SOME THOUGHTS ON BETTER UNDERSTANDING THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE

                           SOME THOUGHTS ON BETTER UNDERSTANDING

                            THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE

 

                                                    

                                                                              

PREFACE

 

As some have misunderstood the position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints concerning the propriety and value of various Bible translations, we will attempt to support and clarify the following points:

 

1)         The Church’s publication of the King James Version, with its wonderful study aids, should be used by all English-speaking Sunday School, seminary, and institute teachers and all but seriously handicapped students as their primary study Bible.  For many, it may be the only Bible they will want or need.

 

2)         Many teachers and at least two categories of students may benefit from having access to one or more other Bible translations to consult from time to time to assist them in better understanding the King James Version. The two categories of students are (1) those with limited reading skills, who cannot easily understand the King James Version without additional help and (2) those with a high level of intellectual and spiritual curiosity, who want to understand as much as possible of the word of the Lord, and who recognize that some passages in the King James Version, even with the study aids, are obscured by difficult phraseology.   We will attempt to demonstrate that the use of such additional translations along with, not in place of the King James Version, is thoroughly consistent with the teachings of the scriptures and latter-day prophets.    

 

 

WHY THE KING JAMES VERSION SHOULD CONTINUE TO BE THE PRIMARY BIBLE OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING LATTER-DAY SAINTS

 

1)            A May 22, 1992, letter from the First Presidency reiterated the Church's preference for the King James Version for English-speaking members and noted that "in doctrinal matters latter-day revelation supports the King James Version in preference to other English translations."  The King James Version was translated by capable men who were convinced of the reality of God and the divinity of Jesus Christ and whose translation reflects those convictions.  It is also a more literal translation than many others and is therefore less likely than some to reflect a translator’s doctrinal biases. 

 

2)         It was the Bible used by Joseph Smith and has phraseology similar to that of the revealed text of the Book of Mormon as well as being similar to the language Joseph Smith chose under divine inspiration to express the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price and in preparing the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.  Biblical allusions in our other standard works will be more recognizable if we use the King James Version than if we used another.

 

3)         It is the version which has been used by the Church since the beginning and which has been quoted by our prophets, used in our manuals, and is familiar to most English-speaking members.  There would be a tremendous amount of inertia interfering with a change to widespread use of another version, even if it were deemed to be superior, much like inertia has prevented the U.S. from converting already to a metric system of weights and measures. 

 

4)         There is much value in having all class members use the same version for group study. 

 

5)         It is universally regarded as the most beautiful, majestic, dignified, powerful, and reverential of all English translations.  The continued use of the KJV tends to elevate our usage of the English language in general.

 

6)         The Bible study aids are prepared only for the King James Version.  It would be impractical to prepare similar aids for every English translation that a member might want to use, especially when such aids haven't even been prepared yet for some of the other languages in which the Church operates.

 

 

REASONS WHY SOME MAY WISH TO USE A MODERN TRANSLATION ALONG WITH THEIR STUDY OF THE KING JAMES VERSION

 

1)         The original Bible, of course, was not written in English but in Hebrew and Greek.  Should not our goal be to better understand what the Lord and his prophets said rather than what a group of English scholars in 1611 said?  Shouldn’t we strive to comprehend and apply the scriptures rather than merely dress them up beautifully?  Obscurity is hardly a necessary component of holiness.  To the contrary, Paul said, "I had rather speak five words with my understanding ... than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."  (1 Cor. 14:19.) Nephi twice exclaimed, “My soul delighteth in plainness.”  (2 Ne. 25:4; 31:3.)   For many of our students, parts of the King James Version are frankly written in an "unknown tongue."   Decades ago, C.S. Lewis wrote:  "The Authorized Version has ceased to be a good (that is, clear) translation.  It is no longer modern English:  the meanings of words have changed.  The same antique glamour which has made it (in the superficial sense) so 'beautiful,' so 'sacred,' so 'comforting,' so 'inspiring,' has also made it in many places unintelligible."  A study of 24,623 Old Testament seminary students in all four grade levels found that 64% were experiencing frustration without outside help in their efforts to read the Old Testament.  Twenty-three percent could understand the material with minimal help with vocabulary, etc.  Only 13% could be considered independent and able to read and understand the Old Testament on their own.

