Time seems to be the greatest factor working against the King James Bible. In the first sense, it was written nearly 400 years ago, and some of its language is archaic. In another sense, its translators did not have the benefit of the last 400 years of archeology, discovery, and textual criticism with which they could have compiled a more accurate Greek text to work from. This final section of White's book deals with criticism of the King James English and with the variants found in the King James as a result of the available manuscripts at that time.
The first significant point concerning the English of the KJV is the great difficulty one has attempting to trace a single word in the original languages through the King James English. Such a superabundance of synonyms and paraphrases were used that the task would probably be more easily accomplished by blindly searching the original texts! Even one name referring to a certain man might be spelled three or four different ways.
Translators may have gotten carried away when they came to Acts 12:4 which reads, "And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people" (italics preserved). It is difficult to understand what the reference to Easter might mean, since it would not be for many centuries after Luke's writing of Acts that the name Easter would come to be associated with the day of Christ's resurrection.
In some passages of the Old Testament, the text is not only hard to understand but hard to read as well. For example 2 Samuel 14:20, "To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing." A woman from Tekoa is simply trying to confess to King David that Joab put her up to talking with him about his banished son Absolam.
The goal of this final section is to point out additions or variations in the KJV not already addressed in the book or these summaries.
· The long ending to the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6--included in the KJV--is absent from the oldest sources and is found only in pieces in several texts; some even add a Trinitarian formula.
· In three seemingly parallel passages, Jesus talked with a man about gaining eternal life. In Mark 10 and Luke 18, the man calls Jesus "good," but in Matthew 19 he asks about what good thing he must do. The KJV records that Jesus replied in all three instances, "Why do you call me good?" instead of "Why do you ask me about what is good?" in Matthew.
· The longest ending to the Gospel of Mark contains several inconsistencies with the accounts of the other Gospels and Acts. First in verse 12, Jesus is said to have appeared in a "different form" to two disciples, implying that he could change form at will. Second in verse 14, Jesus reproached the eleven for their unbelief, in contrast to His gracious response to Thomas's doubt. Next in verse 16, Jesus links faith and baptism more intricately than at any other time. Finally, verses 17 and 18 seem like promises to every believer, but they actually resemble apocryphal literature written shortly after the first century. KJV Only advocates claim these verses are Gospel.
· The story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery can be read at John 7:53-8:11, but among the manuscripts, it can be found after John 7:36, 7:44, or 21:25 or Luke 21:38!
· In Galatians 5:21, the King James follows "envyings" with "murders." This may be the result of harmonization from Romans 1:29 or of similar endings: FQONOIFONOI.
