Ruckman versus Ruckman on editions of the KJV

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Did Peter Ruckman make conflicting or contradictory claims concerning variations or differences in the many varying KJV editions?

In his commentary on the book of Revelation, Peter Ruckman asserted: “Things different are not equal” (p. 18). In this same commentary, Peter Ruckman wrote: “You can’t change the meaning without changing the words, and you can’t change the words without changing the meaning” (p. 606). In his commentary on the book of Genesis, Peter Ruckman asserted: “For if you can change one word, you can change two, and if you can change two verses, you can change ten verses” (p. 295). In his commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, Peter Ruckman wrote: “We will not alter ONE word in the text of the Authorized Version which we have on the table before us” (p. v). In volume one of his commentary on the book of Psalms, Peter Ruckman asserted: “We will leave every ‘jot and tittle: as it stands in the Authorized text” (p. vi). Peter Ruckman wrote: “The words in a text can’t be changed and still be the same text. It is only an evil imagination that makes anybody think they can” (About the New Scofield, p. 7).

Peter Ruckman wrote: “We recommend any edition of the AV (with any number of variations from any other edition)” (Bible Believers’ Bulletin, Sept., 1985, p. 3). In this same article, Ruckman commented: “In our group, we hold that ANY edition of the AV is reliable” (p. 2). In this article, Ruckman’s only stated exception from being an edition of the AV was the NKJV. Again concerning the KJV, Ruckman claimed that “any edition will do just fine” (Unknown Bible, pp. 1, 86). Ruckman referred to “any edition in any century” of the KJV (How to Teach the “Original” Greek, p. 119). Ruckman appealed to “a King James Bible (any edition from any year)“ (Difference in KJV Editions, pp. 9-10). Ruckman also referred to “a present copy of the AV, which anyone can buy anywhere” (p. 11). Ruckman claimed that “any edition of the AV (Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Nelson, Cambridge, New York, etc.) is vastly superior to the ‘originals’” (p. 18). Ruckman asserted: “The text of the AV in any edition is the text authorized by the Godhead, and it is the text that the Holy Spirit has continually stamped with His approval, in any edition” (Bible Babel, p. 92). Ruckman claimed: “You can find that word [the word of God] and those words [the words that God wants us to have] in ANY EDITION of an Authorized Version” (Biblical Scholarship, p. 414).

Do all the varying editions of the KJV actually have every” jot and tittle” the same so that they all can be left as they stand and still agree perfectly?

 

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Peter Ruckman asserted that “this edition [referring to the 1769 Oxford edition by Blayney] has been regarded as the standard copy for 200 years” (Bible Believers’ Bulletin, July, 1981, p. 4). Peter Ruckman wrote: “The standard edition was proofread further in 1806, and in 1813 it was published by Eyre and Strahan and printed by Woodfall” (Differences in King James Version Editions, p. 5). Peter Ruckman favorably quoted and thus in effect maintained that “the main object” of Blayney’s edition was “to restore the text of the English Bible to its original purity and that this was successfully accomplished” (p. 11). Ruckman claimed that “their printer’s errors were corrected until a pure text was arrived at in 1813, which conformed to the original intent of the AV translators” (p. 13). Ruckman referred to “seven revised copies of the AV (1611, 1613, 1644, 1664, 1701, 1769, and 1850) that result in a purified Book” (pp. 18-19). In a later e-book edition of his 1983 booklet that was reprinted in 1994, some of these claims were revised or changed.

In another book, Peter Ruckman maintained that “we have the list of the fourteen principle editions of the Authorized Version right here on the desk” (Biblical Scholarship, p. 364). Ruckman asserted that “we have a list which gives fourteen” major editions, and he listed them as “1612, 1613, 1616, 1617, 1629, 1630, 1640, 1660, 1701, 1762, 1769, 1833, 1847-1851, and 1858” (p. 46). In Appendix 21 of his reference Bible, Peter Ruckman listed the principal editions of the KJV after the 1611 as the following: “1612, 1613, 1616, 1617, 1629, 1630, 1634, 1638, 1640, 1644, 1660, 1675, 1680, 1701, 1762, 1769” (p. 1710).