- 2011 New Testament Preface
PREFACE TO THE READER (2014)
In January 1604, King James I convened the Hampton Court Conference at the Hampton Court Palace. Meeting with King James I were two parties representing the Church of England. One party comprised the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift, and eight bishops who represented the episcopacy, supported by eight deans and one archdeacon. The second party comprised several Anglicans who were moderate Puritans led by John Rainolds, who was the president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The conference comprised three meetings over a period of three days.
The conference was called in response to a series of requests for reform set down in the Millenary Petition by the Puritans, a document that contained the signatures of one thousand Puritan ministers. The petition detailed complaints about the terms absolution and confirmation, water baptism administered by women rather than by ministers, excommunication for “trifles and twelvepenny matters” and ecclesiastical discipline administered by governmental authority, and various other issues.
King James I persuaded the bishops that only ministers should administer baptisms. He also abolished excommunication for “trifles and twelvepenny matters,” though he maintained that bishops should not be the sole administers of ecclesiastical discipline and that the trial policies of the commissaries’ court should be reviewed by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice. The King alleviated many of the Puritans’ concerns and brought much peace between the two parties.
Trouble mounted for the Puritans when Archbishop John Whitgift died soon after the conference. Richard Bancroft was appointed to the See of Canterbury, and due to the King’s concerns, the Puritan ministers were expected to adhere to each of the Thirty-Nine Articles that upheld the hierarchical nature of the Church of England, which the Puritans sought to abolish.
But the major outcome of the conference was that King James I commissioned a new translation of the Holy Bible into the English vernacular, which became the predecessor to the Modern English Version. The translation was to be pleasing both to the episcopacy and to the moderate Puritans who emphasized that man should be able to study the Holy Bible, not only with the help of the ministers but also privately. The translation became known as the Authorized Version because only this translation would be authorized to be read in the Church of England once it replaced portions of the Great Bible inserted in the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. In some parts of the world it is known as the King James Version. The translation enabled King James I to broaden his support in the Church and among the populace. It demonstrated his moderate and inclusive approach to concerns in the Church.
King James I gave certain instructions to the translators: The new translation would contain no marginal notes, it would conform to the ecclesiology of the Church of England, the translation of certain words should reflect old ecclesiastical words such as “church” and were not to be translated as “congregation,” and the new translation would reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and traditional beliefs about ordained clergy.
He also required the Church to use the Bishop’s Bible as the primary guide for the translation and retain the familiar names of the biblical characters. However, for additional textual support, he permitted the Church to use the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, Matthew’s Bible, the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible. This instruction is the basis for the statement in the flyleaf of the Authorized Version: “translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty’s special command.” William Tyndale’s translation from the Greek text, now known as the Textus Receptus, comprises eighty percent of the King James Version New Testament. The King James Version Old Testament is based on the Jacob ben Hayyim edition of the Masoretic Text.
Forty-seven scholars represented the Church of England, both Puritans and High Churchmen, including the Anglican scholar Sir Henry Savile, who was not a clergyman. They formed six committees: two at the University of Oxford, two at the University of Cambridge, and two at the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey. The King’s printer printed forty unbound copies of the 1602 Bishop’s Bible for the committees. This meant that the scholars could record their agreed-upon changes in the margins for the printer to insert into the text. The committees were assigned various sections of Scriptures. They then compared their drafts and revised them until they achieved consistency in the translation.
The Anglican clergy working on the King James Version stated their purpose: not to make a new translation, but to make a good one better. They also wanted to make the Bible more known and accessible to the people. Thus they produced the King James Version in 1611.
Later, the University of Oxford produced a standard text of the King James Version, known as the 1769 Oxford Update and edited by Dr. Benjamin Blayney. Dr. Blayney standardized the punctuation and spelling to update the King James Version. The 1769 Oxford Update is the edition commonly used today.
The King James Version has been the standard version for Protestants throughout the English-speaking world for over four hundred years now. Its flowing language, prose rhythm, and powerful and majestic style made it a literary classic, with many of its phrases and expressions embedded in contemporary English.
Today, realizing the need to update the King James Version for the twenty-first century, forty-seven scholars serving as professors, or chaplains to the Armed Forces of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and to the United States Armed Forces, comprising the Committee on Bible Translation under the leadership of the senior editorial advisor Dr. Stanley M. Horton and the chief editor Dr. James F. Linzey, have joined forces to produce a more updated edition of the King James Version called the Modern English Version, which is based on a modern English vernacular.
