Replies

>>>I don’t have time for arrogant liars like you. <<<

Didn’t take long for the angry Alexandrian cultists to lose their religion, did it?

Here is an example of attacking the virgin birth (and by extension Jesus’ deity)

“And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it” (Luke 2:43) KJB

ASV: and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not;

RSV; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,

CEV: After Passover his parents left ...

NAB: After they had completed its days, as they wree returnig, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.

NIV: After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home...

NKJV footnote “NU And His parents.” What makes these versions much worse is the way that they deal with verse 33 where they truly show their cards and actually translate father in place of Joseph.

ASV: And his father and his mother were marvelling at the things which were spoken concerning him;

RSV: And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him;

NIV: The child’s father and mother ...

NAB: The child’s father and mother ...

The Message: Jesus’ father and mother ...

NKJV footnote NU And His father and mother.

“NKJV footnote ‘NU And His parents.’ What makes these versions much worse is the way that they deal with verse 33 where they truly show their cards and actually translate father in place of Joseph.”

You misrepresent NKJV.

33 And Joseph and His mother[h] marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. [in NKJV]

The doctrine of inherency does not at all depend on following one particular translation for a given language. God’s ability to preserve His word is also not contingent on men never making mistakes. Rather it is the correction of these mistakes that is important.

The Textus Receptus, from which the KJV and NKJV are translated, is the body of texts that God preserved and blessed.

The purpose of providing references to the Alexandrian (NU) and Majority texts (M) in the footnotes of the NKJV is so that those who study the Bible can be aware of why the other (per)versions of the Bible [which we know to be derived from the Wescott and Hort corruptions] may say something different.

In discussions with others about Bible topics, especially cults, it is helpful to be aware why they have Bibles that read differently. The NKJV does not make value judgments on these but simply share that information in the footnotes. This makes the NKJV a valuable study tool.

The NKJV is easier for most English-speakers to read and understand than the KJV. The whole point of providing an English translation was to give people the Word of God in their own language.

When people can not understand something, it is like a foreign language to them. If it is not wrong to translate the meaning of the original scriptures into another language, how is it wrong to provide an updated translation that is more easily understood to modern speakers of that language? That logic makes no sense at all.

The NKJV also provides an English version of the Word of God that follows correct rules of modern spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

The Bible itself contains a pattern for us to follow when it comes to translating the Word of God into other languages. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew originally. It was translated into Greek in the Septuagint. The New Testament authors, when quoting the Old Testament, usually defer to the exact Greek translation contained in the Septuagint. However, they did not exclusively do so. This illustrates that a translation does NOT share equal authority with the original scriptures. There are times when consulting the original texts provides clarity of meaning. Generally, we can learn nearly everything useful from the translated Word of God in our own language, if it is translated precisely. However, there may be nuances of meaning that can not be conveyed in another language.

A good example of this is translating currency. We may relate to dollars. They did not use dollars in the Bible. We may relate to feet and inches. Others may relate in metric. But the original scriptures used neither. If we translate the numeric values literally, some of the meaning is lost without the student doing more study as to how these measure relate to what they are familiar with. Some translations might simply call a certain piece of money “a silver coin” which is technically correct.

There is a benefit to having a relatable, accurate translation of the Bible in everyday English in reaching the lost with the message and equipping new believers with a solid foundation of biblical knowledge as quickly as possible.

For the believer, it will always be necessary to go beyond mere reading. We must study, memorize, and meditate on the Word of God.

When you demand that every English speaker conform to your preferred version of the Bible, without an honest assessment of the value, benefit, and purpose of another one (such as the NKJV), then you are ignoring what the scripture teaches:

1 Corinthians 14:11 (KJV)
Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

Indeed the KJV translators included this very reference as the reason their translation was useful and necessary. You can read the full text of it in many KJV Bibles or online in places such as this one I randomly picked:

https://ebible.org/kjv/FRT01.htm

This part is noteworthy:

“TRANSLATION NECESSARY
But how shall men meditate in that, which they cannot understand? How shall they understand that which is kept close in an unknown tongue? as it is written, ‘Except I know the power of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh, a Barbarian, and he that speaketh, shall be a Barbarian to me.’ [1 Cor 14] The Apostle excepteth no tongue; not Hebrew the ancientest, not Greek the most copious, not Latin the finest. Nature taught a natural man to confess, that all of us in those tongues which we do not understand, are plainly deaf; we may turn the deaf ear unto them. The Scythian counted the Athenian, whom he did not understand, barbarous...”

And here, where they commented how the Septuagint was used, as I described, by the apostles when quoting from the Hebrew scriptures:

“The Seventy [who wrote the Septuagint] were Interpreters, they were not Prophets; they did many things well, as learned men; but yet as men they stumbled and fell, one while through oversight, another while through ignorance, yea, sometimes they may be noted to add to the Original, and sometimes to take from it; which made the Apostles to leave them many times, when they left the Hebrew, and to deliver the sense thereof according to the truth of the word, as the spirit gave them utterance. This may suffice touching the Greek Translations of the Old Testament.”

Did the translators consider their translation the only viable English translation, or that others were also valuable? Was further translation and correction anticipated?

“we affirm and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our profession... containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God.”

“we must answer a third cavil and objection of theirs against us, for altering and amending our Translations so oft... If we be sons of the Truth, we must consider what it speaketh, and trample upon our own credit, yea, and upon other men’s too, if either be any way an hindrance to it.”

The translators of the KJV would be among the first to fully support and endorse the update and translation of the scriptures into modern English today.

To treat the words, symbols, and very ink of the KJV Bible as sacrosanct is to treat it as a book of incantations, a book of sorcery, rather than as a means by which we understand the mind and message of God.

There is no magic in the combination of these symbols with ink on paper. Uttering them will produce no magic spells. It is the UNDERSTANDING that is conveyed through them that transforms hearts and lives, that has the authority to shake kingdoms, and to bring the dead to life.