The Apocrypha
Another objection to the KJV concerns the Apocrypha. When first published, the Apocrypha was placed between the Old and New Testament.
This was common for English Bibles in those days. However, the KJV translators did not consider the Apocrypha inspired Scripture. They placed it between the Testaments, indicating that they regarded it valuable only as historical record and for edification, not for doctrine. The same is true of other early English versions. For example, on the opening page of the Apocrypha in the Geneva Bible we read:
These books that follow in order after the prophets unto the New Testament are called Apocrypha--that is, books which were not received by a common consent to be read and expounded publicly in the Church, neither yet served to prove any point of Christian religion, save inasmuch as they had the consent of the other Scriptures called canonical to confirm the same, or rather whereon they were grounded; but as books preceding from godly men, [which] were received to be read for the advancement and furtherance of the knowledge of the history, and for the instruction of godly manners: which books declare that at all times God had an especial care of His Church, and left them not utterly destitute of teachers and means to confirm them in the hope of the promised Messiah; and also witness that those calamities that God sent to His Church were according to His providence, who had both so threatened by His Prophets, and so brought it to pass for the destruction of their enemies, and for the trial of his children. [15]
Likewise, the translators of the KJV did not give the Apocrypha the respect they had given the Holy Scriptures. Their relative disregard for these books is not expressed in an explicit disclaimer, as in the Geneva Bible, but can be seen in the way they are presented in the first edition of 1611. In addition to placing the Apocrypha between the Testaments (rather than interspersing them with the canon as was Roman Catholic practice), the translators did not mention the Apocrypha at all on the title page, which simply reads, “The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New.” The listing on the table of contents page refers to them only as “The Bookes called Apocrypha” and segregates them, as in the text, from the Old and New Testaments. Additionally, both the Old and New Testaments have elaborate engravings placed before each Testament; the Apocrypha does not. The running heads that adorn the tops of the pages in the canon with summaries of the contents (e.g., in Genesis, “The creation of man”; “The first Sabbath”; “Mariage instituted”) are replaced in the Apocrypha by generic running heads that read only “Apocrypha” throughout and do not summarize. Further, the translators of the KJV did not malign the canonical books of the Bible the way they did the Apocrypha. At 1 Esdras 5:5 the margin states,
“This place is corrupt,” an allusion found nowhere in either of the Testaments. The additional chapters to the Book of Esther are entitled “The rest of the Chapters of the Booke of Esther, which are found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Calde.”
Revisions And Printing Errors Another popular argument used to oppose the KJV is to ask which edition of the KJV is being used, implying that the KJV has been substantially changed. If extreme changes in the text have occurred, there would be justification for additional revisions. The truth, however, is that the text has not really been changed. The revisions of the KJV dealt with the correction of early printing errors or the modernization of the text as it regards spelling and punctuation. The verses have remained the same.
There have been four major revisions of the KJV. They took place in 1629, 1638, 1762, and 1769.
The 1762 revision was the work of Dr. Paris of the University at Cambridge. The work of this revision laid the foundation for most modern editions of the text. He greatly enhanced the use of italics (which in the KJV denote supplied words not in the original languages) and modernized most of the spelling. His edition also added several marginal references. The 1769 edition came from Oxford, and was the work of Dr. Blayney. In this edition, several additional revisions were made in correcting earlier printing errors, spelling, and expanding marginal and introductory notes. This edition has become the standard by which modern texts are printed.
An example of differences in spelling may be seen in this comparison of Ga 1:1-5 from a 1612 edition of the KJV and a current one. Note, however, that the text remains the same.
1612 Edition:
1. Paul an Apostle not of men, neither by man, but by Iesus Christ, and God the
Father, who reised him from the dead, 2. And all the brethren which are with me, vnto the Churches of Galatia: 3. Grace be to you and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Iesus Christ; 4. Who gaue himself for our sins, that he might deliuer vs from this present euil world, according to the will of God, & our Father. 5. To whom be glory for euer and euer, Amen.
Current Editions:
1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead
2.
And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: 3. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Other revisions sought to correct printing errors.
Sometimes the printer omitted a word or words were printed twice. These were corrected in order to produce the text as the translators gave it.[16]
The 1632 edition, for example, left out the word “not” in the Commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” thus earning it the nickname
The Wicked Bible. Even today with computerized checking of the text, printing errors can occur.
This does not invalidate the preserved word of God or prove the KJV is corrupt. After all, one finds these same errors of transmission within the host of existing Greek manuscripts. Yet, it does not nullify the doctrine of preservation for the original reading still can be found despite copyists’ mistakes. It does mean that sometimes printers have made mistakes and the four major revisions of the KJV have sought to correct such errors.
