As someone raised on NASB (New American Standard Bible), I find amusing these little wars about the “official” Bible.
We have copies of the Hebrew and Greek texts from which the English-language Bible was formed and have seen 1st Century scripts that verify other texts with amazing fidelity (not complete fidelity but close enough as to assure the authenticity) and there are many scholars trained in these languages so as to understand the nuances of certain words and phrases.
The KJV is the “handed down” version from centuries of churches before there was a printing press. The NASB attempts to be verbatim to what is said in the Hebrew and Greek scripts. The NIV is an attempt to reconstruct the Bible into more spoken-English sentences so as to improve comprehension.
All three are valid in their own way and newer ones also attempt to keep up with the evolving English language. But if you’re ever unsure what a verse means, the best thing to do is look it up in a book that breaks down the Hebrew or Greek word by word and translates those words into English which none of these versions do because the sentence structures are not like English.
Got to comment 28 before someone mentioned NASB! That's the version that was given to me when I received the Lord as my personal savior. Later found that it is closer to the literal meaning (as shown in the helpful chart posted by MacNaughton) while to me still being very readable. Still use it the most for personal reading and study.
Nevertheless, the KJV is beautiful, and many portions of it have passed into common usage in the English language. Also like the original NIV (not the "gender neutral" newer version) as being more readable and understandable for many.
Also - Getting to really enjoy the B-Bee!