The King James Version...Why use it?

The King James Version...Why use it? King James’ translators—like their contemporary William Shakespeare—never watched television or played video games. Instead, they learned to read and write in English, Hebrew, Latin, Greek and other languages. They were smarter than today's fifth grader, in other words, and most of today’s PhDs.





Tuesday, April 12, 2011

THE KING JAMES BIBLE...WHO NEEDS IT?

King James’ translators—like their contemporary William Shakespeare—never watched television or played video games. Instead, they learned to read and write expertly in English, Hebrew, Latin, Greek and other languages.
They were smarter than a fifth grader, in other words, and today’s PhDs.
For those unfamiliar with it, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? is a currently popular television program. The premise of the show, basically, is to celebrate the wealth of knowledge being learned by today’s children.
Be that as it may, I don’t believe that many of these grade-schoolers could correctly read aloud even one page of McGuffey’s Fifth Reader [published 1844].
Even fewer of them are capable of reading or understanding the King James Bible [KJB], published 1611. Don’t believe me? Just ask one of them to read a few verses to you out loud. After that, ask any college student to try the same task. Most of them, in my opinion, won’t be able to do much better.
Some people may object to my opinion, of course. It might be argued that McGuffey’s readers and the KJB have become totally irrelevant in the 21st century. The year 1611, after all, was 400 years ago! Who needs a bible full of impractical words which practically nobody uses anymore?—words like thee, thy and thine.
Well, maybe I’m wrong. I probably can’t convince those who disagree with me. Nonetheless, I personally remain convinced that any well-educated contemporary reader needs at least to be familiar with such "old-fashioned" English usage as is found in McGuffey’s readers, many history books, the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, the works of Shakespeare and the King James Bible.
Never having learned to adequately read and write basic English, some of today’s fifth graders will grow up to become tomorrow’s graduate students. Someday, some of them may even become college professors and produce future "modern" translations of the Holy Bible.
Again, it’s just my opinion…But I just don’t believe that those coming translations will be anywhere near as accurate or beautiful as the old-fashioned KJB.

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