Why Stop Here?
The New King James in perspective.
The Irishman tells of his axe, which had had four new blades and five new handles, but was still the one he brought over from Ireland. The New King James Version (NKJV, Thomas Nelson, 1982) is advertised with the extravagant claim that it is the greatest publishing event since 1611. This raises the question of how much something can be changed and still be accepted as the same. The producers of the NKJV note that there were 24,000 changes made in the text and punctuation of the KJV between 1611 and 1769, and that current printings differ from one another in hundreds of instances.
Reacting to the assertion that the KJV is “erroneous and misleading,” the NKJV people have the avowed purpose “to preserve the 1611 King James for 20th-century readers without violating the theological integrity, the majestic grandeur, and the lyrical cadence of the original.” These NKJV producers (said to be 130 in number, all of whom signed a statement of belief in the plenary and verbal inspiration of the original autographs of the Bible) desire out of their seven years of work to make a market for the new Bible by capitalizing on the KJV name, on widespread continuing preference for the KJV, and on the reaction in some circles to the many translations now available.
The nkjv ought to be evaluated as a new translation in the same way as all the others on the market. It has the same rights in the marketplace as they do. However, the gulf between it and the old King James (even in its current printings) is considerable.
On the positive side, there are many changes for the better:
• Old English pronouns and verb forms are dropped throughout. (Those who insist that use of these forms is more reverent than current English forms will find no solace here. They will be reading: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done …” [Matt. 6:10]).
• Verse numbers that begin paragraphs are in black type.
• Direct quotation is enclosed in quotation marks.
• OT quotations in the NT are set in italic type.
• Poetry is printed in poetic lines.
• Ussher’s chronology, the Christological headings to the Song of Solomon, to some of the Psalms, and to some chapters of Isaiah are all gone.
• Communication has been improved by the effort to eliminate archaic words and those with a different meaning from what they had in 1611. The mythical dragon, unicorn, and cockatrice have all disappeared. No one can question that “Jacob cooked a stew” (Gen. 25:29) is an improvement over “Jacob sod pottage”; “helper comparable to him” (Gen. 2:20) over “help meet for him”; “demon” (Matt. 11:18; John 8:48) over “devil”; “Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:18) over “Holy Ghost”; “precede” (1 Thess. 4:15) over “prevent”; and “food” (John 4:34) over “meat.”
• Passages describing the functions of the human body have been recast to be suitable for public reading (1 Sam. 25:22, 34; 1 Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21; 2 Kings 18:27).
• Names have been spelled consistently so that “Joshua” (Heb. 4:8) is used in the NT for the OT character, Elijah is used instead of “Elias,” and “Jeremiah” instead of “Jeremy” and “Jeremias.”
Of less benefit to the reader is the nkjv’s insistence that reverence is shown by capitalizing all pronouns referring to deity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The capitalization is used even where the speaker intends no reverence for Jesus (e.g., John 8:52).
The nkjv has retained doctrinal and theological terms like “propitiation,” “justification,” and “sanctification” as being “generally familiar to English-speaking peoples.” That claim might be truer were it to “religiously oriented English-speaking people.” Every society has its jargon. To the above list could be added “seed,” “saint,” “brethren,” “beloved,” “baptize,” “church,” “bishop,” and “deacon.”
Today’s reader is not likely to prefer “vehement flame” (Song of Sol. 8:6), “espousals” (Song of Sol. 3:11), “did not know her” (1 Kings 1:4) for refraining from the sex act, and “with child” (2 Sam. 11:5).
Some cases of reversed English style are retained: “but all their works they do …” (Matt. 23:5), and the dangling clause remains in “The elder and honorable, he is the head; the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail” (Isa. 9:15).
One is not convinced that the change from “ships” to “sloops” (Isa. 2:16) and “mare” to “filly” (Song of Sol. 1:9) contributes to clarity.
The preparers of the NKJV seem to have less quarrel with the way OT textual study has gone than with that of the NT. They cite the Stuttgart Bible as their basic Hebrew text, but rely on the Textus Receptus for the Greek text. They would like to roll the clock back in NT textual criticism to undo what Westcott-Hort and their successors have done in relying on the early Greek manuscripts, especially on Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. As a purposeful challenge to prevailing theories of textual criticism, the NKJV champions the validity of the Greek text reconstructed by F. H. A. Scrivener as that underlying the KJV.
After 1633, the traditional text came to be known as the Textus Receptus. That text is contrasted with the Critical Text, which the NKJV notes designate the “NU-Text” (published in Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Societies’ texts), and with the Majority Text, which the NKJV notes identify as the “M-Text.” Asserting that the M-Text is similar to but not identical with the Textus Receptus, the NKJV has more sympathy with it than the NU-Text.
The NKJV, critical of translations that have omitted words occurring in the KJV, charges that in such translations words of the text of Scripture have been omitted. The significant textual question is whether these words are actually Scripture or are scribal insertions. If convinced that they were Scripture, no one would omit them. The NKJV revisers do not explain why the reader should continue to read words translated from Latin and inserted into the Greek text by Erasmus, and from that source passed into the KJV—words that are not represented in any known Greek manuscripts. Nor do they make clear why he should suppose the NKJV reading is superior in those many cases where its readings are opposed by both the NU-Text and the M-Text.
