King James Only movement

The First Page of the Book of Genesis in the 1611 printing of the KJV

The King James Only movement is advocacy by a loosely associated group of Christians, that the King James Version of the Bible is superior to other English translations, and that other versions especially those based on Westcott and Hort revision of the text of the Greek Testament are not to be trusted or based on corrupted manuscripts. Adherents of the movement believe that the KJV is the last and best of a series of translations based on what they consider the most reliable of Greek New Testament manuscripts, the Textus Receptus or Majority Text. They believe that other translations of the Bible are inferior to the King James, and are not as true to the original text, and point out the versions which use the minority text known as the Alexandrian Text. King James Only believers would say that the Alexandrian texts contain the accumulated corruptions of different scribes over many years: in a manner that the Aaronic priests and Masorites would never have tolerated when making copies of the Scriptures. They see the King James Version as the greatest English translation ever produced, needing no further enhancements and the Westcott and Hort revision of the Received Text to be a deliberate change to the text of the Greek Testament by "irresponsible scholars" because of personal animosity for the Textus Receptus. They believe that modern translators have conspired to corrupt Scripture and lead believers away from the true Christian faith and cite alleged flaws in the modern English translations including corruptions derived from the Minority Text which originated in Alexandria, Egypt identified with Origen, Westcott-Hort, and Aland, also called the Novum Testamentum Graece or critical text. They believe these Alexandrian manuscripts, such as the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Alexandrinus, were used by Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort to create the critical text to undermine the validity of the Textus Receptus which was used as the Greek source for the King James Version as well as the Bibles before that.

Opponents of the King James Only movement claim the newer translations are needed due to the natural evolution of language and cite the outdated readability of the 400-year-old English text contained in the KJV. Advocates for the KJV state that the translators of the new translations didn't take the KJV and rewrite it with newer, more up to date words and that there are more than 60,000 changes in modern renderings beyond the simple changes in vocabulary ("thee" to "you," etc.), greatly impacting core doctrines and historicity.

Doctrinal corruptions

Advocates of the King James Version Only (KJVO) believe that the modern translations of the New Testament are based on Greek manuscripts that contain intentional doctrinal corruptions from Gnostic sources in Alexandria which deny or depreciate doctrine on the deity of Christ, on the Trinity, or on salvation by grace through faith. They regard the modern Bible translations based on these manuscripts, such as the New International Version (NIV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), as affected in this manner and thus as not trustworthy and useful translations of the Word of God.

Bible scholar David Fuller in his book, Which Bible?, writes:

John William Burgon ..in 1860, while temporary chaplain of the English congregation at Rome, [...] made a personal examination of Codex B (Vaticanus), and in 1862 he inspected the treasures of St. Catherine's Convent on Mt. Sinai. Later he made several tours of European libraries, examining and collating New Testament manuscripts wherever he went…Of all the critics of the nineteenth century Burgon alone was consistently Christian in his vindication of the Divine inspiration and providential preservation of the text of Holy Scripture…

Burgon regarded the good state of preservation of B (Codex Vaticanus) and ALEPH (Codex Sinaiticus) in spite of their exceptional age as proof not of their goodness but of their badness. If they had been good manuscripts, they would have been read to pieces long ago. We suspect that these two manuscripts are indebted for their preservation, solely to their ascertained evil character; which has occasioned that the one eventually found its way, four centuries ago, to a forgotten shelf in the Vatican Library; while the other, after exercising the ingenuity of several generations of critical Correctors, eventually (viz. in A.D.1844) got deposited in the wastepaper basket of the Convent at the foot of Mount Sinai.

Had B (Vaticanus) and ALEPH (Sinaiticus) been copies of average purity, they must long since have shared the inevitable fate of books which are freely used and highly prized; namely, they would have fallen into decadence and disappeared from sight. Thus the fact that B and ALEPH are so old is a point against them, not something in their favour. It shows that the Church rejected them and did not read them. Otherwise they would have worn out and disappeared through much reading.

Dr. W. Eugene Scott, writing on the topic of Codex B (Vaticanus), says, "the manuscript is faded in places; scholars think it was overwritten letter by letter in the 10th or 11th century, with accents and breathing [marks] added along with corrections from the 8th, 10th and 15th centuries. All this activity makes precise paleographic analysis impossible. Missing portions were supplied in the 15th century by copying other Greek manuscripts."

Baptist writer William P. Grady, in a chapter titled the “Synagogue of Satan,” writes,

The average Christian is unaware that the manuscripts from which the modern 'Bibles' have been translated are Egyptian in origin; more specifically, Alexandrian. This lack of understanding is exacerbated by little or no knowledge of Egypt's heretical climate at that time. When these factors are appreciated, the weakness and hypocrisy behind the modern revision movement becomes more readily apparent.

