I agree that our the langauge of the modern english speaking world is impovrished by the demise of KJV. The KJV was the language of my youth. Struggling through the dense language of the KJV in Sunday School gave me a better grasp of English, improved my reading skills and helped me think. However, one of the tenets of evangelical reformed Christianity is that the scripture should be in the vernacular, in the language of the people. KJV English is no longer the language of the people. And yes, this is a discussion that mostly concerns those of us in the reformed protestant tradition. I read through the names of the
translation committee and there is not a Roman Catholic or Orthodox scholar in the bunch.
The spiritual message of the Bible can be conveyed in virtually any language, from Olde Englishe to handpuppets. But the rich texture and grammatical embellishments of Elizabethan English lend the King James a poetic feel that augments the message with a lingustic majesty that vernacular simply can't inspire.
Take the passage from Ecclesiastes:
"Unto all things there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven. ... A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together."
Or Ruth's famous declaration:
"Whither thou goest, I will go. And whither thou lodgest, there will I lodge."
And what would the Christmas story be without:
"And it came to pass, in those days, that a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed ..."
The language is important. What would the Commandments be if they began "DO" and "DON'T"? And in a more secular vein, who would remember the Gettysburg Address if it started "Eight-seven years ago, a bunch of guys ..."?