"To KJV or Not to KJV"...Why the War?

There are many wars being waged within the walls of churches today. There is the "worship war" pitting guitars against organs, hymns against spiritual songs, and hymnals against power points. Then there is what I call the "war of texts." What? You have never heard of this war? Perhaps but it is happening nonetheless. It is the struggle over which translation of the Bible to follow. It is the attempt to identify one version as being more spiritually correct than another.

Recently I was handed an article that featured the following banner: "The Message" Exposed! The writer of the article who, by the way, remained anonymous, compared the King James Version (KJV) to the Message. As I read the article I was troubled in my spirit. No, really I was angered in my spirit. Now I have nothing against the KJV. When I was growing up it was the only Bible translation readily available that had not been judged as being liberalized. (For those of you who can remember those days, the Revised Standard Version had been condemned by many evangelicals as being too liberal). So, I read the KJV. I memorized hundreds of verses from the KJV. In fact, to this day, I find memorizing from other translations incredibly difficult - guess my mind was weaned on KJV. There was a beauty within the KJV that is often lacking with today's versions.

But, is the KJV the only truly biblical translation in the 21st century? Absolutely not! Perhaps the most popular version is the New International Version (NIV). During my days at the Graduate School of Theology at Wheaton, my class on advanced Hebrew exegesis had the privilege of working alongside the translators of the Book of Isaiah for the NIV. This was one of the most eye-opening experiences. I actually got to participate in the dialogue about how words and phrases were going to be translated from Hebrew into everyday language of the 20th century. And I can honestly relate to you that it was not easy. I came to appreciate the "blood, sweat, toil, and tears" (to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill) that went into a Bible translation.

Do we need further translations? Absolutely! Let's see. The KJV was translated in 1611, nearly 400 years ago. But since that time biblical archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of ancient biblical texts. The Dead Sea Scroll discovery in 1947 re-energized biblical translations. And I believe that more translations will appear in the coming decades as more ancient texts are discovered. Is this a good thing? Absolutely! With each discovery comes the realization that God has been superintending the translation of His Word. Have we found errors? Some, but none that changed the doctrines espoused by the Word of God. The reliability of the Word of God is untarnished...undiminished.

Now, what about that article made me so angry. Friends, "The Message" is not a translation. It is a personal paraphrase. You say, "What's the difference?" A translation works from the latest Greek and Hebrew materials available. A paraphrase is an author's restatement of a translation already in existence. Perhaps the most popular paraphrase was the Living Bible. Written by Kenneth Taylor to help his children better understand the Bible, it was a restatement of the KJV. Eugene Peterson began paraphrasing the Bible in order to help his congregation better understand the Book of Romans. While a translation helps us to understand the ancient texts, a paraphrase shares how one person has come to understand what the Scriptures say. Therefore, when I read "The Message" I am not reading the words of God, merely the words of Eugene Peterson as he came to understand those words of God. To compare the KJV with The Message is like comparing apples to radishes. Can't be done!

I value paraphrases as a tool to help to explain one interpretation as to what God is saying in the text. Would I ever build a teaching around a paraphrase's explanation? Absolutely not! The foundation for truth is the Word of God itself...a reliant, consistent, accurate translation from the Hebrew and Greek.

So, if you use the KJV, blessings upon you. But don't go around trumpeting that the KJV is the only accurate, inspired version of the Word! Because it isn't!