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