Modern language Bibles Vs the KJV.

I am not a KJV only believer. In fact for most of my 36 years as a Christian I have read out of the NASB and the NKJV. And for most of that time I argued against the archaic language of the KJV being a barrier to the average person’s ability to understand the things of God.

But just the other day it occurred to me that Christians of our time are not the only ones who have struggled to understand archaic language Bibles. Sure the Christians of the first century could read the Greek New Testament – no problem at all. But what about the OT? In the first century the OT was all they had.

The Hebrew OT was very old even 2000 years ago. Language and word meanings change relatively quickly when we start thinking in terms of the Torah being 3500 years old. In Jesus’ day the Torah was 1500 years old – the KJV is only 400.

In the first century most of the Church read from the Bible – the Law and the Prophets, out of a Greek Translation (i.e. the Septuagint) – that was over 300 years old.

Anyhow – I just wanted to share with you these ideas because I’ve never heard anyone give them voice before.

~ Theophilus

Apr 5, 2011 -- 4:08PM, Theo wrote:

Modern language Bibles Vs the KJV.

I am not a KJV only believer. In fact for most of my 36 years as a Christian I have read out of the NASB and the NKJV. And for most of that time I argued against the archaic language of the KJV being a barrier to the average person’s ability to understand the things of God.

But just the other day it occurred to me that Christians of our time are not the only ones who have struggled to understand archaic language Bibles. Sure the Christians of the first century could read the Greek New Testament – no problem at all. But what about the OT? In the first century the OT was all they had.

The Hebrew OT was very old even 2000 years ago. Language and word meanings change relatively quickly when we start thinking in terms of the Torah being 3500 years old. In Jesus’ day the Torah was 1500 years old – the KJV is only 400.

In the first century most of the Church read from the Bible – the Law and the Prophets, out of a Greek Translation (i.e. the Septuagint) – that was over 300 years old.

Anyhow – I just wanted to share with you these ideas because I’ve never heard anyone give them voice before.

~ Theophilus

One issue which IMO must be uppermost in our minds as Christians is that the dynamics of the original message, no matter what language it was in (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), must come through in the translation.

It would seem to me that God speaks all languages and wishes to communicate in the mother tongue of all ethnic groups.This leads me to believe that the best translation for English readers to read is one that has all the dynamics of the original in the common idiom of the day. This was the view of the original translators of the KJV, and should be the view of all modern translators.

That said, it is all too obvious that some Christians are so enamoured with what they grew up with that they cannot empathise with the new Christian. They expect them to struggle unnecessarily with some archaic translation. Martin Luther (German NT translator) said,' What is the good of a strict and stiff translation if the reader can make nothing of it?'.