Gospel Living

Read  John 1:1-5 . Now read those same verses from The Voice "Bible translation." Can you hear the hiss of the serpent? This episode of Equipping Eve takes The Voice to task and examines what this passage actually says. Plus, happiness according to Pope Francis. Click here to listen to this latest episode of Equipping Eve. Click here for a list of resources for this episode of Equipping Eve. (HT: Don't Be Surprised ) Erin Benziger Erin Benziger is the host of Equipping Eve (A  No Compromise Radio Production ).  Equipping Eve episodes are posted every other Saturday.

Truth Remains is a ministry which travels to churches and conferences with original copies of English translations, allowing Christians access to the pages soaked in martyrs' blood.  They've now also placed a free, four-part documentary on their website reciting the history of the English Bibles.  Out of Darkness; The Story of the English Bible  is a four-part mini documentary, produced by Truth Remains, that tells the story of God's careful preservation of Scripture through the centuries. The men who gave their lives to translate the Bible into English are not household names, yet the bloody price they paid fueled the Reformation and shaped the modern world, enabling countless Christians to enjoy the privilege of owning and studying God's Word in English. Listen to David Parsons, John Glass, Dennis Swanson, and Nathan Busenitz tell one of the greatest stories in church history. You can watch the documentary on its website , where you can also learn of ...

You want a good starter Bible for your young reader, but the shelves at the Christian bookstore boast a plethora of choices.  How can you sort out the Christ-exalting from the campy?   The Redeemed Reader helps us out: Choosing Your Child’s First REAL Bible: Some Considerations Sorting Out the Children’s Bible Market

A "King James Version Only" (KJVO) advocate recently wrote the following to me, God promises to preserve His word for every generation and has not done so with Greek or Hebrew. That is clear since the Originals are gone. English was the 7th language that the Bible was translated into. The KJB was the 7th English Bible, if you minus the Catholic translations that come from the corrupt manuscripts. God's word was purified seven times. The fact is, God's word is here today and He said it would be PURE. If it is not the KJB, can you show me a Bible that is pure and without error? Thus, we have one of the most interesting contentions of the KJVO position: the Bible promises God's preservation of the biblical text in the KJV only (not in the Greek or Hebrew manuscripts).  Among the key proof texts for this premise would be Psalm 12:6-7.  In the 1769 revision of the KJV, the one most of us are familiar with, it reads: The words of the LORD [are] pure words: [as] sil...

As I originally posted here , when writing a paper on the history of English Bible translation, I came across a site with scans from an original King James or "Authorised" Version of the Holy Bible.  It is a Robert Barker 1611 edition, official printer of King James I: View scans . If you find the black-letter Latin font in the scans too difficult to read, I found a text version here  and here (choose from the drop-down). Keep in mind that parts of the original text of the KJV suffered immediate misprints and differences between the Cambridge and Oxford printers.  For those unacquainted with this piece of historical trivia, we have fun versions of the KJV such as: the "Judas Bible", where Judas's name was printed instead of Jesus's in Matthew 26:36 in an 1613 Barker edition the "Wicked/Sinner's Bible" that printed "Thou shalt commit adultery" in Exodus 20:14 and earned Barker a hefty fine and, of course, the hundreds of d...

...was not the KJV, though it laid the groundwork for that translation.  Do you know about the 1599 Geneva Bible?  Well, it's for sale once again, if you want to purchase a copy .  I'll let the Growing Pain explain: 

"2011 minus 1611" is a great math problem for home-school and Christian elementary teachers.  If you missed it, this past year was the 400th anniversary of the publication of the KJV.  Of course, if you did miss it, you can make the math problem really difficult: 2011-1611+1. Today in the United States, the 1769 revision is the standard edition of the 1611 Authorized Version, and was the most popular English translation until 1950.  How did the original make it to the printers, and how many revisions has it gone through since then? If you've wondered about the history of the most influential English Bible of all time, you may be interested in Dr. Dennis Swanson's article, " Introduction to the Textual History of the King James Bible ."

By now, many of you have heard of the staggering amount of textual material surrounding the NT text compared to other Greek works of antiquity (Plato, Homer, etc.).  No other work can boast of extant copies within a century of the originals, nor of the sheer volume of copies available.  This does not prove that the Bible is inspired, but it does evidence the simple fact that it is trustworthy -- no one can claim that we don't know what the original said. Here is a graphical representation of the data: click to enlarge ( HT )

There's a short but well-done video advocating King James Onlyism by Dr. Sam Gipp.  If you haven't seen it, here it is: Dr. Gipp says some good stuff and is convincing in his own way.  I've seen other content by him, and there is no denying his teaching talents nor his passion for the Lord. However, regardless of how nice this presentation is packaged, it fails closer inspection.  I don't just mean that his case is unproven; I understand that it is a short video and could only say so much.  Many of the comments he makes, especially passing comments, are factually incorrect and thus, cause the entire presentation to unravel. I just finished listening to Dr. James White's review and believe it to be helpful in answering these key areas of concern.  He decided to review the video in five parts:

With a short history of the KJV: A Short History of the KJV from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo . The video has 5 quiz questions about the KJV: Was the King James Version the first translation into English? ( 1:08 ) Was the King James Version King James' idea? ( 3:00 )   Who was the King James Version against? ( 5:30 ) Was the King James Version a fresh translation? ( 7:40 ) Was the King James Version the most popular Bible of its time? ( 10:48 ) (HT: Adrian Warnock )

Generally, I'm not all too good at math, but the KJV was first published in 1611, making its age easy to figure at  300 400 years old. A number of events are celebrating the rich history of this translation of God's Word, and here are a few links of note. First, Grace Presbyterian Church held its KJV@400 conference this past week, featuring Leeland Ryken (on a related note, click the image on the right to order his book). Here are the MP3 downloads if you are interested: Dr. Ryken: What Makes the King James Version Great? Dr. Ryken: The King James Version as Cultural Influence through the Centuries Dr. Ryken: The King James Version and English Bible Translation Today Dr. Dodson: The Glory and Power of the Bible Dr. Dodson: William Tyndale: God's Translator Second, there is a 90 minute documentary on the KJV now available. " KJB: The Book That Changed the World " features John Rhys-Davies, who fellow nerds might know as the professor from "Slide...