The Refined KJV

By Biblicist Jacob R. Blandford

How God continued to purify the purest Bible man has ever known.

I’ve discussed in several articles how the King James Bible was purified seven times according to Psalms 12:6-7 through the tradition of Textus Receptus Protestant English Bibles. And I’ve talked about the history of the Bible and how the KJV represents a clear, accurate, reliable, and inspired copy of “the holy scriptures” (Rom. 1:2; 2 Tim. 3:15) of the Bible-believers throughout church history. But I want to talk about how the KJV has been even more refined by God through his people since it was first printed in 1611.

After the King James was printed in 1611, a few of the misprints were corrected by two of the translators themselves. Then spelling of some words was stabilized (ex. “bee” to “be” and “feare” to “fear”). Punctuation was also stabilized. The Gothic print was changed to the Roman print. The italics were utilized instead of the smaller Roman print of those supplied words in the original. The “f” (without a crossbar) was changed to “s” and the “v” to a “u”. All of this represented several editions of the KJV. You say, ‘But I thought you said the KJV was prefect?’ Perfection is a process, there was never even the slightest hint at changing words, much less doctrine—just typography and orthography. The most significant editions were done by Dr. F.S. Paris (1762) by Cambridge, Dr. Benjamin Blayney (1769) by Oxford, and Dr. F.H.A. Scrivener (1873) by Cambridge. These editions of the KJV in no manner represent the type of changes introduced in the NKJV, NIV, or any other modern bible since the ERV of 1881. Here’s a quotation about the editions of the KJV, ‘The English Bible as left by the translators has come down to us unaltered in respect to its text.’ (Committee on Versions to the Board of Managers, American Bible Society, 1852.)

Moreover, if you have a modern straight text KJV, you have a Bible with “HOLY BIBLE” on the cover, no Apocrypha, no marginal notes, no references, no footnotes, and no chapter headings—just the pure holy Text (viz. God’s word from cover to cover)! Further (this is my humble opinion), Hendrickson Bible Publishers has added one final feature to the KJV in their Gift and Award Bible: a hyphen before the word “offering”. [This additional hyphen is a feature found in the ASV of 1901.] ¶ The New Scofield Study Bible (Oxford University Press) and the Scofield Study Bible III (Oxford University Press) also feature these hyphens.

Drink-offering
Sin-offering
Trespass-offering
Heave-offering
Peace-offering
Meat-offering
Burnt-offering
Wave-offering
Wood-offering
Freewill-offering
Thank-offering

"wave-breast" (Lev. 7:34, 10:14, 15; Num. 6:20, 18:18)
"heave-shoulder" (Lev. 7:34, 10:14, 15; Num. 6:20)
"wave-loaves" (Lev. 23:17)

Note: dashes are included in Hendrickson’s Gift and Award KJV Bible. Available at Christianbook.com

They also added some paragraph markers to the New Testament Epistles (which I don’t necessarily agree with). This particular Hendrickson Bible not only retains the original paragraph markers, but also the Book headings. It also includes the classical spellings of words like “shew”, “bason”, “rereward”, “throughly”, “twoedged”, “Nicolaitans” and several others. It’s also a red letter edition. Hendrickson also capitalized not only the prophecy in Jeremiah 23:6, but also Jeremiah 33:16.

Another advancement in modern printings of the KJV (including this Hendrickson gift & award KJV Bible) is the insertion of “The Old Testament” title page right before Genesis (which was not in the original 1611 printing).

For further information please read: ‘Differences in the King James Version Editions’ by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman, ‘The Myth of Early Revisions’ by Dr. David F. Reagan (found on pages 14-29 of Dr. Samuel C. Gipp’s ‘The Answer Book’), and check out John R. Kohlengerber III’s preface in the 2002 KJV Gift & Award Bible by Zondervan. That article is also available on this website at http://www.fundamentalholybible.com/1873.htm