King James Only advocates such as Peter Ruckman, Samuel Gipp, D. A. Waite and others - claim that modern Bible translations such as the NIV, NASB, and the NRSV are based on corrupted text that Christians should avoid and that the King James Version (KJV) is based upon "God honoring manuscripts". The modern translations, they claim, are based upon only a handful of corrupt manuscripts which come from Arian or Gnostic sources, and were changed by scribes writing these manuscripts to affirm their heresies and errors. Therefore, since nearly all modern translations rely on these "corrupt" manuscripts, the translations are also allegedly corrupt and all "Bible believers" should reject such translations.

Variations

Many Christians who advocate the use of KJV feel the new translations went beyond mere readability to actually take out or add to the beliefs given by the text.

Christian apologist James White has divided the King James Only movement into five main classifications:

File:KJV 1611 Rice Baptist Church New Market Alabama 2012-06-13.jpg

Church sign indicating that the congregation uses the Authorized King James Version of 1611.

• "I Like the KJV Best" – Although White lists this point of view as a subdivision of the KJVO group, this is disputed by some. This group simply regards the KJV as a very good translation and prefers it over other translations because the church they attend uses it, has always used it or prefers its style.
• "The Textual Argument" – This group believes that the KJV's Hebrew and Greek textual base is more accurate than the alternate texts used by newer translations. Many in this group might accept a modern Bible version based on the same Greek and Hebrew manuscripts used for the KJV. White claims Zane C. Hodges is a member of this group. Hodges considers that the Majority Text "corrects" the Received Text. The World English Bible is an example of an English translation that uses the Majority Greek text.
• "Received Text Only" – This group holds the position that the traditional Greek texts represented in the Textus Receptus are supernaturally (or providentially) preserved and that other Greek manuscripts not used in this compilation may be flawed. The KJV is viewed as an exemplary English translation that is based on this Greek grouping of Bible manuscripts put together by Desiderius Erasmus, but it is also believed that other translations based on these texts have the potential to be of equal quality. The views of the Trinitarian Bible Society fit into this TRO division. The Trinitarian Bible Society does not believe that the Authorized Version (KJV) is a perfect translation, only that it is the best available translation in the English language. The Society believes this text is superior to the texts used by the United Bible Societies and other Bible publishers, which use texts that incorporate as their basis a relatively few manuscripts from the 4th century, and some going back to the early 2nd century.
• "The Inspired KJV Group" – This faction believes that the KJV itself was divinely inspired. They view the translation to be an English preservation of the very words of God and that they are as accurate as the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts found in its underlying texts. Often this group excludes other English versions based on the same manuscripts, claiming that the KJV is the only English Bible sanctioned by God. They believe that this English translation should never be changed.
• "The KJV As New Revelation" – This group claims that the KJV is a "new revelation" or "advanced revelation" from God, and it should be the standard from which all other translations originate. Adherents to this belief may also believe that the original languages, Hebrew and Greek, can be corrected by the KJV. This view is often called "Ruckmanism" after Peter Ruckman, a staunch advocate of this view.

Note: These last two views have also been referred to as "double inspiration".

These classifications are not mutually exclusive nor are they a comprehensive summary describing those who prefer the KJV. Douglas Wilson, for instance, argues that the KJV (or, in his preferred terminology, the Authorized Version) is superior because of its manuscript tradition, its translational philosophy (with updates to the language being regularly necessary), and its ecclesiastical authority, having been created by the church and authorized for use in the church. The KJV's wide availability, popularity and public domain status also come into play in addition to any theological preference.

History

The history of the King James Version Only (hereafter KJVO) movement can best be described by a genealogical outline of writers whose books have not only given birth to the movement but also influenced its doctrines. Dr. James D. Price's book, published in 2006, gives the same information in a summary.

Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1872–1968), a staunch Seventh-day Adventist missionary, theology professor and college president, wrote Our Authorized Bible Vindicated (1930) in which he asserted that some of the new versions of the Bible coming out, came from manuscripts with corruptions introduced into the Septuagint by Origen, and manuscripts with deletions and changes from corrupted Alexandrian text. He criticized Westcott and Hort, believing they intentionlly rejected the use of the Textus Receptus and they made changes to the text used in translation using their revised Greek text based mainly on the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. He attacked the Westcott-Hort Greek text and expressed strong opposition to the English Revised Version New Testament (ERV, 1881). He was the first to apply Psalm 12:6–7 to the King James Bible, claiming that the reference is a prooftext for divine preservation of the Scriptures.

