Project Idea: King James Study Bible, Cathodox/Ortholic Edition

[phil19034]

You may find that your intended readers will repudiate the very idea of a Study Bible. In the view of many Protestants, a Bible should contain nothing but the word of God. The instructions given to the translators of the KJV included this one:

6. No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek words, which cannot, without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the text.

Instructions of King James to the translators of the KJV - Print Version

That’s a good point. Many KJV-onlys read completely separate books for commentary on the books of the Bible. Rarely do you hear of them having a “Study Bible” even though they do mark up their Bibles. To many of them “a study Bible” is simply the copy they write notes and make highlights in.

 

[porthos11]

I am proposing an idea to start a project to put together an edition of the King James Bible that has the deuterocanonical books interspersed throughout the Old Testament rather than separated into a section between the Old and New Testaments and called “the Apocrypha.”

It will also contain study notes explaining the text from a perspective that both Catholics and Orthodox Christians can agree with.

Thus, it will be an ecumenical project.

I’m just not sure if it should be called “Cathodox” or “Ortholic” =)

Why the KJV?

Because many Protestants are not willing to listen to us (Orthodox and Catholic Christians) until we are able to prove our doctrines using the KJV.

Also, the KJV has been called “the most influential version of the most influential book in the world, in what is now its most influential language” by Geddes MacGregor (1968) an Episcopalian priest and professor of philosophy.

Moreover, the KJV includes the Doxology at the end of the Our Father in Matthew 6.

As far as I am aware, not a single one of the currently Catholic-approved Bibles does this.

Thus, it would be helpful, especially for Byzantine Catholics, to have an English Bible where the New Testament is based on Byzantine manuscripts.

Another historical irony happens to be that the KJV New Testament was translated from the Greek Textus Receptus, which was compiled by Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a Roman Catholic monk.

I have no concerns as to whether the books are arranged in Vulgate order or “sandwiched” order (the order of books is not a matter of divine revelation), but I agree: I believe the King James Bible can be published with the necessary books and given ecclesiastical approval for Catholic devotional use without changing a single word (not even the oft-vaunted Luke 1:28; it does NOT need to be changed to "full of grace).

It must be made clear, though, that it cannot be used as a Lectionary (does not meet the requirements of Liturgiam authenticam) or for serious study (base text too old and defective, from a critical perspective), but can be used for private, devotional reading.

 

[angel12]

I am proposing an idea to start a project to put together an edition of the King James Bible that has the deuterocanonical books interspersed throughout the Old Testament rather than separated into a section between the Old and New Testaments and called “the Apocrypha.”

It will also contain study notes explaining the text from a perspective that both Catholics and Orthodox Christians can agree with.

I would really like to see that happen.

 

[Dlee]

Many KJV-onlys read completely separate books for commentary on the books of the Bible. Rarely do you hear of them having a “Study Bible” even though they do mark up their Bibles. To many of them “a study Bible” is simply the copy they write notes and make highlights in.

In my time, the gold standard was King James Version Scofield Reference Edition, (now known as the old Scofield); now replaced by the Scofield Study Bible.

 

[dochawk]

We have to get people out of their “KJV-onlyism” before we have any chance of successfully proving our doctrines.

Wait, what?

Jesus spoke Elizabethan English, didn’t he? The Catholic church hid this, and made fake translations into greek and latin . . .

 

[7MessRobHackOpen]

Exactly. So there are already many Protestant Study Bibles based on the KJV.

I don’t see any reason why we (Orthodox and Catholic Christians) can’t get in on the act.

As I said before, the KJV New Testament was translated from the Greek Textus Receptus, which was compiled by Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a Roman Catholic monk who was born in 1466, just 13 years after the fall of Constantinople.

This meant that he was able to benefit (ironically) from the sacking of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks, which resulted in many Orthodox Christians fleeing to Western Europe carrying their Koine Greek Biblical manuscripts with them.

 

[7MessRobHackOpen]

I said “many” not “most”

 

[Leferdion]

The word ‘’ ecumenical’’ is associated by some fundamentalists with an attempt of the Catholics to create a ‘‘one world religion’’ or assimilate Protestantism. So if you wish to go with the name King James then maybe as phil19034 proposed Common or universal version will be better.

 

[HopkinsReb]

I think we finally settled on the “Papist Vatican II New Evangelization of the Heretics Version."

 

[angel12]

I think we finally settled on the “Papist Vatican II New Evangelization of the Heretics Version."

I like it!!

 

[mrsdizzyd]

7MessRobHackOpen:

I am proposing an idea to start a project to put together an edition of the King James Bible that has the deuterocanonical books interspersed throughout the Old Testament rather than separated into a section between the Old and New Testaments and called “the Apocrypha.”

It will also contain study notes explaining the text from a perspective that both Catholics and Orthodox Christians can agree with.

I would really like to see that happen.

I would also really like to see this happen.

I freely admit that I still use my KJV bible I just cross-reference with Catholic translations. I love the language. Not to mention, I have a lot of scripture committed to memory in the KJV.

(Yes, I know there is the Douay-Rheims. No, it is not the same. However, I do use the Haydock as a cross-reference.)

 

[Dlee]

My frustration with Catholic Bibles is that they are so large - and yes, I know there are extra books, but really. My “protestant” Bibles were printed on onion skin paper which is thinner, lighter, contained two inches of footnotes at the bottom of each page and a margin of reference verses, Old and New Testament. Plus, a concordance and other helps. The Bible was an inch thick. I don’t know why this can’t be accomplished with a Catholic Bible.