1... Stuff that's more important than the KJV
2... What does the Bible say about the Bible?
3... Is it appropriate to update the Bible?
Isn't it inspired and inerrant already?
4... Are there mistakes in the Bible?
5... What's the difference between the KJV and NKJV?
7... Is Mark Lehigh a reliable source of information?
8... Is science opposed to faith?
A... Do you have to understand Greek or Hebrew to understand the Bible?
B... Did the KJV utilize textual criticism?
C... Are bible translations getting more liberal over time?
D... Is modern textual criticism liberal?
E... What was the KJV translated from?
What are modern translations translated from?
F... Do textual critics follow "pet" manuscripts instead of following the majority of manuscripts?
9... Flesch-Kincaid scores the KJV at a fifth-grade reading level.
COVID
Sharing Jesus with unsaved people
The Bible is about Jesus.
Reading the Bible
Studying the Bible
Understanding the Bible
2... What does the Bible say about the Bible?
Inspiration:
2 Timothy 3:16-17
2 Peter 1:20-21
1 Thessalonians 2:13
The Old Testament and Paul's epistles are Scripture:
Luke 24:27
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
1 Timothy 5:18
2 Peter 3:16
John 10:35
Preservation:
Psalm 119:152, 160
Matthew 5:17-18
Matthew 24:35
1 Peter 1:24-25
Translation:
Revelation 22:18-19
Matthew 28:19-20
Matthew 24:14
Acts 2:39
Romans 10:18
Purpose of:
John 20:30-31
Romans 15:4
1 Corinthians 10:11
Hebrews 4:12
Psalm 19:7-11
Proverbs 30:5-6
Isaiah 55:10-11
Hebrews 1:1-3
John 1:1-14
How to use:
2 Kings 22:8-10... 2 Chronicles 34:14-18
Nehemiah 8:2-8
1 Timothy 4:13
1 Corinthians 2:13
Acts 1:8
Romans 2:13-16
2 Timothy 2:15
John 5:39-40
Acts 8:30
1 Corinthians 14:9
Romans 14:1-8
Romans 14:10-23
Luke 12:48
4... Are there mistakes in the Bible?
5... What's the difference between the KJV and NKJV?
Differences:
NKJV is slightly less literal.
The translators have sought to follow the principles of translation used in the original King James Version, which the NKJV revisers call "complete equivalence" in contrast to "dynamic equivalence" used by many contemporary translations. The task of updating the English of the KJV involved significant changes in word order, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling.
...from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_King_James_Version
Similarities:
Textual basis:
According to its preface, the NKJV uses the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica for the Old Testament, with frequent comparisons made to the Ben Hayyim edition of the Mikraot Gedolot published by Bomberg in 1524--25, which was used for the King James Version. Both the Old Testament text of the NKJV and that of the KJV come from the ben Chayyim text. However, the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica used by the NKJV uses an earlier manuscript (the Leningrad Manuscript B19a) than that of the KJV.
The New King James Version also uses the Textus Receptus ("Received Text") for the New Testament, just as the original King James Version had used. As explained in the preface, notes in the center column acknowledge variations from Novum Testamentum Graece (designated NU after Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies) and the Majority Text (designated M).
...from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_King_James_Version
My website isn't rated anywhere, but you can evaluate my logical claims and check my sources.
Here is how I evaluate contradictory claims and information sources. (Emphasis on COVID)
The first step of Bible transmission--inspiration--was miraculous and is scientifically impossible.
All subsequent steps of Bible transmission are not inspired or inerrant, but God has providentially preserved the Bible.
This preservation probably isn't miraculous or supernatural like the original inspiration.
Textual criticism helps to preserve the Bible.
Textual criticism is the science of comparing the copies, specifically their differences, in order to figure out what the originals said.
Or it is the process of identifying errors in the copies and correcting them in the standardized text.
No, but it's one of the best ways to understand Scripture.
How to understand a Bible passage:
What did the Greek or Hebrew say?
