In prayer meeting last night David Franklin gave a talk on the history of the English Bible. Some of his material I already knew, but some of it was new to me. As always, his study was very thorough. He talked, of course, about Wycliffe and Tyndale and later Miles Coverdale, and many others. He said that William Tyndale could speak so fluently in 8 different languages that it was hard to tell which was his native tongue. It’s always amazing what happens when someone with such colossal intellect places his life at God’s disposal.

One of the things David emphasized was the longevity of the King James Version: The year 2011 marks 400 years since it was released to the English speaking public and it is still among the three top-selling versions of the Bible. What an amazing achievement! He made the observation that its longevity can be put down to the fact that the translators didn’t use the most current English spoken at that time; and that doing so is one weakness of current “modern” translations.

I like the King James Version and it’s the one I’ve used most of my life. It’s definitely the easiest English version to memorize from. But I’m not a “King James only” person. I think it’s a very good translation and has obviously stood the test of time, but it’s not perfect; and contrary to the belief of some, the KJV translation itself is NOT inspired. It’s a translation of an inspired book.

Some people have a real problem with all of the modern translations and compare them unfavorably with the KJV. What’s funny is that almost every translation throughout history has been greeted with skepticism from some quarters. Even the KJV itself was at one time a “modern,” new-fangled translation that was considered unnecessary by certain folks.