There is in fact a group of Christians who believe the KJV is the only authoritative translation of the Bible into English. These people believe that most modern translations change the wording of the KJV away from what they believe it should say about their religion into something else. Because of this, and because of the somewhat different tint that other bibles place on their translations, the KJV is seen as a hallmark translation which really cannot be replaced by any newer or modern translation. In fact even translations such as the NKJV are often faulted for being wildly inaccurate compared to the KJV (example here: “What’s wrong with the New King James?” — recommended reading).

However, the fact remains that if one were able to read the original Greek, one would have a better understanding of the New Testament (for example) than one who could only read a translation in English.

This leads us to the singular question over the KJV: Since some faults exist in the KJV merely as a matter of not being able to translate every nuance of Greek into English (let alone the Hebrew in the Old Testament,)

1. Do these problems raise a serious issue? And What, if any, misunderstandings have arisen?

The conundrum facing readers of the bible in English is simply put: they have no basis for comparison because they do not speak Greek (or Hebrew). Therefore if I was to tell you quite truthfully that the KJV mistranslates the word ‘Rheims’ as ‘unicorn’, instead of correctly as ‘wild oxen’, you would have no way to really check this for yourself. You could look it up in a foreign language dictionary I suppose, but that’s what every other modern translator has done, and correctly written ‘oxen’. You could also go and learn the underlying grammar; ‘Rheims’ is plural: it cannot mean unicorn (single horn) because it refers to a multi-horned animal.

But this is a minor point; surely no such major issue presents itself, a KJV-only Protestant will exclaim. Yet this is not nitpicking, it is a neutral issue by which to explain that the KJV itself is a flawed translation. One only has to look at the translator’s preface to understand, where they write that the KJV is a work of man, and is not divinely inspired. Unfortunately this translators preface is often not included in versions of the KJV or is ignored, and a culture of divine inspiration has arisen around the KJV. It is undeserved.

I can point to two articles I have read recently which seem to sum up the central issues in the KJV only debate.

• Why I do not think the King James Bible is the Best translation available today
• Seven things you might not know about the King James Bible.

The question here is not whether or not there is an “attack” against the KJV. The question is whether or not these things are true. If someone is going to ignore the truth to satisfy their ego then there isn’t much you can do to help them. There are facts and evidence behind the assertions made in these pages; many of which are self-evident.

I’m not going to go into every detail in the KJV which is in error. However, in the last 400 years we have discovered many more Greek and Hebrew manuscripts which are more accurate than the ones used for the KJV. We find, in fact, that even considering Christianity, many modern translations are more explicit in affirming the deity of Christ than in the KJV. For example the excellent article The King James Only Controversy lists several such verses. One such is Jude 4, where the KJV implies that Jesus is not God, and where the NIV, RSV, NASB and NLT imply that he is. If you are a Christian worried about such issues, you would probably want to move to a more modern translation anyways.

For those that approach the Bible logically and from an eisegesic standpoint, the multitude of additions the KJV has made both to the green and Hebrew texts will appear disturbing. “Lord” has been added before Jesus’s name dozens of times where it appears nowhere in Greek, the masoretic text has been altered or ignored in favor of translations, and in general modern translations have never been too keen on preserving the meaning of the Bible in the cultural and historical sense that it has been given to us. The above linked articles will provide more than enough information for your perusal.

I recommend the Noachide Bible or the Artscroll Stone Chumash and related texts.