So a friend told me that the only real Bible is the King James Version, but I have a hard time understanding it. I kinda like the NIV, but she said that one is corrupt. I was wondering which version you think is the best?
Answer:
This is really two issues:
1) Is the KJV really the only legitimate Word of God?
2) If not, what is the best English translation?
The primary argument of the King James Version only view is that all other translations are corrupt because they leave out words, phrases or verses that are found in the KJV. How do we know they are wrong in leaving those words, phrases or verses out of the bible? Simple. If they are in the KJV, they are scripture. Period.
The first issue assumes that somehow an English translation made 1500 years after the New Testament was written is the one and only bible against which all bibles, before and after, must be measured. Thus, if we find a second century copy of the Gospel of John in Greek that differs slightly from the KJV (which did happen with Papyrus 75), the ancient Greek manuscript is wrong, not the KJV. How does this even make sense?
So, they are starting with an assumption that cannot be proven. Then, based on this assumption, when a modern translation is missing something that is found in the KJV, they accuse it of being corrupt, and quote this verse from Revelation to condemn it:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Rev 22:19 KJV)
The first is, how are we to know if modern translations are leaving verses out of the bible that are supposed to be there, or if the KJV has added verses to the bible that were never supposed to be there in the first place? The only way to know this is to look at the oldest copies of the bible in Greek, and see how they read.
For example, 1 John 5:7 appears in the KJV, but not in any modern translations. Why? Because prior to the twelfth century, that verse did not appear in ANY Greek manuscript of the New Testament. It FIRST appears as a margin note in the twelfth century, and is found in only FIVE manuscripts (out of more than 5,800 Greek manuscripts), all of them after the twelfth century. So, here is the problem. This verse was not found in ANY bible in the 1st century, 2nd century, 3rd century, 4th century, 5th century, 6th century, 7th century, 8th century, 9th century, 10th century or 11th century, yet somehow the KJV only view wants us to believe it is original? If a new version drops that verse, are they not returning to the way the bible was for 1100 years PRIOR to its sudden appearance as a margin note? Doesn't the choice to return to the way the bible was for the first thousand years of its existence make more sense?
Besides, Revelation has another warning, one that proponents of this theory never mention.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: (Rev 22:18 KJV)
The bottom line here is that modern translations are NOT attempting to corrupt the bible. Far from it, they are, through serious scholarly research into Greek manuscripts, attempting to produce a bible that is as close to the originals as possible.
There are a few other issues involved, but I don't have the time or space to go into them. If you are interested, the following web site addresses many of the KJV only issues fairly well:
Notes on the King James Translation and the so-called Textus Receptus
Bottom line: it is simply not true that the King James Version is the only valid, true and reliable translation of the Bible.
So what is the best translation of the bible?
The one you understand the best, and are most likely to actually read.
In other words, I have only run into ONE seriously BAD translation of the Bible (done by a guy who could not actually read Greek, who assumed that each Greek word had ONE, and only ONE meaning, and really did not understand Greek structure, syntax or grammar - and I am NOT providing a link to his web site), and quite a few really good translations.
The truth is, there is no such thing as a "best" translation of the bible. It is simply impossible to create a perfect translation of a Koine Greek document into modern English, if for no other reason than there are so many things in the ancient Greek for which we have no equivalent in modern English. For example, in John 1:1 the Greek word λόγος is translated "word," yet it does NOT mean "word" in that sentence. In fact, we have no English equivalent for what it means in that context, which is something like this:
λόγος is the principle of order and knowledge in the universe. The way everything in the universe held together, followed laws or patterns, the way learning made sense of that order, and the way new knowledge explained things that had previously been a mystery. All of this was λόγος. You could say that λόγος is all knowledge that ever was or ever will be. In its purest form, it is the actions, thoughts and knowledge of God Himself. [from my up coming book, "The Gospel According to John: Wide Open" due out sometime in 2015 or so . . . hopefully]
We have no English word that can relate this meaning, so what do we do? We use the sorely under-powered and seriously lacking alternative, "Word," mostly because no scholar on the planet can can think of anything better.
But there is more. Greek has constructions we don't have in English, some of which are due to it being a flexible language that uses WORD ORDER to convey subtle, but often critical, information in a sentence, and we have no set way to relate these nuances in English. Greek has greater distinctions and subtleties in many words than we have in English. For example, to contrast two ideas, we have "but, however, and although," each of which mean pretty much the same thing, and to connect, we have "and, as well as" and maybe a few others, each of which, again, mean essentially the same thing. Greek, however, has a five step progression from the strongest contrast (opposites) to the strongest connection (indicating unity, or the tightest connection). How do we accurately relate exactly where we are on this progression with a given conjunction?
Additionally, we are constantly learning more and more about Greek as time goes on. For example, it has only been in the last twenty-five years or so that we have learned that the Greek word αὐθεντέω meant "violence," not "authority" in the first century, and very few modern translations reflect this discovery even today (I only know of one: the ISV).
Different translations tend to reflect different subtleties, all found in the Greek. No translation is perfect, and every translation (including my own) has some problems that often cannot be overcome due to the limitations of human language. Every translation has moments of unmatched beauty, stunning clarity, and outright genius.
My recommendation: get several translations, and switch back and forth between them.
If you are interested, I own well over thirty-five different translations (on top of being able to read the Greek), and these are some of my favorites (in alphabetical order):
Amplified Bible, Contemporary English Version, Easy to Read Version, English Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Version, International Standard Version, King James Version, Message, Modern King James Version, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New International Reader's Version, New King James Version, Today's New International Version, Young's Literal Translation.
So buy a couple that you like, and most importantly of all, READ THEM! And you will be fine.
Oh, and if you have any questions about a specific passage or word, write to me, and I'll do my best to explain it to you.
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