KJV Onlyism - Why?

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Thirty years ago is hardly “are now using”.

It’s not a recent innovation. It’s been that way for ages.

Just because something has been prevalent in a particular place doesn’t mean it’s always been used everywhere by everyone. It’s an assumption based off of personal experience. We ALL do it - it’s a human thing, I’m convinced of it - but we should also realize that it’s the limits of our realm of experience that create the fallacy.

We’ve all done it, and we’ll all continue to do it, because we’re human. Like a lot of things, it doesn’t excuse it when we get our turn at being guilty of it.
 
lanman87 said:
This is not a commonly held practice/belief among Protestants. The only group I’m aware of that hold this position is Independent Fundamentalist Baptist. They are not your typical baptist churches and make up only a small fraction of American Evangelical Churches.
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Exactly. I am Baptist (for now ;)) and the church I usually attend uses the New Revised Standard Version. The Baptist Church down the way uses several interpretations, but mostly the English Standard Version.

Baptist Churches lack any real structure. Even when they are members of certain conferences, there is still a large degree of variation. What version you use is up to the Pastor. If he or she has been convinced that KJV is the only way, then that is what his or her congregation will use.

The only truly constant thing I’ve found amongst Baptists was full submersion baptism.
 
GKMotley said:
And you’ve been told that some types never used the KJV. And that the range of translations used is wide and varied. And that not all protestants think as you think they think, as to the KJV.
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This thread isn’t about the Biblical preferences of all Protestants, GK. It’s about those devout Protestants who favor the KJV Bible above all others and why this particular version is favored over all others.

To appreciate why the KJV Bible is so special to Protestants, one only has to pick it up and open its pages.

The KJV Bible is the Bible MOST Protestants have grown up with and favor for its lovely language, the language of Shakespeare. Modern Bibles don’t have that flavor, that cadence so loved by KJV devotees.

For these lovely and devoted Christians, modern Bibles just aren’t the same. They are missing everything the KJV is about.

More than half of Protestants choose the KJV over other versions like the NIV. Fewer Protestants choose the NRSV, NAB and the LB (Living BIble) for their reading.

The Bible is the best selling book in history with the KJV the most printed in the history of man and the best-selling translation of all time.
 
Best post I’ve seen you make on the subject. Well done. CHRISTIANITY TODAY agrees with you, say maybe by 55% to 19%, KJV over NIV. As you likely know.

And some folk who use the KJV do have odd ideas about its precise virtues. As you and I both know.

And some protestants use other translations.

End of story.
 
GKMotley said:
Best post I’ve seen you make on the subject. Well done. CHRISTIANITY TODAY agrees with you, say maybe by 55% to 19%, KJV over NIV. As you likely know.

And some folk who use the KJV do have odd ideas about its precise virtues. As you and I both know.

And some protestants use other translations.

End of story.
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I don’t read Christianity Today. But it’s nice to know we’re in agreement. There are many versions of the Bible out there. I learned a long time ago that the KJV was the most printed in the the history of man and the best-selling translation of all time.

Thank you for the percentages. I would say more in favor of the KJV than the others. But I won’t quibble with their assessment.
 
I will admit even I love the language - even though I know it’s totally inaccurate.

It did take me a while to get used to other translations.
 
KJV Onlyism is pretty niche and not even that common among Protestants.

I love the translation though. It’s better than most. And not simply because it’s old or more orthodox. It’s better than many translations of it’s time too, which were overtly injecting dogmatic statements within the translation or glosses (like the Geneva bible). James I instructed to ward off these influences and go with a more bare bones approach. It was more “Anglican” than straight up Protestant.
 
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That’s hilarious! (And really, if one were translating a Bible for aliens, the “sheep” thing would be a perfectly valid bone of contention.)
 
I’m going to go ahead and make a sweeping statement (because sometimes it just FEELS good to be sweeping, dangit):

A Catholic Christian ought to have a Church-approved translation on his bookshelf. A literate person who loves the English language ought to have a KJV next to it.
 
So much. I memorized the well-known passages in my youth in the KJV. It’s part of our cultural patrimony same as Shakespeare. But I did my devotional reading this morning in the RSV-CE.
 
CHRISTIANITY TODAY came up, with a first sentence saying that over half of Americans when reaching for a Bible, reach for a KJV, when googling a sentence of your post, being sure to include a few distinctive words and phrases. There I found mention of a study done as to most popular Bible translations among Americans, as reported by someone named Mark Noll,historian. Who found the KJV and the NIV leading the field,with KJV at 53%, NIV trailing at 19%, . And both of them leading the NRSV, NAB and LB (the only other translations mentioned there) which stand at single digits.

The article, which is curtailed without subscribing, refers to these percentages as among Americans, not, in the portion read, of protestants. But, in general, CHRISTIANITY TODAY and Mark Noll are saying what you said, about those 5 translations you mentioned.
 
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That’s pretty funny…

Why not Spanish bibles? Or is this just a criticism of other English versions?

edit: For the record, I rather like the NABRE. But the best bible I own, as far design/binding/etc… is the New Paragraph Bible (KJV with Apocrypha). That’s a beauty. I wish there was a Catholic friendly equivalent (with paragraph/single column text).

I’m also very partial to the Septuagint… so I like the Orthodox Study Bible. I wish the NAB had more Christological commentary like that one.
 
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My first priest used to frequently opine that three of the greatest examples of English literature are Shakespeare’s work, the BCP (1928 or earlier), and the 1611 KJV.

My beloved spouse and I were married using the 1552 BCP matrimonial vows.
 
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straykat said:
Why not Spanish bibles? Or is this just a criticism of other English versions?
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I have no idea. Some might use English language Bibles to learn English. It’s not uncommon. I don’t know if it will benefit anyone learning English to learn to use ‘thou’, ‘thee’ and ‘unto’ these days.
Hast thou seen the profit in teaching non-native speakers to speak like that?
 
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True… Doctrinally though, the NIV is evangelical-bent in places. For all the caution some may cast on the KJV for not being Catholic, it’s pretty straightforward and orthodox in it’s renderings. NIV not so much. But it does read better to modern ears.
 
I agree.

But it was the 1928 BCP for me and mine. The Baptist pastor officiating was nonplussed, but compliant.
 
Perhaps he would have found good company with my uncle, the United Methodist minister, who was tasked with reading from the Book of Tobit. He was a good sport about it.
 
jtavington said:
So much. I memorized the well-known passages in my youth in the KJV. It’s part of our cultural patrimony same as Shakespeare.
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Me too! They honestly don’t sound the same any other way. And I can’t undo that - nor do I want to, really.

I’m actually proud of all the verses I still carry in my head. I was surprised at all the ones I remembered! I feel like they’re a gift from my (Baptist) Grandma and Grandpa - though I disagree with their religious views, I can never disagree with the words they left behind for me.
 
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