The King James Version
For
God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the
saints.
I
Cor 14:33
We
use the King James Version of the bible for some very simple reasons, which
are:
While
there is much debate on this issue, and while we do not exclude the possibility
that God will one day provide another suitable translation based on the proper
text, we believe that the following remarks by the great Particular Baptist preacher,
Joseph Charles Philpot, will suffice to express our feelings on the
subject. J.C. Philpot, by the way, was
fluent in Hebrew and Greek, and did his personal bible study in the original
languages. If we could all do that, no
translations would be needed.
Remarks by J. C. Philpot, M.A., 1802-1869
Strict Baptist Minister, England
and Editor of the "Gospel Standard Magazine," 1849-69
"The more a man's heart is alive unto God, the more
will he read his Bible; nor can there be a surer sign of a sickly state of soul
than distaste to the Word of God…But we made a remark also on the grace and
wisdom bestowed upon our translators to give us such a faithful and noble,
clear and beautiful, yet simple and plain version. The blessing which has
rested upon our English Bible in the thousands of souls who by it have been
quickened and fed, liberated, sanctified, and saved, eternity alone can unfold.
But much of this, under the blessing of God, has been due to the plain, simple,
yet strong and expressive language which our translators were led to adopt.
They were deeply penetrated with a reverence for the Word of God, and therefore
they felt themselves bound by a holy constraint to discharge their trust in the
most faithful possible way. Under that divine constraint they were led to give
us a translation unequalled for faithfulness to the original, and yet at the
same time clothed in the purest and simplest English. How suitable is all this
to the simplest understanding, and how in this way the most precious truths of
God are brought down to the plainest and most uncultivated mind.
"No one can read, with an enlightened eye, the discourses of our blessed
Lord without seeing what a divine simplicity ran through all His words; and our
translators were favoured with heavenly wisdom to translate these words of the
Lord into language as simple as that in which they first fell from His lips.
What can exceed the simplicity and yet the beauty and blessedness of such
declarations as these? – "I am the bread of life"; "I am the
door"; "I am the way, the truth, and the life"; "I lay down
my life for the sheep"; "I am the vine"; "God is
love"; "By grace are ye saved". Even where the words are not
monosyllabic, they are of the simplest kind, and as such are adapted to the
capacity of every child of God, in whatever rank of life he may be.
"The blessedness of having not only such a Bible, but possessing such a
translation of it can never be sufficiently valued. If the Scriptures had been
written in a style of language which required a refined education and a
cultivated mind to understand, how could they have been adapted to the poor of
the flock? Or had our translators wrapped up the simple language of the
original in high flown expressions, how it would have set the Word of truth beyond
the grasp of he poor of the flock! But now, as soon as the Blessed Spirit is
pleased to communicate light and life to the soul, the Bible is open to the
simplest man to read and to understand; and as the Lord by His Spirit is
pleased to raise up faith in his heart to believe His testimony, he can not
only understand what he thus reads without the necessity of a worldly
education, but, under the unction of His grace, can also feel its power and
blessedness in his own soul.
"But apart from the blessing which it has been thus made to the family of
God, our English Bible has been a national treasure. It has much interwoven
itself with our national character, has set up a pure standard of religion and
morality, and is daily influencing thousands of hearts to actions of goodness
and benevolence, as well as exercising a widely spread power in upholding good
and condemning evil. This natural effect of the Bible, as distinct from its
spiritual effect, is sometimes too much overlooked or undervalued, but is not
less real and substantial. It is something akin to the effect produced on a
congregation where truth is preached, or in a family where its heads are
partakers of the grace of God. In a congregation many are influenced by the
truth, who are not regenerated by it; in a family the children are often
affected by the parents' example and admonitions, who are not reached by their
grace. So, apart from its sanctifying influence upon the vessels of mercy, the
Bible has exercised an amazing amount of good on society at large; and in this
way it has been made a great national blessing.
