"I am not ashamed of the gospel, as worded in the AV1611, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe."
Romans 1:17
The belief that the KJV translators' work was perfect and that their work was infallible is a false belief. I hope that this is not a thread about that!
I like the KJV. I’ve memorized many verses in its stylized language.
But why are we trying to keep the word of God hidden behind 16th century English?
Listen to the words of the translators in the preface to the KJV:
It is translation that opens the window to let in the light;
that breaks the shell, that we may eat the kernel;
that puts aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place;
that removes the cover of the well, that we may come by the water;
even as Jacob rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, by which means the flocks of Laban were watered.
Indeed without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacob's well (which was deep) without a bucket or something to draw with: or as that person mentioned by Esay, to whom when a sealed book was delivered with this motion, Read this, I pray thee, he was fain to make this answer, I cannot, for it is sealed.
[SNIP]
Aquila, of whom we spoke before, translated the Bible as carefully and as skillfully as he could; and yet he thought good to go over it again, and then it got the credit with the Jews, to be called accurately done, as St. Hierome witnessed.
How many books of profane learning have been gone over again and again, by the same translators, by others?
Of one and the same book of Aristotle's Ethics there are extant not so few as six or seven several translations.
Now if this cost may be bestowed upon the gourd, which afforded us a little shade, and which to day flourishes, but tomorrow is cut down; what may we bestow, nay, what ought we not to bestow, upon the vine, the fruit whereof makes glad the conscience of man, and the stem whereof abides for ever?
And this is the word of God, which we translate. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord. Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum! (says Tertullian).
Rob
:BangHead: {shake head, sadly} :tear: