I wasn't the only one whose thoughts equated the Psalms superscriptions and Pauline epistle subscriptions. This is what Edward F. Hills answered in his
The Text of the King James Version: Questions and Problems when the question was about the inspired nature of the headings to the individual Psalms (my underlines) --
Many of the Psalms have headings. For example, "To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David" (Psalm 65). The King James translators separated these headings and printed them in small type, each one above the Psalm to which it belonged. Some conservative scholars, such as J.A. Alexander (1850) [The Psalms, New York: Scribner, 180, Vol. 1, p. viii], have criticized the King James translators for doing this. These headings, they have insisted, should be regarded as the first verses of their respective Psalms. They give three reasons for this opinion: first, in the Hebrew Bible no distinction is made between the Psalms and their headings; second, the New Testament writers recognized these headings as true; third, each heading is part of the Psalm which it introduces and hence is inspired. This position, however, may go beyond the clear teaching of Scripture. In any case, it is better to follow the leading of the King James translators and recognize the obvious difference between the heading of a Psalm and the Psalm itself.
The King James translators handled the subscriptions of the Pauline Epistles similarly, printing each one after its own epistle in small type. But this has never been a problem, since these subscriptions have never been regarded as inspired.
First, Hills' statement that the KJV translators "separated these headings and printed them in small type" is NOT true. Look at any genuine 1611 Authorized Version and you will see that there is NO separation between the superscription and the initial words of the Psalm itself, AND the text is NOT smaller. The translators DID add their own summaries before each Psalm (and before each chapter in other books) in a smaller Roman typeface with a intervening space; but those are clearly not what Hills is talking about here. The line he uses as an example
"To the chiefe Musician, A Pfalme and fong of David" is set immediately before the first verse of the Psalm 65 proper, without interruption, in the same Gothic-blackletter typeface and the same size as the words of scripture;
except for the word "
and" which was set in Roman typeface to indicate that it does not have a corresponding Hebrew word and was supplied by the translator. Second, Hills' is noncommittal (with his "may") toward the position that the "headings" are actually inspired text. Thus, Hills' conclusion that the best practice is to "recognize the obvious difference" between these headings and the inspired Psalm by pattern of the 1611 typography is
FALSE!
KJVs published today almost uniformly DO NOT follow the actual 1611 format; witness Post #12 of this thread where Logos1560 cites that D. A. Waite's
The Defined King James Bible which actually places the superscription as the first words of verse one. Lord willing, I will reveal some more interesting info on these Psalm headings soon.
Which brings us to his mistaken claim that the Pauline epistle subscriptions were also "in small type". The subscriptions are typographically the same as the other scripture text (as previously described in this thread) and the Psalm superscriptions as I just described above. Hills' supplies no basis for his assertion that the inspiration of these subscriptions have "
never been a problem". If these subscriptions "have never been regarded as inspired" why did they get translated, placed in proximity, and given the same typographic character as scripture text? If they are not original scripture (and I agree that they are not) then why are they still included in the text of some KJVs?