebrew and Greek. There are changes in the footnotes also. There are many problems in the New King James Version. You wonder which words are accurate and which ones are not. [This study is available in B.F.T. report #1442.]

The same is true for the New International Version. In 2 Samuel, for example, I have all kinds of red marks indicating changes. The major differences I put on a tape recording and said, "The Hebrew or the Greek or the King James says this and here's what the NIV says." I ended up with over 6,653 examples of additions, omissions, or changes plus departures from the proper Hebrew and Greek original language texts in the New International Version. It took me two years and eight months to complete, and then there were hundreds and hundreds of examples that were left out due to space and time factors. I came up with a computer printout like we have for the New King James and the New American Standard Version. It is 284 large pages, and is available from The Bible for Today. [B.F.T. report #1749-P.]

HAS THE KING JAMES BIBLE BEEN CHANGED SINCE 1611?

Because people often say that the present King James Bible is so very different from the original 1611 King James Bible, I looked into this question carefully. Nelson Publishers put out the 1611 King James Bible in regular Roman type script that we can read. They let it go out of print, and then brought it back into print. The original 1611 King James Bible was in German script. I have photographic copies of the original King James Bible in the German script. It is difficult to read. The "s" is different, for example. But Nelson put it into our kind of script. They did that on a page by page basis.

I have heard through the years (and perhaps you have also) that all the New King James Version was going to do was take the 1611 and make one more edition and bring it up to date. It was said that the King James Bible had undergone thousands of serious changes from 1611 to 1979, when the NKJV first came out. I said to myself, "Is that true?" So I examined the Old Scofield Reference King James Bible of 1917, by listening to it as I read that edition of the King James Bible on cassette recording. While listening to the King James Bible, I compared it diligently, word for word, from Genesis through Revelation, with the A.V. 1611 as published by Nelson.

There were very few changes that I could hear with my ear. There are many spelling changes; they spelled words differently in the original King James Bible than they do today. For instance in Joshua 31:1, "Moses went and spake these words to all Israel." In the original King James the word "words" is spelled "wordes." All I noted were the differences between sounds. Comparing the 1611 King James Bible to the King James of today I found very few changes of sound. We printed up all the details, just the way they are. The sound differences were minor.

There are only 421 changes affecting the sound throughout the entire Old and New Testaments. Do you know how many words there are in the King James Bible? There are 791,328 words. Out of that total, there are only 421 words in the 1611 King James Bible which have a different sound from the words of the King James Bible we have today. Of these 421 changes, 285 are minor changes of "form" only. There are only 136 changes of "substance," such as an added "of" or "and." Some examples of minor changes are as follows: I can hear the difference and so can you between "towards" and "toward." So, if I could hear it, I put it down. Fourteen times that happened. I could hear the difference between "burnt" and "burned" 31 times, so I put that down. As long as you could hear the difference, I recorded it as a change in this list of 421 changes. For instance, "amongst" and "among." There were 36 of those changes. "Lift up" instead of "lifted up" was used 51 times. "You" was changed to "ye" 82 times. You can see that these are extremely minor changes. This totals up to 214 of these kind of minor changes. There were 71 other minor changes which total 285 changes of form only. In summary, then, I found there were 285 changes of FORM ONLY, and only 136 changes of SUBSTANCE, making a total of 421 changes in all to the ear. This research is available as B.F.T. #1294.

Don't let people say what we have today really isn't the King James Bible. It most certainly IS! It is a lie to imply that there are 30,000, 40,000, or 50,000 important differences. If they mean differences in spelling, that is one thing; but spelling is not important as far as listening or meaning are concerned. So God's Word is still kept intact by our present King James Bible.

[O Timothy Editor: The above is excerpted from the Introduction to Dr. Donald A. Waite's book Defending the King James Bible. This excellent book presents a four-fold superiority of the KJV. It is based upon superior original language texts. It was produced by superior translators. It employs a superior translation technique. It exhibits a superior theology. Dr. Waite is a highly qualified defender of the King James Bible. He received a B.A. in classical Greek and Latin from the University of Michigan in 1948; a Th.M. with high honors in New Testament Greek Literature and Exegesis from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1952; an M.A. in Speech from Southern Methodist University in 1953; a Th.D. with honors in Bible Exposition from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1955; and a Ph.D. in Speech from Purdue University in 1961. He holds both New Jersey and Pennsylvania teacher certificates in Greek and Language Arts. He has been a teacher in the areas of Greek, Hebrew, Bible, Speech, and English for over 35 years in nine schools. He has produced over 700 studies, booklets, cassettes, or VCR's in defense of the Word of God. His 307-page book Defending the King James Bible is available from Bible for Today, 900 Park Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108.]