The notes of the nkjv give the reader an indication of just how much its text differs from the Textus Receptus, and it is estimated to be in the thousands. [For those who want the full story, the reconstructed Greek text is now available, also from Thomas Nelson Publishers.) This is quite a blow to those who assumed the Majority Text would vindicate their KJV against all rivals.
The NKJV is a step forward from 1769, but in textual questions it is an intentional step backward from 1901. One of the reasons the 1901 effort failed is that it did not use 1901 language. The NKJV makes that same mistake. Except for the initiated, it is not 1982 language. It will not satisfy those who feel that God’s Word can be expressed in both the style and vocabulary of 1982 English without loss of loyalty to the original languages.
The reader will benefit by prayerfully reading and studying the NKJV as he will by reading and studying any translation. The basic duties toward God and man are as plainly set forth as in other modern translations. But the question remains: “Why stop here?”
Communicating God’s Word in translation may be compared to journeying across the U.S. from New York to Los Angeles with intermediate stops along the way. The origin of the journey was the original revelation. The destination is not reached until we know as we are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12).
The 1611 effort, admirable as it was, served as just one of the intermediate stops along the way. Surely someone should ask concerning this revision, “Why start in 1611?” Other than loyalty to tradition, would it not be better to go back to the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts and translate them into current English, unshackled by limitations that the use of the 1769 KJV revision (the form of the KJV used by these revisers) imposes?
Reviewed by Jack P. Lewis, professor of Bible at Harding Graduate School, Memphis, Tennessee.
Basic Christian Doctrine
God and History, by James Montgomery Boice (IVP, 1981, 288 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Bruce Demarest, professor of theology, Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, Denver, Colorado.
With this volume James Montgomery Boice, pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, completes his four-part survey of Christian doctrine. The series, Foundations of the Christian Faith, was originally given as sermons, but it follows the four-part structure of Calvin’s Institutes.
In God and History, Boice explores the implications of God’s working in history past (saving history that culminated in Christ’s redemptive work), history present (the church and temporal world kingdoms), and history future (the end-time coming of the Lord).
Part one contains a helpful overview of secular philosophies of history, followed by the Christian vision of history that centers on the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord. Christ is upheld as both history’s Lord and its goal.
In his extensive discussion of the church, Boice posits the origin of the Christian church at Pentecost (the larger people of God originating with the call of Abraham). There follows a refreshing delineation from John 17 of six virtues or “marks” that ought to characterize the Christian fellowship as it lives unto God and before the world. As for local church leadership, Boice argues that the office of deacon is open to both men and women, but that the New Testament restricts the office of elder to men.
Concerning the ordinances of the church, Boice denies that baptizō signifies immersion, but he sidesteps the issue of who (children or adult believers?) are the rightful recipients of Christian baptism. In a helpful study of spiritual gifts, Boice concludes that healings and miracles are bestowed on Christians only infrequently, and that tongues as a lesser gift of God cannot be denied. Moreover, the author pleads for a strengthening of cooperation among evangelical denominations, while he rues the results of mainline ecumenism.
Alloting less than one-fifth as much space to eschatology as to the church, Boice briefly discusses the great end-time issues upon which all Christians are agreed: the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, and the Christian’s life in heaven. He avoids other events in the eschatological calendar that on occasion have engendered tensions among believers. For example, the reader will remain curious as to how the author understands the Bible’s teaching about Christ’s millennial reign.
Christians should be indebted to Boice for endowing the church with a helpful final volume in a valuable doctrinal series. Pastors will find in God and History fruitful seed thoughts for sermon making, and lay people will discover many fertile ideas for Bible studies and discussion groups. In short, this is a book from which all Christians can learn and be blessed.
Briefly Noted
Bibles. There seems to be a desire these days to simplify and shorten almost everything, including the Bible. The Narrative Bible (Enslow, Box 777, Hillside, NJ), edited by Alvin A. Boyd, is described as “condensed for easy reading.” It is short; Boyd gets through Job in four-and-a-half pages, and Galatians in two. The Compact Bible (Oak Tree, Box 173, Amboy, Wash.) is “the New Testament in fewer words”—one-third fewer, to be exact; it reads quite well. The Simple English Bible (Int. Bible Pub., One World Trade Center, Suite 7967, New York, NY), is offered as “contemporary American English.” It is not a paraphrase but a translation in the language of today. The Bible in Basic English (Cambridge) is a version that confines itself to the use of 1,000 English words—850 of which are called basic by C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute. Some believe it is possible to give the sense of anything sayable in English in these basic words.
Insight (Zondervan/Campus Life) is the niv New Testament with notes by Philip Yancey. The Living Picture Bible (David C. Cook) is the New Testament with the Living Bible text and comic-strip pictures as illustrations. While rather nicely done, it is too bad the book of Revelation was left out. The Master Study Bible (Holman) is the New American Standard text, with more than 100,000 notes or references. The study material covers over 1,000 pages and is very helpful.
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company has made available Robert H. Countess’s The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New Testament, a critical and accurate analysis of the New Testament used by that cult. It is a helpful tool for anyone who has to deal with Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Gleason Archer’s Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Zondervan) is Bible related. All the problem texts you have ever heard about, and some new ones besides, are treated. It is a valuable resource for those who wonder what to do with difficulties.
