The Road to the King James Bible

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Many people do not realize that the King James Bible was not the first Modern English translation. There were actually 6 other translations published before the KJV:


Someone may ask why the Wycliffe Bible is not included in the list. It is not included for two reasons:

1. The Wycliffe Bible was not in Modern English. It was in Middle English. The period of Middle English is considered to be the time from 1154-1485. Wycliffe translated the Bible in the 1380s.

2. The Wycliffe Bible was not translated from the original languages (Greek and Hebrew). It was translated from the Latin Catholic Vulgate.

The 6 Modern English translations leading up to the KJV were all translated from various editions of what we call today the Greek "Textus Receptus." The first several of these printed Greek editions were published by Desiderius Erasmus, and later editions used to produce the Geneva Bible and Bishops Bible were published by Robert Estienne a.k.a Stephanus. The KJV translators also translated from the Greek Textus Receptus, using the editions of Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza.

Modern Bible versions are translated from a completely different source. They are translated by critical texts edited by Nestle/Aland and the United Bible Societies in the 20th Century. These modern Greek editions are based on corrupt manuscripts like Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, as well as more recent Egyptian papyri discoveries. It is not a coincidence that Egypt is the source of the corruption underlying modern perversions like the NIV, ESV, NLT, etc.

The 6 Bibles leading up to the KJV were all translated from the Textus Receptus (the correct Greek textual tradition) and are therefore consistent with the KJV. They agree with the KJV. The modern versions, on the other hand, are dramatically different. Therefore, if a person accepts the modern Bible versions as accurate, they are not only rejecting the King James Version. They are also rejecting every English Bible that came before it! According to them, every English translation before the 20th Century has been wrong!

The King James Bible is the culmination of the 6 Bibles that led up to it. It is the culmination of almost 100 years of scholarship and sacrifice that gave us our English Bible. That is why the 6 earlier translations eventually went out of print, and the KJV became the standard English Bible used by virtually all Christians until recently. People recognized that the KJV was the final draft of the English Bible, so it replaced the 6 rough drafts that led up to it. The 6 Bibles before the KJV were good Bibles, and the KJV could never have been the magnificent Bible that it is without having had those 6 excellent rough drafts.

"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." - Psalm 12:6

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