"Printers have persecuted me without cause." (Ps 119:161). Or so it reads in a 1702 edition of the KJV. One of the great misconceptions about the Authorized Version concerns the diverse errors printers have made throughout its history. Some have concluded that to correct its printing mistakes is to change the text. This, however, is not the case. Others have thought so highly of the King's Bible as to think that the printers were free from error. This, also, is not so. Printers have made quite a few errors in editions of the Authorized Version.
The first edition of the KJV is often called the "He Bible" because of the printing error that occurred at Ru 3:15. Here, the first edition read “he went into the city” instead of “she went into the city.”
The corrected edition is sometimes referred to as the "She Bible." The number of printing errors in the first few decades of editions caused William Kilburne to write a treatise in 1659 entitled, Dangerous Errors in Several Late Printed Bibles to the Great Scandal and Corruption of Sound and True Religion.
Other misprints in the 1611 edition included Exodus 38:11 where "hoopes" was used for "hooks" and Le 13:56, "the plaine be" for "the plague be." In Ezr 3:5 the printer repeated the word "offered" twice. The running head over the fourth chapter of Micah reads “Joel” instead of its proper name of Micah. "He" is used instead of "ye" in . In Eze 24:7, the text was to read, "She poured it not upon the ground"; however, the Royal Printer left out the word “not.” In 1 Esdras 4 the running head reads “Anocrynha” instead of “Apocrypha,” and several of these headings misnumber chapters immediately afterwards in 2 Esdras.
Between the printing conditions and the style of print, it can be easily understood why such errors occurred. Below are listed five passages where printing errors occurred in the 1611 edition. Even when we make adjustment for the differences in orthography and calligraphy it takes careful reading to locate these printing mistakes
Ge 10:15-18
And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, And the Jebusite, and the Emorite, and the Girgasite, And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
Ex 14:10
And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Le 17:14
For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
Jer 22:3
Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiler out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.Mt 16:25,
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his his life for my sake shall find it. [17]
Other editions contained similar errata. In 1653 one edition read, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God" in 1Co 6:9. An 1801 edition misreads Jude 1:16 as,
"There are murderers, complainers, walking after their own lusts." The word "murmurers" should have been used. "Discharge" is used instead of "charge" in an 1806 KJV printing at 1Ti 5:21, and "wife" was changed to "life" at Lu 14:26 in an 1810 edition.
Even though errors occur occasionally in print, they are detected and corrected in later editions.
For example, notice how this 1638 edition changes the text of Ac 6:3, yet it is now corrected to read as the 1611 edition read.
1611 edition:
Wherefore brethren, looke ye out among you seuen men of honest report, full of the holy Ghost, and wisedome, whom we may appoint ouer this businesse.
1638 edition:
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the
Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom ye may appoint over this business.
Current edition:
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
An example of a printing error found in some current editions is located in Jer 34:16. Here there is a difference in two editions, the one from
Cambridge and the one from Oxford.
Cambridge edition:
But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Oxford edition:
But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Is the correct reading “whom ye” or “whom he”? After all, both appear in various editions of the King James Version, depending on if they follow the Cambridge edition or the Oxford edition. This problem has nothing to do with preservation or the effectiveness of the KJV as a translation. It has to do with the correction of a printing error still in existence. The original edition of 1611 reads “whome yee had set at libertie at their pleasure.” According to John R. Dore, “The University of Oxford did not begin to print Bibles until the year 1675, when the first was issued in quarto size; the spelling was revised by Dr. John Fell, Dean of Oxford.”[18] Cambridge, agreeing with the edition of 1611, first began printing KJV Bibles in 1629 by Thomas and John Buck. Although one cannot prove that this error is the fault of Dr. John Fell in his 1675 Oxford edition, we can state that considerable time had passed before the error was introduced, and that the error was limited to the editions published by Oxford or those based on the Oxford edition. This has nothing to do with the issue of Biblical preservation, for the correct reading is found in the original edition, the Cambridge edition, and current editions based on either the original 1611 or Cambridge editions.
It must be asserted that the text of the KJV has come to us unaltered. What has changed is the correction of printing errors, changes in punctuation and italics, and changes in orthography and calligraphy.
This was verified by the American Bible Society in a report published in 1852 (after the fourth major revision of the KJV took place) entitled Committee on Versions to the Board of Managers. An additional report was issued in 1858 by the American Bible Society titled, Report of the Committee on Versions to the Board of Managers of the American Bible Society. Apart from the changes just listed, the reports stated that “The English Bible as left by the translators has come down to us unaltered in respect to its text.”[19] John R. Dore, also attests to this. In a study published by the Royal Printers in 1888, Dore stated, “That pearl of great price, the English Bible of 1611, remained so long without alteration, that many of us had forgotten that it was only one of a series of versions.”[20]The Influence And Durability Of The Authorized Version
King James may not have been a great king; he may not have even been a good king. He did something, though, that no other monarch has ever done. He gave us the word of God in such a fashion that it has lasted for four hundred years.
NE had written a thing yet!