Do you have a hard time reading the King James Version Bible?

Question

I used to read from the KJV as a child and to be honest, I still prefer it. Thee, thy, thou, and art are not that hard of words to figure out.

Answer 1

They are not hard to figure out, but they also are not part of common language. There are also more accurate translations out there such as the New American Standard Version. It is easier to read in that it is in the modern language and as one who has studied Greek. It is a bit more accurate. Nothing wrong with the KJV though.

Answer 2

I prefer if I go with King James to use the NKJV since all it does is change the thees and thys into their current equivalent. I don't hate the KJV but I find it a little annoying to read for a long period of time. I like reading from different versions of the Bible for better understanding, especially when I find certain verses that seem to speak to me personally when I read them.

And I will say some versions may be bad with paraphrasing but I have compared Bibles and find that there are a quite a few good translations and it's nice to read them to understand the verse even better. I also find most of the time that the better translations all say the same thing in a different way. KJV is not the only decent Bible.

An example of a not so good Bible to do all your Bible studying in is "The Message Bible." It is a good paraphrase and a good study tool along side another Bible though.

Answer 3

Probably. Just remember that the King James Version was written in Shakespearean English, so if you can read Shakespeare easily, then you would have no trouble with the KJV. If you are trying to find a more accurate version, you might try the New American Standard or the New International Version since they both benefit from scholarship and discoveries that were not available when the KJV was written. You might also want to check out the Amplified Bible. It does a good job of expanding on words that have more meaning than the English word they are translated into. Greek has four different words that are all translated "love" in English, yet in greek, each word refers to a different form of love. You can get more meaning by knowing which word is used. For example: when Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, the first two times Jesus asks if Peter agapes (unconditionally love) Him, and the last time he asks if he phileos (brotherly or friendly love) Him.

Answer 4

I don't, but I am very well read, and have a background in German and Latin as well (very helpful with English). It is my contention that *most* people will fail to properly understand passages in the King James Version (KJV). "Thy" and "thou" are definitely not the problem words. Some that are: "meat" and "bread" - just two examples of *several* words that have decidedly changed meaning in a way that causes most readers to misunderstand the KJV. Certainly not all readers have this difficulty. It's not as difficult as "Le Morte de Arthur", for example, but is definitely more difficult than works written in the last 2 centuries. In addition, as mentioned in other answers, are the considerations that the KJV fails to make use of the last 400 years of advances in biblical language scholarship and biblical archaeology.

So, is the KJV worthwhile? Yes. It is a "valid" translation of the word of God. Are there better (more worthwhile) versions available? Absolutely. Nearly any modern scholarly translation will "transmit" the word of God to the reader more clearly (and with less fault) than the KJV.

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 5

When I was younger, my church used the New American Standard Bible (NASB). It's highly regarded as being a very accurate translation.

Since the KJV was made during the 17th century, it did not have the benefit of some of the sources that have been discovered since then (and improvements in understanding of ancient languages). So in many passages it is considered less accurate.

Example: Job 39:9
"Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?" (KJV)
"Will the wild ox consent to serve you, or will he spend the night at your manger?" (NASB)

Answer 6

Did some background work on all these translations, KJV is the best in my opinion, most other Bibles are paraphrased. Thats scary. Although you can find God in the others I feel the KJV is the best. Most of the other translations was done for one reason, money. How else can you get more Bibles to sell, they needed away to make bibles sell more, so with all these translations you have alot of Christians now with 4 or 5 different Bibles at home now, can you imagine all these preachers and how many Bibles they have, stick with the old KJV, its the best!!

Answer 7

No. Grew up with it and it sure helped with reading Shakespeare, but if I want to get at the exact meaning - I go look at a more up to date English version like the NRSV or the NIV. And when I say it helped me to read Shakespeare, I don't mean understand every word he wrote, but be able to not stumble over the words when reading aloud in English class.

Now if I could just find a modern translation that had the nouns spelled phonetically like my old KJV does.

Even more difficult than the English of the Geneva translation is John Wycliffe's New Testament translation of 1385:
For God louede so the world, that he yaf his `oon bigetun sone, that ech man that bileueth in him perische not, but haue euerlastynge lijf. (John 3:16 WycliffeNT)

Answer 8

I don't have a problem with it. I did before I was saved though. I was one of the ones who said it was too diffucult to read and it was outdated, etc.

But, now that I am a child of God, I read the real Word of God, which is the King James Bible.

It is a lot like the story of the writing on the wall in the book of Daniel. The king and his people couldn't read the writing on the wall from the hand of God, it took Daniel to interpret it, who was a man of God. It takes a man of God to understand the Word of God.

That parallels to today's world. If you can't understand the King James Bible, maybe you should check your salvation. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us understand the Bible, and if you aren't getting it, maybe you don't have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

Just a thought.

Answer 9

Try the New King James Version.

Answer 10

The NEW KJV .... replaces those Thee, thou, those... with Modern English..... AND STILL PERSERVES.... the Actual Translation!

I have done extensive study in the OT Hebrew and NT Greek to find out the Correct Translation and the KJV is what I use!

Hear this message...How to get the most from God's Word.... here..... http://www.gty.org/

Thanks for Asking ! In Christ Jesus.... Roger R.