Joshua Porter

One day I was appalled to find that one of my students had been using curse words in school. When I took him aside to deal with the issue, his response was, “There is nothing wrong with those words; everyone uses them.” While it is tempting to pass that response off as a typical teenage excuse, wisdom calls for a deeper examination. There are really two parts to this excuse. We will take a look at the last part first.
“Everyone uses them”

Editor’s Note: This is the concluding article in a series of three. In the first one we looked at the King James Bible, and in the second we examined the textual theory behind modern Bible translations. Now we will consider two other problems with modern translations, and then address the question, “What shall we do with the version controversy?”

Modern Versions - The Textual Theory
In our last section we mentioned the huge success and strengths of the King James Version of the Bible. We also pointed out the linguistic weakness it carries because of its age. We will now turn our attention to the modern versions of the Bible by addressing three fundamental aspects that set all modern versions apart from the King James era translations: textual theory, translation methods, and post-publication revisions.1 The first aspect we wish to address is the aspect of textual theory.

Editor’s Note: In this article, the first in a series of three, we focus on the King James Version of the Bible. In the next article we will examine modern Bible versions.

The King James Version of the Bible
In 2011 the King James Version of the Bible celebrated its 400th birthday! It is the all-time best seller in the English language and after four centuries is still loved and embraced by thousands of people. No other book in English history can lay claim to such longevity and popularity. It is completely unprecedented!