Tuesday 3 May 2011

Why should we not trust the KJV of the Bible 100%?

You hear many people say, I won't believe it unless its in the King James Bible, or others would say, nope - its not in my Catholic Bible - Duay Rheims. But are these bibles worthy of trusting a hundred percent? Others are being criticised for jumping from one version of the bible to the next. How do we know which of these bibles are trustworthy?

It is quite simple. The rule says:

Pro 30:6 Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.[NIV]
Deu 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.[NIV]


Note that I qouted the NIV at this instance, which i believe is correct at this point.

Going back to the verses, the King James Bible has done exactly that, as a matter of fact most english translations of the bible have done the same. For instance, when it comes to the Divine name of God which is YHWH, the King James bible, New International Version, New Living Translation, ESV, and many others have changed his Name YHWH for LORD in all capital letters, which in hebrew could be rendered as Adonay [Lord/Master/Owner] or Baal [Lord/Master].

A first example would be where LORD appears for the first time in the book of Genesis:

Gen 4:1 Adam [fn] lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. [fn] She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth [fn] a man."[New International Version]

Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD [King James Version]


The Catholic version of the Bible: Duay Rheims version renders YHWH as Lord as well as you can see below:

Genesis 4:6 And the Lord said to him: Why art thou angry? and why is thy countenance fallen?

and the list goes on.

The Hebrew scriptures i.e. Masoretic Text is different, it has retained the Divine Name YHWH in their scriptures, yet read it aloud as Adonay or Lord in English, or Ha Shem - The Name in order to protect the name from being slandered or misused. Meanwhile rendering the Divine name as Yahweh by other Bible versions is also a mistake, apparently nobody knows how his name is spoken. And why not stick to what is actually there? YHWH.

Thus on this account alone, trusting any version of the english or any bible not written in Hebrew as the sole truth is simply being short-sighted.