 

2)         Joseph Smith does not seem to have regarded the King James Version as uniquely inspired.  The following are typical of the Prophet’s teachings on the subject:

 

"I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers.  Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors."  (History of the Church 6:57)

 

"My soul delights in reading the word of the Lord in the original, and I am determined to pursue the study of the languages, until I shall become master of them, if I am permitted to live long enough.  At any rate, so long as I do live, I am determined to make this my object; and with the blessing of God, I shall succeed to my satisfaction."  (History of the Church 2:396)

 

"There are many things in the Bible which do not, as they now stand, accord with the revelations of the Holy Ghost to me."  (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 310.)

 

"I have an old edition of the New Testament in the Latin, Hebrew, German and Greek languages.  I have been reading the German, and find it to be the most [nearly] correct translation, and to correspond nearest to the revelations which God has given to me for the last fourteen years."  (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 348-349.)

 

3)         Other early Latter-day Saint leaders likewise made no claims that the KJV as a translation was particularly inspired.  John Taylor, for example, said: “I believe the English Bible is translated as well as any book could be by uninspired men.”  (Journal of Discourses 1:25.) Charles W. Penrose similarly stated:  "It is not claimed that the men who translated the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the time of King James, were inspired of God.  They were learned men, experienced men, and no doubt they did the best they could, and gave to the world committed to them the benefit of their erudition, their experience, and their research....   When you say that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, you say something that is not true."  (Millennial Star 55:544)

 

4)         Brigham Young taught that we not only have the right but the duty to try to improve upon the King James translation, if we can.  He said:  "Take the Bible just as it reads; and if it be translated incorrectly and there is a scholar on the earth who professes to be a Christian, and he can translate it any better than King James' translators did it, he is under obligation to do so.  If I understood Greek and Hebrew as some may profess to do, and I knew the Bible was not correctly translated, I should feel myself bound by the law of justice to the inhabitants of the earth to translate that which is incorrect and give it just as it was spoken anciently.  Is that proper?  Yes, I would be under obligation to do it.  But I think it is translated just as correctly as the scholars could get it, although it is not correct in a great many instances."  (Journal of Discourses 14:226)

 

5)         As the Bible Dictionary indicates, in recent years, "more ancient manuscripts [of the Bible], not available to the King James translators," have been discovered.  Where the newer manuscripts differ from those used by the King James translators, they are presumably closer to what the original writers actually wrote.  Furthermore, current understanding of biblical languages goes significantly beyond that possessed by scholars in 1611.

 

6)         Most Latter-day Saint aversion to translations other than the King James seems to stem from President J. Reuben Clark’s book Why the King James Version?  However, the initial words in his book were: “For this book I alone am responsible.  It is not a Church publication.” 

 

7)         President Clark’s book was primarily a reaction against the then recently published Revised Standard Version, which he felt did not clearly enough proclaim the divinity of Jesus.  However, some even more recent translations (such as the highly acclaimed and widely used New International Version) are at least as emphatic as the King James Version in communicating the Savior’s divine nature.

 

8)         Despite Joseph Smith’s enthusiasm for the German (presumably Luther’s) version, the Church in 1980 adopted the Uniform Translation as its official Bible for German-speaking Saints.  Unlike either the KJV or Luther’s translation, the Uniform Translation is rendered in modern language and reflects recent scholarship, suggesting the Church does not regard those qualities as objectionable per se. 

 

9)         William Tyndale, who was executed for heresy because of his persistence in translating the scriptures into English (rather than leaving them in the more “beautiful” and “dignified” Hebrew, Greek, or Latin), said:  "I had perceived by experience how that it was impossible to establish the lay-people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue."  It seems inconsistent to honor reformers such as Tyndale while disparaging the efforts of those who would make the scriptures more intelligible to the masses today. 