What does the English say?
What did it mean?
What does it mean today?
Read the Bible regularly.
Pray for understanding before reading.
Do what the Bible says.
Follow the Holy Spirit's leading.
Learn biblical Greek and Hebrew and read the passage in the original languages.
Read the passage in multiple translations:
Prioritize word-for-word translations.
Word-for-word translations can contain interpretive paraphrase.
Thought-for-thought translations may amplify one possible meaning of a passage and exclude other possible meanings.
Use paraphrases as commentaries.
Read any footnotes that are in the passage.
Follow cross references that are footnoted in the passage.
How does the passage fit into its immediate context, the book of the Bible or the whole Bible?
What other passages relate to the passage?
Ask questions about the passage.
How does the passage apply to your life?
Does this passage say anything about Jesus?
Did he say anything about the subject at hand?
What was the author's intent in writing this passage?
How was the passage understood by its original readers in their culture?
Discuss the passage with others.
If it is a narrative passage, imagine you were there.
Imagine God talking to you personally in this passage. (He is.)
Look up words in Strong's.
Read commentaries or google the passage.
C... Are bible translations getting more liberal over time?
D... Is modern textual criticism liberal?
Higher vs lower criticism
Textual criticism is belief-agnostic.
Also, I may have just used a big word wrong.
Most textual critics are conservatives.
Next, we must emphasize that 99 percent of the four hundred thousand variations are irrelevant to the proper translation and understanding of the Greek text. Even the most liberal textual critic agrees here.
...from The King James Only Controversy, 2nd Edition, 2009, p 64
If indeed the Comma was a part of the apostle John’s original writing, we are forced to conclude that entire passages, rich in theological meaning, can disappear from the Greek manuscript tradition without leaving a single trace. In reality, the KJV Only advocate is arguing for a radical viewpoint on the New Testament text, one that utterly denies the tenacity we discussed in chapter 3. Even "liberal" scholars admit the outstanding purity of the New Testament text and the validity of the belief in that text’s tenacity. Here we find otherwise very conservative people, the KJV’s defenders, joining arms with the most destructive critics in presenting a theory regarding the NT text that, in reality, destroys the very basis upon which we can have confidence that we still have the original words of Paul or John. Surely this is not their intention, but in their rush to defend what is obviously a later addition that entered into the KJV by unusual circumstances, they have had to adopt a position that does this very thing.
...from The King James Only Controversy, 2nd Edition, 2009, p 104
What are modern translations translated from?
The Masoretic Text is a standardized text of the Old Testament.
The Textus Receptus and Nestle-Aland are standardized texts of the New Testament.
The Textus Receptus was translated from 25 manuscripts.
The Nestle-Aland is compiled from lots of manuscripts.
9... Flesch-Kincaid scores the KJV at a fifth-grade reading level.
(biblegateway.com says the KJV is a 12th grade reading level.)
An increasingly popular claim among some King James Only circles is that computer models have proven the KJV to actually be more readable than modern translations.
...These computer models don't actually "read" the text. They can't gauge how comprehensibly the words are assembled into meaningful sentences. Instead, the models assume that the document is written in comprehensible modern English. Taking this for granted, they count the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word and, using a carefully designed equation, plug that information in to assign the document a score.
..."the Swedish translation of the book of James has a Flesch-Kincaid score of 6.3, while the KJV score for that same book is 7.3. But even I, dumb as I am compared to a computer, can tell you that the KJV is easier for twenty-first-century Americans to read than the Svenska Folkbibeln."
...We can simply pick up a few Bibles and read them ourselves and it will become quickly apparent which ones are easiest to read. The fact of the matter is, many people today are choosing to shift from the KJV to a newer translation precisely because they couldn't make sense of the KJV and found the modern translations more readable. Telling them that they do, in fact, understand the KJV better because the experts or computer models say so is not very convincing.
...from https://carm.org/king-james-onlyism/computer-models-and-the-readability-of-the-../kjv/