The Story of Our King James Bible

21st Century and Legacy

The King James Only Movement

• Began as a loose knit “movement” in the 1970s.

• Several books were published about the issue

• There is no central leadership• There is not even unified

agreement about what “King James Only” means

• Two organizations strongly support the KJV

The Dean Burgon Society

• Does not believe the KJV is inspired

• But does believe it is on the only accurate translation

• This is what they say in their articles of faith:

“We believe that the King James Version (or Authorized Version) of the English Bible is a true, faithful, and accurate translation of these two providentially preserved Texts, which in our time has no equal among all of the other English Translations. The translators did such a fine job in their translation task that we can without apology hold up the Authorized Version of 1611 and say "This is the WORD OF GOD!" while at the same time realizing that, in some verses, we must go back to the underlying original language Texts for complete clarity, and also compare Scripture with Scripture.

We believe that all the verses in the King James Version belong in the Old and the New Testaments because they represent words we believe were in the original texts, although there might be other renderings from the original languages which could also be acceptable to us today. For an exhaustive study of any of the words or verses in the Bible, we urge the student to return directly to the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text and the Traditional Received Greek Text rather than to any other translation for help.”

The Trinitarian Bible Society (U.K.)• Does not believe the KJV is

inspired• Believes the KJV is the most

accurate translation• “To promote Bible translations which

are accurate and trustworthy, conforming to the Hebrew Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, and the Greek Textus Receptus of the New Testament, upon which texts the English Authorised Version is based.”

Bible Believers Church Directory• “We believe the King James "Authorized

Version" Bible to be the perfect and infallible word of God. We believe the Bible was inspired in its origination and then divinely preserved throughout its various generations and languages until it reached us in its final form. By this we mean that the Authorized Version preserves the very words of God in the form in which He wished them to be represented in the universal language of these last days: English.”

• There are churches from every state on it

The arguments for the “KJV only” range from the ridiculous to the reasonable

Textual Issues are more reasonable• The KJV was translated

from:• The Masoretic OT text• The Textus Receptus

NT text

• The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, have variations from the Masoretic texts

• Many different Greek texts have been discovered since the TR was produced in 1551