Jasper James Ray (1894–1985), a business manager, missionary and Bible teacher, wrote a similar booklet entitled God Wrote Only One Bible (1955).

Regular Baptist pastor David Otis Fuller (1903–1988) edited a book entitled Which Bible? published in 1970. It is an anthology by authors such as Robert Dick Wilson (1856–1930), Zane Clark Hodges (1932–2008) and others. Almost half of the book is dedicated to the ten out of sixteen chapters from Wilkinson's Our Authorized Bible Vindicated.

Peter Sturges Ruckman (1921–2016), a Baptist preacher, wrote a series of uniformly bound commentaries on various Bible books, topical books on Bible-related subjects and books related to Bible text and translation issues. At least some of his books are characterized by harsh criticism of almost everyone involved in textual criticism, such as Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (1851–1921), Archibald Thomas Robertson (1863–1934), Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–92) with the likes of Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) and Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969). The Christian's Handbook of Manuscript Evidence (1970) is among them. Ruckman was influenced by JJ Ray's God Wrote Only One Bible, and Ruckman's The Bible Babel (1964) is nearly identical to Ray's 1955 book. Some supporters of the KJVO movement reject Ruckman's position that the King James Version Bible is superior to existing Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and criticize Ruckman because "his writings are so acerbic, offensive and mean-spirited that the entire movement has become identified with his kind of confrontational attitude."

Edward F. Hills (1912–81) works Believing Bible Study (1967) and King James Version Defended (1956, 1973) are commonly cited to give support to the KJVO's position, although Hills personally never supported such KJVO positions.

Gail Riplinger (1947–), known for her book New Age Bible Versions and a number of other works, has also addressed in some detail the issue of differences in current editions of the King James Bible. However, a lengthy critical review of her book New Age Bible Versions, originally published in Cornerstone magazine in 1994, authored by Bob and Gretchen Passantino of Answers In Action, described the book as "erroneous, sensationalistic, misrepresentative, inaccurate, and logically indefensible."

Jack Chick, a fundamentalist Christian best known for his comic tracts is an advocate for the King James Only movement. He wrote a comic called Sabotage advocating the King James Only movement, and his company offers various books from other authors who also espouse the KJV-only position.

Joey Faust, a Baptist pastor and researcher is the author of The Word: God Will Keep It: The 400 Year History of the King James Bible Only Movement. The book documents an astounding number of KJV Only proponents throughout history. Author Gail Riplinger gives the following endorsement for this book:

"Christians will be using the quotations he discovered throughout the 21st century. You will not find any other book that will better help you defend the fact that those who believe that the KJV is God’s inspired word are among the MAJORITY throughout history. I don’t know of any book I have ever read that so blessed, encouraged and brought such rejoicing to my soul."

In Singapore, the Far Eastern Bible College, led by Dr. Jeffrey Khoo, is a staunch defender of the King James Bible, but clearly distinguishes itself from Peter Ruckman and his views.

Textus Receptus vs Minority Text

Advocates for the Authorized King James Version (KJV) point to text of the Textus Receptus used for the King James Version, the “majority text”—the form of the Greek text found in the majority of extant manuscripts. They believe the new translations, the majority which use the Greek text of B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, first published in 1881, are based on text or versions which have used corrupted manuscripts and are not an improvement over the KJV in their textual basis and translation methodology. They hold that there are basically two streams of selection of source documents. That the KJV is based on the text of which 95-98% manuscript evidence which underlies the Textus Receptus or received text (aka Majority Text), and that only 2-5% of manuscript evidence supports the stream of translations of the New Testament of the Westcott-Hort and the other the post-1844 Greek texts, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus Aland, Nestle-Aland, NA27, NA28. The Codex Sinaititus (Aleph) was disfigured by corrections, a few by the original scribe then by others centuries after, by as many as "eight different later writers." The Codex Vaticanus (B) differs greatly from the Textus Receptus throughout the NT. The great Greek scholar Dean Burgon published in 1881 that in the gospels alone, Codex Vaticanus omits 2877 words, adds 536, substitutes 935, transposes 2098, and modifies 1132 making 7578 total changes. Codex Sinaiticus has 8972 changes from the Textus Receptus.