 

10)       As the Lord made clear to Joseph Smith in D&C 91, a book doesn't have to be perfect in order to be useful.  It might be said of modern language translations of the Bible as the Lord said of the Apocrypha, that "there are many things contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly....  And whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom; and whoso receiveth not by the Spirit cannot be benefited." (D&C 91:5-6.)

 

11)       Nephi warned against those who might say, “A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.”  “Wherefore murmur ye,” he asked, “because that ye shall receive more of my word?”  (2 Ne. 29:3, 8.)  While he was particularly addressing those who would reject the Book of Mormon, could his words also apply to those who have no desire to understand the Bible any better than they can from the King James Version alone?

 

12)       Jacob reminds us that “the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand,” in return for which the Lord had “taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.”  (Jacob 4:14.)  It is clear that the Lord would prefer for us to seek for things we can understand rather than to revere those we cannot.

 

13)       At one time one rationale for adhering exclusively to the King James Version was that it was the version non-Latter-day Saints used, and we should be prepared to teach them the gospel out of their own Bibles.  However, the day has long since passed when the King James Version is the most-widely used English translation.  As of July 2022, the King James Version was in fourth place in sales, behind the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and the New Living Translation.  As we continue to use the KJV for our own valid reasons, shouldn’t our prospective missionaries learn that they can teach the gospel from whatever Bible their prospective investigators are using today?  All of the basic doctrines of the gospel can be found in every translation.  If a doctrine seems to be found only in the King James Version, or in one of several possible interpretations of a King James passage, we have probably misunderstood the passage in the first place.  The principle that every word is to be established by two or three witnesses could apply to Bible translations.  If two or three translations render a passage with the same general meaning, we may feel more certain of the accuracy of that translation than if only one translation so rendered it. 

 

14)       President Harold B. Lee taught that our duty was not simply to teach the gospel so it could be understood but so it could not possibly be misunderstood.  That seems consistent with the judicious use of such study aids as modern language translations to aid our understanding of obscure passages.

 

15)       Occasionally, one encounters the feeling that somehow the King James Version is a “Latter-day Saint” source and other translations are “non-Latter-day Saint” productions.  It is worth remembering that virtually all Bible translations were done by non-Latter-day Saint scholars, and that Bible manuscripts in the original languages are not today the product of the original writers but of several generations of copyists, who may have been more or less careful and more or less honest in their work. 

 

16)       An article in the "I Have a Question" section of the June 1987 Ensign states:  "Although the Church prefers to continue with the KJV for its English-speaking members, we should not assume that the many other translations are not useful.  They oftentimes explain passages that are difficult to understand.  In cases of confusing phrases and archaic words, readers can quickly compare the verses with those in other translations.  In addition, comparing many different translations will often expand one's understanding of a particular verse." 

 

17)       The argument that only the King James Version should be consulted by faithful Latter-day Saints would seem strange to non-English-speaking members.  Each of them is expected to read the Bible in his own language, not to learn English so he can read it in the King James Version.  Bibles in other languages, of course, are not translated from the English King James Version but from the original Hebrew and Greek, just as other English versions are.  There is no inherent reason to consider an alternative English version of the Bible any less useful or inspiring than translations in any other language. 

 

18)       Our 13th Article of Faith reminds us that “if there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” 

 

19)       The Bible Dictionary indicates that the King James Version is "the principal Bible," not the only permissible Bible of the Church.

