Introduction"Forever O Lord, Thy Word is Settled in Heaven....Psalm 119:89
The translation of the Holy Scriptures into English had already been accomplished long before King James was confronted with the project. Most of the translations had been fraught with difficulties. Wycliffe, in the 1300s had translated the Latin version into English, but it was not a direct translation off the original texts. Martin Luther in Germany had attempted the translation of the Bible into the German vernacular, but it was not English. Tyndale and his colleagues Coverdale and Bezier (sp) had made the first viable attempts, but Tyndale, like those who had tried before, suffered martyrdom for his efforts. Just a few years after his death at the hands of the State and Church, the Church of England with King James published the King James Bible: The Authorized Version, 1611. Today as for the past 100 years, the "King James Controversy" has found its platform over and over in the Evangelical and Fundamental Churches of America and abroad. Most who have not studied the issue, dismiss it as of small consequence believing that all Bibles have their pros and cons and that the translation does not really make a difference. Closer inspection, though, into the history and criticism of texts, reveals that the question is not so much a matter of translations, as it is of which Bible is the true Holy Scriptures that has been passed down to us from the infant church in Antioch, and which are either forgeries, adaptations, distortions or deliberate mutilations of the original texts, set more on man's agendas and less on accuracy. This controversy has been known to divide churches, denominations and even regions, and is perhaps the premiere controversy confronting unity in the believing church. For this reason, it is critical that Christians play the Berean, and research not what a pastor, friend or denomination says, but the evidence itself. We will examine the following issues. Included at the end is a short bibliography for further study.
I.A SHORT HISTORY OF THE SCRIPTURESThe History of the Scriptures is not an area as clear as many might think: this is not because there is not an exact history, but because there has been much confusion over the centuries poured into the report of 'how our Bible came to us'. Many liberal scholars start their introductory classes by saying that there was an oral tradition, passed from generation to generation until finally someone wrote the earliest pages of the Old Testament. While this is partly true (the rehearsed genealogies of the Old and New Testaments speak to this), it is also true, that from the earliest times God spoke through His anointed, and that over history, they or another wrote down what they said. Contrary to popular thinking, the book of Genesis, while appearing first in the Bible and telling the history of mankind's origin, was not the first and was probably written by Moses as part of the Pentateuch. Job is thought to be the very oldest book of the Bible, and even from this early book, the Redeemer who will "stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Job 19:25). The Bible, meaning 'books' is a collection of 'books' or writings, each inspired of God, each perfect and without flaw, and each the 'Word of God' as it is sometimes interchangeably called. While secular theologians may doubt the origin of the scripture or the infallibility, inspiration, or preservation of the Word, the scriptures themselves lay claim to being the Word of God, over and over: for example, almost every prophet, major and minor, is replete with the words, "and the Word of the Lord came to...[prophet]". To confront or dismiss the Bible as having been written by man, as many do, is to disclaim its own testimonies about itself. How Did the Bible Come to Be?The stories of the Old and New Testament are intertwined, yet still separate. The books of the Torah (the 1st five), the Tenach (which includes the Torah(commandment, the psalms, prophets and history books) were extremely carefully passed down by scribes through generations. .
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King James had been met several times with the request to officially sanction
a translation of the Bible into English. He was no friend of the Christians, and
he had opposed such efforts before. It wasn't that he was a Latin purist believing
no one but priests should interpret the Bible, but he was a Greek scholar, and he
did not feel that anyone could do an adequate job of translating the Greek of
the New Testament into English.