It’s not really debatable. Clearly the greatest English translation of the Scriptures is that which was authorized by King James and completed in 1611. To me it is the version that sings. And if you happen to be one of those who say, “I just don’t understand it” I would say to you, please don’t admit such in public, for it would certainly not reflect well on you. If a person can’t get by those tedious thee(s) and thou(s) then all I can say is, American education has failed us all.
And while I am grateful that Christianity Today recognized the AV’s 400th anniversary, I was disappointed by the content of the cover story by Mark Noll. A professor of history at Notre Dame, Noll’s article [Me and Thee and the KJV] basically says that the KJV has had both a good and bad impact on the world. It’s a shame that the spiritual success of the greatest Bible ever was for the most part overlooked. Instead, we’re given a rehash of how men in positions of political power used it’s “predominance” for their own benefit. And it’s also unclear what exactly Noll believes about the Word of God. He says, “The scriptural message was carried far and wide via an all-pervasive cultural standard. The substance of divine revelation that lay immediately beneath the words of the KJV could also exert a dramatic public impact for good, precisely because this translation so dominated the English-speaking world.”
Wouldn’t it be better to say that the dramatic public impact of this translation was a direct result of the power of the Word of God? And that the divine revelation doesn't lay beneath the words but are, in fact, the words themselves? I could go on all day about this. And I am not a KJV only guy! I’ve never had a problem calling any translation that is true to the original languages the Word of God. And while I am sure that evil men with bad motives have quoted the Bible, I am also equally sure that a version’s power doesn’t lay in its popularity but in its essence as the Word of the Lord.