Wilkinson writes in his book Truth Triumphant:

The Protestant denominations are built upon that manuscript of the Greek New Testament sometimes called Textus Receptus, or the Received Text. It is that Greek New Testament from which the writings of the apostles in Greek have been translated into English, German, Dutch and other languages. During the dark ages the Received Text was practically unknown outside the Greek Church. It was restored to Christendom by the labours of that great scholar Erasmus. It is altogether too little known that the real editor of the Received Text was Lucian. None of Lucian's enemies fails to credit him with this work. Neither Lucian nor Erasmus, but rather the apostles, wrote the Greek New Testament. However, Lucian's day was an age of apostasy when a flood of depravations was systematically attempting to devastate both the Bible manuscripts and Bible theology. Origen, of the Alexandrian college, made his editions and commentaries of the Bible a secure retreat for all errors, and deformed them with philosophical speculations introducing casuistry and lying.

Dean John William Burgon pointed out the "two irresponsible scholars of the University of Cambridge" Brooke Foss Westcott and Professor Fenton John Anthony Hort and their "invention" of the new Revised Greek Text that surfaced in 1881 based not on the Textus Receptus text but on what he saw as unreliable manuscripts from the Minority Text. Scholars point to the basic Greek text of Westcott and Hort dated in 1881 is virtually identical with the basic Greek text of the present critical editions being used in the new translations. The simple reason is that they are derived from the same basic, corrupt Greek manuscripts, namely "B" (Vatican) and "Aleph" (Sinai) and a few others that followed them. Many have noted that the Current Greek Texts omit approximately 200 verses from the Scriptures along with many amendments, and use it despite the similarity between it and the Westcott and Hort Text.

Herman Hoskier:

the text printed by Westcott and Hort has been accepted as `the true text,' and grammars, works on the synoptic problem, works on higher criticism, and others have been grounded on this text."

J. H. Greenlee:

The textual theories of W-H [Westcott & Hort] underlies virtually all subsequent work in NT textual criticism.

D. A. Carson:

The theories of Westcott and Hort . . . [are] almost universally accepted today. . . . Subsequent textual critical work [since 1881] accepted the theories of Westcott and Hort. The vast majority of evangelical scholars hold that the basic textual theories of Westcott and Hort were right and the church stands greatly in their debt.

Wilbur N. Pickering:

The two most popular manual editions of the text today, Nestles-Aland and U.B.S. (United Bible Society) really vary little from the W-H [Westcott & Hort] text.

Translations based on Westcott and Hort's Greek Text or its variants

A vast number modern versions follow the type of text or Alexandrian text-type found in the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, which the Early Church rejected and Reformation editors held as doctrinally corrupt text which was changed or modified during the theological conflict occurring soon after the apostles, especially from Alexandria.

The Westcott and Hort revision represents the first significant departure from the Received Text or the Textus Receptus the majority text. [Note-The majority text is also known as the Byzantine text or as the Traditional text as it was the only Greek text in general use up to the changes of 1881.] A great number of the modern English versions descend directly from the Greek text of Westcott and Hort which clearly are based on the Alexandrian manuscripts, or they use the text of later variants such as Nestle-Aland Text. So as John Burgon pointed out, almost all modern English bibles translated since 1898 are based on not on the Textus Receptus text but on the unreliable manuscripts from the Minority Text.

The list of translations based on Westcott and Hort revision or Nestle-Aland Text or parts of it include the American Standard Version 1901 and latest edition of the United Bible Societies’ text and the New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses the New American Standard Bible, the English Standard Version, the Amplified Bible, the New International Version's and many other of the modern versions such as the Darby Bible (which uses the Masoretic Text, Tregelles, Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort), the Ferrar Fenton Bible (which uses the Masoretic Text and the Westcott and Hort Greek text), the Living Bible, the New Revised Standard Version,(which uses the Masoretic Text, Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament), the New Century Version, the New English Translation (which uses the Masoretic Text, Nestle-Aland/United Bible Society Greek New Testament), the Today's New International Version,(which uses the, Masoretic Text, Nestle-Aland Greek text), the Good News Bible, etc...

See also

• Bible translations
• List of Bible verses not included in modern translations
• Bible version debate
• Dean Burgon Society
• List of major textual variants in the New Testament
• Modern English Bible translations
• Textual criticism
• Verbal Plenary Preservation

Bibliography

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External links

Pro-King James Only

• The Bible For Today
• Way of Life Literature
• AV Publications
• Bible Believers
• King James Bible Society
• A Wiki style site promoting the Textus Receptus and the King James Bible

Anti-King James Only

• Confessions of a King James Only Advocate
• Missing Verses? What Missing Verses?
• King James Only Movement
• The King James Only Resource Center
• The KJV-Only Issue
• The KJV Only Debate Blog
• Ruckmanism