For today's article we will be going to go over how the King James Bible came about and it's readability as well as cover the different bible translation types, let's get to it.
Around the time that the reign of Elizabeth was ending, there was a draft for an act of parliament to make a new version of the bible. This act was created in order to reduce the different English bibles they had and settle on one vulgar bible that was translated from the original. It was during the Hampton court conference in Jan. 1604 that a guy named John Reynolds who happened to be a puritan collage president compelled the king to make a new translation of the bible.
It was during that summer that King James wrote to Bishop Bancroft stating that he had appointed specific educated men, 54 to be precise so they could translate the bible. These men were known as the best biblical scholars and linguist of their time. In the preface of the finished work it's further stated that "there were many chosen, that were greater in other men's eyes than in their own and that sought the truth rather than their own praise."
There were others who were searched for so that they may have the assistance of all the principal learned men of the realm. Even though 54 people were nominated for the task, only 47 were known to have actually done the work. The translators were then organized into 6 groups. Ten of them went to Westminster and did Genesis through 2 Kings; While seven had Romans through Jude. We see that at Cambridge eight men translated 1 Chronicles through Ecclesiastes; while seven guys worked on the Apocrypha. At Oxford they employed seven to do Isaiah through Malachi; and lastly wee see that eight others translated the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.
There were 15 basic rules to help guide them, although I'm just going to list about half of them. Here they are: #1. The Bishop's bible was to be followed and as little changed from it as the truth of the original would allow. #2. The Prophet's and holy writer's names were to be kept as well as the other names of the text. #3. The archaic ecclesiastical words were to be retained. 4. Don't alter the division of chapters except when needed, and as little as possible. 5. Not to affix marginal notes, except when explaining Hebrew and Greek words.
6. Each person from every company was to take the same chapters and after translating/amending them alone would meet with the others, discuss what the have done and agree on what will stay. When one company had dispatched a book then they would send it to the others to be considered. 7. These following Translations were to be used when they agree better with the text than the bishops bible: Tyndale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's, Geneva.
Another thing to note is that they had at their disposal all the previous English Translations of the bible and a lot of sources in which to draw from. Consider the following quote "neither did we think much to consult the translators or commentators, Chaldee, Hebrew,Syrian, Greek, or Latin..Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch." The Greek editions of Beza, Erasmus, and Sephanus, were available and so were the complutensian / Antwerp Polyglots. They also could refer to the Latin translations of Beza, Pagninus, or Termellius.
4 years were used for the preliminary translation by the six groups. After that 9 months were spent at the stationer's hall in order to review or revise. This was done by two men each from the Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford companies. Finally the last revision was done by Myles Smith and Thomas Bilson. The finished work was issued in 1611. The Authorized version had also gone through several editions and revisions including the 1629, 1638, and 1762 editions that were made at Cambridge, the latter one was made by Thomas Paris. There's also a 1769 revision created by Benjamin Blayney at Oxford.
Some other Points
I just wanted to take a moment to answer those that oppose the KJV bible as God's infallible word in english by stating a fact and asking a few questions. When the new testament writers would quote the old testament they had to translate from Hebrew to Greek, therefore if a translation of scripture can't be infallible then even the "original" Greek New testament would not be infallible.
If the KJV isn't God's infallible word then can you point out a better version? Do you own a perfect bible? Why do you call it Gods word if it's not Perfect? Why didn't the apostles or Jesus ever argue for the originals or special translations? Since there are many false church's/gods/ religions/ ways to heaven, why not many false bibles?
Concerning Translation Types:
There are two ways to translate the bible that I'd like to write about here. The first is the dynamic method, it tries to convey the thoughts that are expressed in the original text by using similar expressions from a more modern language (thought for thought translating). The CEV, GNB, NEB and NJB use this method.
The correct method to use when translating a bible however is the Formal equivalence method (also known as a literal translation). I say this because man lives by every word of God (Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4). A literal translation tries to translate the main text word for word into a different language. The ASV, KJV, NKJV, NASB, YLT, and NRSV use this method.
The KJV's Readability
There are many people nowadays who make the excuse for not reading the KJV bible by saying that they don't understand it or it's too hard to read. However the fact is the king James bible is way easier to understand and read than newer translations. In Gail Riplinger's book "new age bible versions" she provides over twenty pages of irrefutable evidence to prove it! It contains 350 examples from the new testament. There's also a table on pg 196 of her book that shows the results.
According to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade-Level indicator the KJV's reading grade level averages a 5.8, while the ever popular NIV had a 8.4 grade level. The NASB ranked a 6.1, while the TEV a 7.2. Finally the NKJV's reading level was a 6.9. In her book. "the language of the king James bible" she continues the research. The Readability statistics from Grammatik and word for windows demonstrates why the KJV is at a lower reading level. There are less syllables per word, less letters per word, and less words per sentence on average. There's also a smaller % of long words too.
Dr. Rudolf Flesch who is known as a leading authority, researcher, and author on readability studies praised the KJV for it's ease of reading in his book. Furthermore In K.A. Waite Jr's book "the comparative readability of the Authorized version", the KJV outscored the new versions in almost every test. It's incredible that 94% of the KJV's books are on or below the 7th grade level and 74.3% are at or beneath the sixth grade level.
Thus concludes this article about the KJV bible.
References and Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment