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Many believe that the modern translations of the Bible such as the New International Version (NIV) and the New King James Version (NKJV) are simply the King James Version re-written in more modern language. This isn’t even close to being the truth.
These modern versions have removed or changed words that completely change the meaning of many verses. In many cases complete passages or complete sections of the Word have been eliminated. Let’s discuss these two modern versions in comparison with The Authorized King James Version to get a better understanding of the differences.
The New International Version :
A few comparisons are …………..
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Luke 9:56
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King James Version Bible
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New International Version
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For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
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and they went to another village.
Footnotes :
Some manuscripts them. And he said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
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I Corinthians 5:7
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King James Version Bible
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New International Version
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Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.
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Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
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John 6:47
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King James Version Bible
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New International Version
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Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
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I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
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Mark 11:26
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King James Version Bible
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New International Version
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But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
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Missing.
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The New King James Version :
The New King James Version appears to disregard the deity of Christ. In Acts 3:13 and 3:26 the NKJV Jesus is referred to as the “Servant” of God instead of the “Son” of God.
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Acts 13:3
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King James Version
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New King James Version
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The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
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The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.
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Acts 13:26
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Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
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When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
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In John 1:3 Jesus is taken out and replaced with God the Father. The word him refers to the son in the KJV. It is changed to Him in the NKJV to refer to the Father. This may seem minor to some but it is a huge difference to those of us who take the scripture literally.
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John 1:3
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King James Version
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New King James Version
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All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
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In Matthew 19:16 Jesus is called Teacher in the NKJV instead of Master.
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Matthew 19:16
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King James Version
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New King James Version
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And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
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Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[a] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
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The Deity of Jesus is taken away in the NKJV by referring to him as SERVANT instead of SON, TEACHER instead of MASTER, etc.
Because it seems to deny Jesus as God the Son then it also denies the Holy Trinity.
The NKJV also tends to support New Age attitudes about homosexuality by replacing SODOMITES with PERVERTED PERSONS.
By re-wording many verses it seems to promote Salvation by Works instead of by Grace.
Here are a couple of examples:
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1st Chorinthians 11:1
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King James Version
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New King James Version
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Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ
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Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ
KJV
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Revelation 19:8
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And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
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And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
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We have all heard it many times. Words Mean something. So by changing the words you change the meaning. Below is a summary of some of the words that are important to Christians because they have specific meanings and yet they have in many cases been eliminated from the NKJV.
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Word
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Omitted
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Lord
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66 times
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God
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51 times
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Heaven
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50 times
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repent
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44 times
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Blood
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23 times
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hell
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22 times
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JEHOVAH
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All occurrences
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new testament
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All occurrences
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Damnation
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All occurrences
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Devils
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All occurrences
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So, why are the versions so different?
First let’s look at the manuscripts available and their reliability:
The Vaticanus and Sinaiticus
Facts About the Vaticanus
It was written on fine vellum (tanned animal skins) and remains in excellent condition. It was found in the Vatican Library in 1481 AD. In spite of being in excellent condition, it omits:
Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 46:28
Psalms 106-138
Matthew 16:2-3
The Pauline Pastoral Epistles
Hebrews 9:14-13:25
Revelation
These parts were probably left out on purpose.
Besides all that, in the gospels alone it leaves out 237 words, 452 clauses and 748 whole sentences, which hundreds of later copies agree together as having the same words in the same places, the same clauses in the same places and the same sentences in the same places.
Facts About the Sinaiticus
The Sinaiticus is a manuscript that was found in 1844 in a trash pile in St. Catherine's Monastery near Mt. Sinai, by a man named Mr. Tischendorf. It contains nearly all of the New Testament plus it adds the "Shepherd of Hermes" and the "Epistle of Barnabas" to the New Testament.
The Sinaiticus is extremely unreliable, proven by examining the manuscript itself. John Burgeon spent years examining every available manuscript of the New Testament. He writes about the Sinaiticus:
"On many occasions 10, 20, 30, 40 words are dropped through very carelessness.
Letters, words or even whole sentences are frequently written twice over, or begun and immediately canceled; while that gross blunder, whereby a clause is omitted because it happens to end in the same words as the clause preceding, occurs no less that 115 times in the New Testament."
These make up what is refered to as the Alexandria manuscripts. The Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts are the oldest, but they are not the best manuscripts!!!
The Vaticanus was available to the translators of the King James Bible, but they didn't use it because they knew it is unreliable.
The majority of Greek manuscripts agree with each other and have been accepted by Bible believing Christians down through the centuries. These manuscripts represent the manuscripts from which the "Textus Receptus" or Received Text was taken. It is from these manuscripts that the King James Bible was translated in 1611.
The modern versions relied more heavily on the Alexandria manuscripts. Where there where differences in the two the Alexandria manuscripts where used. For the NKJV the Textus Receptus version may be included in the footnotes.
The title “New King James Version” would lead one to think it was based on the Original King James Version. In fact the translators didn’t even use the same manuscripts as the base. So the New King James Version is not really a King James Version bible at all.
In a nutshell, we still believe that God has perfectly preserved His Word in the form of the Authorized King James Version. That being the case we don’t believe there should be any modification or additions to it. For all of these reasons we only carry KJV Bible scripture products.
Chuck Walker - Walker Associates, llc (C) 2009
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