Publishers Must Make New Bibles Harder to Read or Give Up Copyright Dollars

Gail Riplinger's new book Which Bible Is God's Word? contains answers to common questions concerning modern versions and translations. The following is a sampling:

Isn't the KJV difficult to read?: "According to copyright law, new Bible versions can only be copyrighted as 'derivative works.' Words must be changed whether they need to be changed or not. New versions may update that one archaic word in eight thousand in the KJV, but they must change many other words, actually making it more difficult to read.

"When you subject the new versions and the King James Version to the Flesch-Kincaid grade level formula you discover that the King James Version is fifth grade level..." The other versions go up from there in difficulty to read.

"The reason the KJV reads more easily is because, according to a study done at Bob Jones University, ninety-five percent of its words are one or two syllable Anglo-Saxon words.

"Since the KJV has laid claim to these first, the derivative copyright works must replace them with harder, Latinized words which always have three or four syllables; many have suffixes and prefixes."

There are too many thee's and ye's in the KJV: "New versions boast of their substitution of the word 'you' for the archaic 'ye' and 'thee,' but do not notice that the KJV uses the word 'you' two thousand times.

"It only uses 'ye' and 'thee' when needed, to distinguish between the Greek singular and plural; 'ye' is plural, and 'thee' is singular. By using those particular renderings, the KJV gives exact representation of the Greek word.

I'm not a scholar. These changes aren't really important, are they?: "You cannot casually detect a land mine, but it is deadly. Many today, and I include myself among those, are too casual with Bible reading; we are not as careful as we should be.

"Dr. Logsdon, who renounced his involvement with the New American Standard Bible, said the reason few notice the changes is because, 'It is done so subtly that very few would discover it.'"

Isn't the New King James as reliable as the KJV?: "The deity of Christ has disappeared in a number of places in the New King James. The KJV verses in Acts 3:13,26 that say Jesus Christ is the 'Son' of God, is changed in the New King James to say he is a mere 'servant.'

"There are a lot of New Age renderings in the New King James. They consistently substitute the term 'the Christ' for 'Christ.'

"Liberty University's dean, Norman Geisler, says, 'We should be particularly wary when someone refers to Jesus Christ as 'the Christ.'"


Products of Interest: