I think that the King James Only theory is bizarre and I know this opening won't win me any friends in that camp! I grew up with the venerable King James Version of the bible, for which I have great admiration. The verses in my head are mostly in that version and when I'm trying to track down a verse, I often have to set my BibleWorks program to KJV to find a particular verse. There is much to admire in this version, but it is not the bible, but a good translation of it.
I recently bought James White's book The King James Only Controversy and have enjoyed what I read of it. Don Carson's The King James Version Debate: a plea for realism is 25 years old, but still helpful.
I especially enjoyed One Bible Only? , which is edited by Roy Beacham. This book is written by fundamentalists to fundamentalists. It is well-written and gives an excellent defence of the eclectic approach to textual criticism. It shows clearly that the idea that the King James Version is the only inspired one is unbiblical and illogical.
The authors of the various articles show that all of the arguments for KJV-Onlyism are based on false information.
But the book also contains insights into bible translation and lots of useful information about the manuscripts from which we got our bible, both Old and New Testaments.
The writers write respectfully, with due praise for the King James Version and with courtesy to those who hold different points of view to them.
The three books mentioned are all useful and all should help anyone who is puzzling over this issue.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
