Among the Church, one of our strongest tools all too often turns into our largest pitfall. I’m referring to tradition. Traditions can be a wonderful, insightful way of passing symbolism and reverence from one generation to the next, but we Christians have perfected the art of beating a dead horse with respect to “the old ways”. I think the best (worst?) example of this is our persistent use of the King James Version of Scripture.
Nothing says ::out-of-touch:: better than a few good lines in the King’s English. Somehow, a good number of churches, in America at least, are still not only teaching from this 1611 publication of the Scriptures, they are teaching that it is the only “holy” version of them. I have heard all manner of excuses for this; each one would be funnier than the last, if it were not so absolutely depressing. Here’re a few of my favorites.
· The KJV is the only one without footnotes for alternate meanings. The actual original 1611 printing…has footnotes. The translaters didn’t claim to have any special insight into the Greek and Hebrew meanings. The following link shows this clearly. www.bible.ca
· The KJV has been refined 7 times, as Psalm 12:6 states it should be. First, the analogy says the Word is like silver that has been refined 7 times. It's an obvious metaphor. Second, doing this with words means there were six other English versions before KJV, each translated from the last, arriving finally at KJV. Sort of like a copy of a copy…and we know how clear those are.
· The great Preachers all used KJV, i.e. Edwards, Bunyan, Wesley. Yet other heroes of the faith never read or spoke a single word in English. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Augustine, Polycarp, Paul. Oh, and Jesus.
I know, I know, I have just tipped a sacred cow. That is exactly my point! Our tradition on this matter has clouded our judgment. The translation is hard to read, archaic in word meaning, and the fact is, even if you grew up in a church that used KJV solely and consistently, you probably still don’t understand half of what it’s saying!
We have simply conditioned ourselves to find reverence in the ancient cadences. The “thou shalt’s” and “verily, I say unto you” put us in a mindset that what we are hearing is something special, something spiritual. Obviously, this is not the case! Jesus never uttered the words “Verily, I say unto you,” He said ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν. I doubt many looking at THAT feel very "spiritual"!
That I can think of, there is only one excuse for relying upon the King James Version of the Bible, and it just so happens that it is also part of the solution.
We'll tackle that tomorrow!
