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The King James Version interesting notes part 1
borrowed this info from a brother ......."The King Iames Bible – 7 Things Your Pastor Won't Tell You "
(No, the title does not have a typo in it – I will explain soon)
I love my 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT. It is so much fun to drive that I forgive various design flaws and age problems that it has. It is among the best cornering cars made in America – but to make it perform so well while on a very tight budget they made the suspension very stiff and uncomfortable on less than perfect roads. Driving it can be torture on our Maine roads that are so badly maintained. Many of its problems are age related due to plastic deterioration and rust but it is still cheaper to operate than any new car.
I love my old King James Bible. It is so beautifully written that I forgive various design flaws and age problems that it has. It is among the best Bibles ever translated into English – but it was made with some tight constraints from the King and they were handicapped due to lost knowledge and ignorance of ancient Hebrew culture. Reading it can be torture for anyone not "versed" in Elizabethan English. Many of its problems are age related due to changes in the English language but it is still better than some of the new versions.
Whether your pastor knows any of this or he just won’t talk about it from the pulpit, here are some things about our King "Iames" Version (KJV) that you probably have not heard before.
1) There are no letter J’s in the original 1611 KJV!
In 1611 the letter J and the J sound was not in the English language. In every instance you will find the letter I (or i) instead, and it was spoken as the consonant Y. The earliest printed work of Shakespeare that we have is "Romeo and Iuliet" (with an I) in 1597, and yes it was pronounced as "Yuliet". There are modern evidences of this I-Y-J pronunciation. We don’t say HalleluJah do we? We still say HalleluYah!
The earliest known use of the letter J in an English document was in 1634 and it was added as the 26th letter to the alphabet next to the letter I due to the similar sound, more than 50 years after that. But it was still pronounced as a Y for some time until the French soft J and German hard J started influencing it. There were major linguistic changes between 1600 and 1700.
When I told all this to a friend he replied, "Yumpin’ Yehosaphat!" We all laughed – but this was true for every name and word that now contains a J. The King’s name was said Yames, God’s English name was pronounced Yehovah, and his son’s English name was said Yesus (it is not clear when the middle S changed from sounding like an S to a Z but it appears at that time it was still an S as in Latin).
Here are two examples from the 1611 version:
Now Iacobs Well was there. Iesus therefore being wearied with his iourney, sate thus on the Well: and it was about the sixth houre. – Iohn 4:6
Iude the seruant of Iesus Christ, and brother of Iames, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserued in Iesus Christ, & called: – Iude 1:1
Not incidentally, there is also no J or J sound in the Hebrew "AlefBet" nor in the Greek "AlphaBeta".
2) The copy of the KJV on your shelf is NOT the original 1611 version.
The verses above "ensample" only a few of the tens of thousands of spelling, word, and grammar changes and corrections made in the numerous versions and printings after 1611. The single greatest revision was in 1762 and another notable one in 1863. Except for imported copies, almost all the KJVs that we have in the USA are reprints of the 1921 or 1962 versions from The American Bible Society (ABS). Almost no changes were made in 1962.
I have a page for page reproduction of the 1611 version that is identical in every respect except that they used a different type face (font) because the original Germanic Gothic type face is so difficult to read. Here is an excellent site with pictures of title pages from major printings and enlarged samples of the original printed text: http://purewordofgod.webs.com/holybi...vtitlepages101
MY brethren, if peradventure, whilst perusing thy KJV, thou befall upon a vexing word, thou canst seek thy edification forthwith in the effectual "KJV Dictionary" at: http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionar...ary-index.html (an abridged 1828 Webster’s)
3) King Iames made a set of rules for the translators that they had to follow.
The full set of 14 rules can be read here http://www.kjvonly.org/other/kj_instructs.htm but the core of it is that he had political reasons to maintain his power as the leader of the Church of England. The language of the translation had to support the power structure of "the church" regardless of what the original language actually said. Here are the first three rules:
Rule 1 stated that the already politically polished Bishop’s Bible (1572) was to be "as little altered as the original will permit." The KJV was not envisioned to be a revolutionary new version – but it still met with great resistance!
Rule 2 was that all names must "be retained, as near as may be, according as they are vulgarly [commonly] used" even if they are wrong, including the 7000 plus instances of the actual name of God.
Rule 3 said "The old ecclesiastical words to be kept; as the word church, not to be translated congregation, &c.", meaning, don’t you dare let folks know that the New Testament [Covenant] writers were saying any assembly of believers is blessed by God. Only meetings under the authority of the Church of England headed by the King were "authorized". And don’t you change "office of Bishop" to "overseer" (1 Timothy 3:1) if you know what’s good for you!
The Puritans came to America to get away from this corruption, and they carried the 1599 Geneva Bible to the New World instead, making it the actual first American Bible.
Probably the most blatant example of changing the intent of the original text to retain rule over the laity is in 1st Timothy 3:10:
And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.
That’s NOT what the Greek says! They flagrantly added five words and changed a verb meaning "serve" into a title for a church official!
Here is an exact word for word translation: And these also let-them-be-proved first then let-them-serve blameless being
Correcting their enforced errors while maintaining the style, it should have been:
And let these also first be proved; then let them serve, being found blameless. – 1 Timothy 3:10 (Tom’s)
4) Some people think the "Authorized Version" means that it was approved by God.
and have a wonderful pre-election evening!
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