![]() ![]() The accuracy of a version is obviously of utmost importance. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world'" (Neil Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 1963, p. The Bible is the best-attested book from the ancient world! This has prompted Sir Frederic Kenyon to say: ‘The number of manuscripts of the New Testament, of early translations from it, and of quotations from it in the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. Although a few textual errors are to be found in some of the manuscripts used in translating the King James Bible, comparisons with other Bible versions can easily clarify most problems.Īs an expert on textual criticism remarked: "If any book from ancient times has descended to us without substantial loss or alteration, it is the Bible. The Old Testament books are equally trustworthy. The text of Scripture has been preserved and transmitted over the centuries remarkably well. Even the variations that do exist rarely affect the basic meaning in the remaining 2 percent of those manuscripts. The King James Version, for example, is based on the majority of the authoritative Greek texts.Ībout 98 percent of the known Greek manuscripts agree with the basic text of the King James Bible. In the New Testament the sheer bulk of thousands of texts (4,500 Greek manuscripts) means that many minor variations among the manuscripts will be found. For instance, when the King James Version is compared with what was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, "the King James Bible is 98.33 percent pure " (Norman Geisler and William Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, 1974, p. How trustworthy is the King James or the New King James Bible we have today? Other manuscripts discovered since the King James Version was translated show it to be extremely reliable. They are readily found in most bookstores or on the Internet. Generally speaking, the King James Version and its modern counterpart, the New King James Version, are word-for-word translations. ![]() The word-for-word versions most accurately follow the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. Usually a particular Bible version will explain, on its introductory pages, which approach was used in preparing it. We can divide them into three broad types: word-for-word, meaning-to-meaning (also called thought-for-thought) and paraphrased. More than 60 English-language versions are available. But this raises another issue: Which of these many versions is best for reading and studying the Bible? How do they differ? The following is excerpted from our free booklet How to Understand the Bible: We can be thankful, however, that many newer versions exist that are much more up-to-date in their wording. Many people find it increasingly difficult to understand the words and may be put off by the KJV's foreign-sounding words. The English language has changed substantially over the four centuries since the King James Version of the Bible was first published.
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