"But it is because the language of our Bible is such pure, simple,
unaffected, idiomatic, intelligible English, that it has become so thoroughly
English a book, and has interwoven itself with our very laws and
language…"
On whether there
should be a new translation of the Holy Scriptures
"We fully admit that there are here and there
passages, of which the translation might be improved; as for instance,
"love" for "charity" all through I Cor. 13; but we
deprecate any alteration as a measure that for the smallest sprinkling of good
would deluge us with a flood of evil. The following are our reasons:
"1. Who are to undertake it? Into whose hands would the
revision fall? What an opportunity for the enemies of truth to give us a
mutilated false Bible! Of course, they must be learned men, great critics,
scholars, and divines. But these are notoriously either Puseyites or
Neologians; in other words, deeply tainted with either popery or infidelity.
Where are there learned men sound in the truth, not to say alive unto God, who
possess the necessary qualifications for so important a work? And can erroneous
men, men dead in trespasses and sins, carnal, worldly, ungodly persons,
spiritually translate a book written by the blessed Spirit? We have not the
slightest ground for hope that they would be godly men, such as we have reason
to believe translated the Scriptures into our present version.
"2. Again, it would unsettle the minds of thousands, as to
which was the word of God, the old translation or the new. What a door it would
open for the workings of infidelity, or the temptations of Satan! What a gloom
too it would cast over the minds of many of God's saints, to have those
passages which had been applied to their souls translated in a different way,
and how it would seem to shake all their experience of the power and
preciousness of God's word!
"3. But besides this, there would be two Bibles spread
through the land, the old and the new, and what confusion would this create in
almost every place1 At present, all sects and denominations agree in
acknowledging our present version as the standard of appeal. Nothing settles
disputes so soon as when the contending parties have confidence in the same
umpire, and are willing to abide by his decision. But this judge of all
dispute, this umpire of all controversy, would cease to be the looser of strife
if present acknowledged authority were put an end to by a rival.
"4. Again, if the revision and re-translation were once to
begin, where would it end? It is good to let well alone, as it is easier to mar
than mend. The Socianising Neologian would blot out "God" in I
Timothy 3:16, and stroke out I John 5:7-8 as an interpolation. The Puseyite
would mend it to suit Tractarian views. He would read "priest" where
we now read "elder," and put "penance" in the place of
"repentance." Once set up a notice, "The old Bible to be
mended," and there would be plenty of workmen, who, trying to mend the
cover, would pull the pages to pieces. The Arminian would soften down the words
"election" and "predestination" into some term less
displeasing to Pharisaic ears. "Righteousness" would be turned into
"justice," and "reprobate" into "undiscerning."
All our good Bible terms would be so mutilated that they would cease to convey
the Spirit's meaning, and instead of the noble simplicity, faithfulness, and
truth of our present version, we should have a Bible that nobody would accept
as the word of God, to which none could safely appeal, and on which none
implicitly reply.
"5. Instead of our good old Saxon Bible, simple and solid,
with few words really obsolete, and alike majestic and beautiful, we should
have a modern English translation in pert and flippant language of the day.
Besides its authority, as the word of God, our present version is the great
English Classic – generally accepted as the standard of the English language.
The great classics of a language cannot be modernised. What an outcry there
would be against modernising Shakespere, or making Hooker, Bacon, or Milton,
talk the English of the newspapers or of the House of Commons.
"6. The present English Bible has been blessed to thousands
of the saints of God; and not only so, it has become part of our national
inheritance which we have received unimpaired from our fathers, and are bound
to hand down unimpaired to our children. It is, we believe, the grand bulwark
of Protestantism; the safeguard of the Gospel, and the treasure of the Church;
and we should be traitors in every sense of the word if we consented to give it
up to be rifled by the sacrilegious hands of the Puseyites, concealed Papists,
German Neologians, infidel divines, Arminians, Socinians and the whole tribe of
enemies of God and godliness."
"We cannot but admire the great faithfulness of our
translators in so scrupulously adhering to the exact words of the Holy Spirit, and when they were necessarily compelled to supply the
ellipses in the original, to point out that they had done so by making the word
in italic characters. By so doing, they engaged themselves, as by bond, TO
GIVE THE WORD OF GOD IN ITS STRICT ORIGINAL PURITY; and yet, as thorough
scholars in the original tongues, and complete masters of their own, THEY
WERE ENABLED TO GIVE US A VERSION ADMIRABLE NOT ONLY FOR ITS STRICT FIDELITY,
BUT FOR ITS ELOQUENCE, GRANDEUR, AND BEAUTY."
Amen.