 

20)       John A. Widtsoe, of the Council of the Twelve, wrote: “It should be remarked that the translation of the Bible into several modern languages has helped us to understand the meaning of many passages otherwise obscure....  In recent years many new translations of the Bible into English have been made, chiefly to render the text in modern, colloquial language, though others have sought primarily to make the rendering correspond more exactly with the text. These modern translators have had at their command for comparison many more manuscripts than were possessed by the translators in 1611. Each such translation has contributed something towards our fuller understanding of the Bible; for example, King James' version says, ‘Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?’ (1 Corinthians 15:29) The Smith and Goodspeed translation makes the thought clearer, "Otherwise what do people mean by having themselves baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why do they have themselves baptized on their behalf?’   However, none of these translations surpasses the King James' version of the English Bible in beauty of language and spiritual connotation, and probably in faithful adherence to the text available to translators. It is this version which is used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints in all of its official work both at home and abroad. The literature of the Church refers invariably to the King James translation. Other translations are used by the Church only to help explain obscure passages in the authorized version.”  (Evidences and Reconciliations, 119-120.)

 

21)       Other prominent Latter-day Saint leaders from time to time have also referred to translations other than the King James Version to teach a scriptural point.  Examples include:

 

a)         Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, Vol. 1, p.209

b)         Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, Vol. 4, p. 264 ‑ p. 265

c)         Neal A. Maxwell, But for a Small Moment, p. 74.

d)         Mark E. Petersen, The Way to Peace, p. 293.

e)         Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, p. 600 [John Taylor editor]

 

Presumably, none of the above brethren would be considered heretical or faithless because of their occasional use of translations other than the King James to clarify a King James passage, nor would we expect they would feel they were setting a bad example for the rest of the Church by so doing.

 

22)       Illustrative examples of passages where a modern language version may help clarify a King James translation and make it therefore more enjoyable and more likely to be read would include the following:

a)         Job 36:32-33

KJV: With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the could that cometh betwixt.

NIV: He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.  His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach.

b)         Nehemiah 13:26:

KJV: Even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

NIV: Even he was led into sin by foreign women.

c)         Prov. 14:14: 

KJV:  The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways:  and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.

New Living Translation:  Backsliders get what they deserve; good people receive their reward.

d)         Prov. 17:14:

KJV:  The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water:  therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.

NIV:  Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

e)         Prov. 26:8:

KJV:  As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honour to a fool.

New Living Translation:  Honoring a fool is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.

f)          Psalms 5:6

KJV:  Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.

NIV:  You destroy those who tell lies.

g)         Eccl. 2:24-25

KJV: This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.  For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

Revised Standard Version: This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

h)         Eccl. 12:11

KJV: The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

NIV: The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails--given by one Shepherd. 

i)          Job 13:18

KJV:  Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

NIV:  Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated.

j)          Is. 59:15

KJV:  Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey:  and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

NIV:  Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.  The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

k)         Hosea 8:1

KJV:  Set the trumpet to thy mouth.  He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

New Living Translation:  “Sound the alarm!  The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord, for they have broken my covenant and revolted against my law.

l)          1 Cor. 8:7

KJV: Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

New Living Translation: However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.

 

SUMMARY

 

Again, it is not our point that Latter-day Saint teachers must make sure that each student has more than one Bible or that our study should focus on any translation other than the King James, nor would we want to weaken the faith of our students in the value and reliability of the King James Version.  For the reasons already noted, it seems clear that the Lord intends his English-speaking Saints to strive for proficiency in reading and understanding that version.  We would suggest that as long as either teachers or students can understand the essential meaning of the scriptures in that version, they study the KJV alone.  However, when they encounter passages which they feel they do not understand as fully as they would like, especially narrative as opposed to doctrinal passages, we see nothing to be lost and much to be gained by their having access to another translation.  After reading the obscure passage in the modern translation, they will usually be able to return to the King James and see the same message in that version.  Since we accept the Bible as the word of God only “as far as it is translated correctly,” and there may be errors in the transmission and translation process of all versions, it seems unlikely the Lord could be displeased with anyone who wanted to understand his word better than he already did. Nephi’s words to his latter-day readers may have some application here: “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.”  (2 Nephi 28:30.)

 

 

RECOMMENDED SOURCE FOR ALTERNATE TRANSLATIONS:   

 

https://www.biblegateway.com/ is a free online source for dozens of Bible translations in multiple languages.