The King James Version of the Bible
(and Its Controversies)

This page covers the controversies that surround the King James Version of the Bible. Links to other KJV sites are provided.

Background Information

The background to the KJV controversies centers around a range of issues. There are a wide range of view on the KJV. At one extreme are the "KJV Only" advocates which make a range of claims about the KJV to the most extreme that the KJV was an inspired translation (or reconstruction) of the originals and is the only version that English speaking people should use. These advocates hold that the 1611 A. D. dated version is the only KJV that should be used.

On the other end there are others that insist that the KJV uses obsolete language and is actually an impediment to knowledge of the Word of God. They typically paint the KJV crowd as "KJV-only" and tend to attack the arguements of the more extreme positions.

Pro-King James AV1611 Web Pages

There are a number of resources available on the web defending the KJV.

• The King James Bible Page
  This site has an excellent collection of articles.
• Dial the truth (www.av1611.com)
  This site has lots of on-line tracts.

Anti-King James AV1611 Web Pages

Review of G. A Ripplinger's New Age Bible Versions book
by Bob and Gretchen Passantino of Answers In Action

Pro-KJV Books

Some of these books are explicitly pro-KJV, and some of them are implicitly pro-KJV.

• David Otis Fuller (editor), Which Bible? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Grand Rapids International Publications ©1970, 1971, 1972, 1975)
  - We highly recommend this book as a defense of the King James Version. The book includes defenses of the KJV from such notables as Zane Hodges, Edward Hills, and Terence Brown).
• Chuck Smith, Tapes 575 & 576, (Costa Mesa, Ca: The Word For Today, © 1976?)
  - In this tape series the pastor of one of the largest churches in America, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, presents a defense of the KJV. A "must have" tape set.
• Harry A. Sturz, The Byzantine Text-Type and New Testament Textual Criticism (New York, Thomas Nelson, ©1984)
  - In this classic text, Sturz presents crucial criticisms against the methods used by the textual critical scholars to attack the Byzantine Text-type which is the Greek text that underlies the KJV.

____, The New Testament (New York: John Wiley & Sons, ©1875)
This greek text predates Wescott and Hort by a quarter century. Useful for comparisons.

"Anti"-KJV Books

Many of these books are not actually anti-KJV, but are also not defenders of the KJV version.

• David Alan Black and David S. Dockery, New Testament Criticism & Interpretation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, ©1991)
• F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Revell, ©1950, 1984)
• F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Glasgow: Chapter House, © 1988)
• D. A. Carson, The King James Version Debate - A plea for realism (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, ©1979
• Philip Wesley Comfort, The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, ©1992)
• Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible - Revised and Expanded (Chicago: Moody Press, © 1968, 1980)
• Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, From God to us - How We Got Our Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, ©1974)
  - This book appears to be an earlier version of General Intro to the Bible.
• Edgar J. Goodspeed, How Came the Bible (New York: Abingdom, ©1940)
• Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Story of the Apocrypha (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, ©1939)
• Jack P. Lewis, The English Bible from KJV to NIV (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, ©1981, 1991)
• Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament 3rd Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, ©1992)
• Eugene A. Nida and Charles R. Taber, The Theory and Practice of Translation (Netherlands: United Bible Societies, ©1969)
  - Presents a detailed explanation the shift in translations from formal to dynamic. Chapter One is Titled "A New Concept in Translating".
• Brooke Foss Wescott, A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament (New York: Macmillan and Co, © 1889)
• Brooke Foss Wescott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek (New York: Macmillan and Co, © 1904)
  - This is the one that started it all. The attack on the text underlying the KJV was started with these guys.
• James R. White, The King James Only Controversy; Can You Trust the Modern Translations?, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, © 1995)

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This page contains personal opinion and commentary
on the King James Version Controversy.
Last Updated 1-4-97