What do you know about the King James Version? Is it an accurate translation? Does it have flaws? Should you use it as a measuring stick for other translations? In today’s episode, we’ll cover the making of the KJV of the Bible, going back to William Tyndale’s courageous work before delving into four areas of evaluation. We’ll examine the KJV’s manuscript base, translation accuracy, lexicography, and vocabulary in an effort to objectively decide how the KJV compares to other English versions.
—— Books ——
- William Tyndale: A Biography by David Daniell
- The Complete Guide to Bible Translations by Ron Rhodes
- Essential Guide to Bible Versions by Philip W. Comfort
- The Journey from Texts to Translations by Paul D. Wegner
- How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss
- The Art of Bible Translation by Robert Alter
- “History of the English Bible” by Philip W. Comfort in The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated, ed. F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip Comfort, Carl F. H. Henry
- “English Versions of the Bible” by J. H. Skilton in New Bible Dictionary, ed. D. R. W. Wood
- “English Versions Since 1611” by Luther Weigle in The Cambridge History of the Bible: Vol 3
- The English Bible from KJV to NIV, 2nd ed. by Jack Pearl Lewis
- The King James Only Controversy by James White
- The King James Bible after Four Hundred Years by Hannibal Hamlin and Norman W. Jones
—— Links ——
- Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible
- See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed)
- If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
- Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library
Here is interesting case for the KJV:
https://youtu.be/a4iOaNweHjE
Hi Sean, I am a listener from the Netherlands who has recently discovered your podcasts when I was doing research on Unitarianism. Thank you for all the effort you put into this series, it has been a great blessing to me thus far!
I was happy to hear that you will cover the Passion “translation” in your next episode, as this so called translation is barely being covered anywhere else, yet is gaining in popularity in many NAR churches. Not a great development I would say.
I would highly recommend Mike Winger’s videos on this subject, who has put a lot of research into this topic. Perhaps you were already aware of them as there isn’t a lot of other material to be found, but if not then it might be helpful to check them out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2HrBT3ZgA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvlIDpjVyCs
Another suggestion for you, I am currently reading Dennis Prager’s commentaries on the Torah and am sure that he would be a very interesting guest for your podcast, as your listeners would probably be interested in his work. Might be an idea to consider!
May God help you continue your work, Mark
Hi Sean
I also came across some interesting developments from certain Catholic translations. What are your thoughts on this?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QAvdWpx0eXiXlWXmsRlzsKH0SAZhvB4w/view?usp=drivesdk