Plain Reasons for the AV: Guaranteed as a More Accurate Translation
2. The Authorised Version is a more accurate translation.
Because of their reverent regard for the Bible as the inspired Word of God, the translators felt that they should very carefully set down in English all that was written by the inspired writers. They were conscious of the strict commands in Deuteronomy 4.2, that God’s people should not add to His Word or take anything away from it. Modern versions quite often commit both of these errors, and the reader loses as a result.
For instance, in John 1.17 John wrote, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. The Authorised Version puts this in simple English, with nothing added and nothing taken away. Compare this with the Living Bible, “Moses only gave us the law, with its rigid demands and merciless justice. Jesus gives us loving forgiveness as well”. Here something is added about “rigid demands and merciless justice”, but John did not write these words, and they are not in any New Testament manuscript. The Law of Moses says that God shows mercy to thousands of them that love Him (Exodus 20.6). So the Living Bible makes John contradict Moses. Notice also that Moses did not ONLY give us the Law – the Living Bible adds the word ONLY – but Jesus said of Moses, “He wrote of me”. The Living Bible also takes something away John wrote: “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”, but the Living Bible omits all reference to the TRUTH, although all the manuscripts have this word in this place. In this example the modern version is neither accurate nor true.
In other passages the same tendency to add to and take away from the inspired words is also found in the Good News Bible, the New International Version, and other popular modern versions. The Authorised Version, however, keeps very close to the original, and is a reliable guide to what the inspired writers actually wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and also a reliable guide to what they meant.
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Trinitarian Bible Society, “Plain Reasons for Keeping to the Authorised Version”