The Modern English Version is a translation of the Textus Receptus and the Jacob ben Hayyim edition of the Masoretic Text, using the King James Version as the base manuscript. The Committee on Bible Translation adhered to the principle of formal equivalence, the meaning of which is to be as literal as proper English syntax and grammar will allow. At times it is impossible to translate every word or thought from Greek into English with proper syntax or a modern English vernacular. In such instances, it is important to realize certain words may go untranslated. For example, the Semitism in Matthew 11:4 transliterated as, “kai apokritheis Ho Iesous eipen autois,” is translated in the King James Version as “Jesus answered and said unto them.” This is not an effective rendition in the modern English vernacular due to the redundant speech, nor is it translated literally in the King James Version. So, to translate the Greek into the modern English vernacular, the phrase is translated as “Jesus answered them.” Additionally, the original translators of the King James Version did not translate the Greek “Ho,” translated as “the,” nor did they translate “apokritheis” literally as ‘”answering.” Their goal was to use proper English syntax in the modern English vernacular of their day. Yet, by leaving certain terms untranslated in this update, it may appear that a Greek text other than the Textus Receptus may have been used. Such is not the case. A different English rendering is being used to re-translate the Textus Receptus while updating the King James Version manuscript.
When using the Textus Receptus as the base text for a contemporary English translation, the translators cannot use archaic, non-standard, purely literalistic English, nor fail to use what is known today about linguistics and ancient literary and cultural understandings in contemporary English translations. The original translators of the King James Version had this same approach for their own cultural and linguistic setting.
The original motive for creating this translation was to provide an update by military chaplains for the troops so they could understand the King James Version better. This project grew larger than anticipated in the search for academically qualified scholars when the chaplains “enlisted” the help of those who were not chaplains to get the job done, and when an unexpected publishing opportunity was offered. The target audience grew from the military to the entire English-speaking world. The translators began their work on June 2, 2005; they completed the New Testament on October 25, 2011, and the Old Testament on May 28, 2014.
The forty-seven American and English translators, being in great Christian unity and cooperation, who have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ and who have formed an interdenominational translation committee, represent churches such as the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Charismatic Episcopal Church, Central Church of the Nazarene, Church of Christ, Church of England, Church of God, Elim Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Free Methodist Church of North America, General Council of the Assemblies of God, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Methodist Church of Great Britain, Methodist Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church of America, Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, Southern Baptist Convention, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church. The translators represent a cross section of the English-speaking Church. So it is their prayer that the Modern English Version will please the entire English-speaking world.
As professors or graduates of some of the world’s leading colleges, seminaries, and universities, they represent institutions such as the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, the College of William and Mary, Evangel University, Fuller Theological Seminary, Geneva College, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Harvard University, Hebrew Union College, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oral Roberts University, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Pentecostal Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Saint Leo University, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame, Vanguard University of Southern California, Westminster Seminary California, Westminster Theological Seminary, and Yale University. The translators are devoted to making a good translation better and ensuring that the Modern English Version is an accurate and responsible update of the King James Version.
The work of translating Scripture has always been an important part of Christian missions. Due to the work of missionary Bible translators, the complete Bible is available in over four hundred languages today. Missionaries normally have not used ancient Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic texts in translation work. Instead, they usually have relied on the King James Version. In like manner, the Modern English Version is useful to continue translation work on the mission field. The Modern English Version is a translator’s Bible for missions work to provide the Word of God to all English-speaking people and the entire world.
Compare the original Tyndale Translation with the updates of the following passage:
For when the worlde thorow wysdome knew not God in ye wysdome of God: it pleased God thorow folisshnes of preachinge to save them yt beleve (1Co 1:21, Tyndale Translation, 1534).
For after that, in the wisedom of God, the world by wisedome knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching, to saue them that beleeue (1Co 1:21, KJV, 1611).
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (1Co 1:21, KJV, 1769).
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1Co 1:21, NKJV, 1982).
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (1Co 1:21, MEV, 2014).
The clergymen and scholars comprising the Committee on Bible Translation offer up to God the Modern English Version, the inspired Word of God, in the spirit of praise and gratitude, for the purpose of making disciples and teaching all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Committee on Bible Translation
- 2011 New Testament Preface