It has been believed by many for centuries that the KJV, and therefore the English translation of the Bible, is (has been and will be) the infallible word of God. I am a Christian, and this is clearly preposterous! In support of this claim many say Jesus (Yeshua in Aramaic) is the 'word made flesh'.
Undeniably this is a sweeping oversimplification, although made with good intentions, ultimately a story fabricated in ignorance. The Bible known as the King James Version was published by King James I; commissioned in 1604, with four groups translating the lengthy Old Testament from the Greek Septuagint, and two groups translating the Greek New Testament, both into English.
Until about a century ago Scholars were puzzled by the Greek of the New Testament as it did not parallel the Greek of the classical literature, or any other known form. Thus it was assumed to be a special form of Greek and thus holy Greek from the Holy Spirit for a transmission of a special message. However, in 1778 one surviving roll of papyrus scroll survived native Egyptian fire from the town of Fayum, and was dated back to 191 A.D. In 1897 two British archaeologists discovered a multitude of papyri in a rubbish heap in the town of Oxyrhynchus, dating back to the second century. Thus began an intensive and extensive investigation over the next few years where many papyri were uncovered. And, after careful study, the language of the New Testament Greek (translated for the common people by King James I) was not the Greek of the HolySpirit, but the Greek of the common people; "barbaric" Greek by scholarly standards.
The KJV translation was not entirely a New Translation either, in its beginning, but a revision of older translations. The translation from Greek and Latin to English was a political move to make the Bible accessible to unlettered common folks, rather than strictly the scholar and the priest. The KJV came about from earlier works like Wycliffe 1382, and William Tyndale 1526, Coverdale 1535, Rogers 1537, the Great Bible 1539, the Geneva Bible 1560, and the Bishop's Bible 1568. All before the publishing of the KJV in 1611.
Moreover, the KJV was full of typos, and the English language was rapidly modernizing so the following years were full of KJV revisions: 1613, 1615, 1629, 1638, 1762, and finally 1769. It was not until 1864 British and American authorities looked to revise the KJV yet again. Thus we have the conservative Revised English Version of the NT in 1881, and the OT in 1885 after 407 sessions, 6 hours a day, 4 days at a time looking to keep as few alterations as possible. The American version with gradually more modifications from the latest methods translating the Greek publishing its version Revised American Version 1901. The Revised Standard Version was later produced as a newer edition, the NT 1946 and OT 1952.
From here the wealth of new versions and translations spring forth. Some more scholarly, mystical, or old fashion and obscure. Many cling to the old fashion KJV for its mystical phrases here or they which express without political correctness universal truths. However, others utilize newer sources for more accurate translations of the Hebrew and the Greek.
In His Grace,
