- My statement is not rendered false simply because “preferences” for the KJV exist outside of those I’ve explicitly outlined.
- He’s had several episodes over the past year dealing with TR advocates other than Doug Wilson and his interactions with those arguments are much more akin to how he deals with KJV-only cultists than how he dealt with Doug Wilson.
What is TR?
Textus Receptus. The received text.
That has a lot to do with how the other side handles things.
Look around on the internet, and you will find a great many KJVO/TRO advocates are hypersensitive and aggressive.
Wilson, on the other hand, is robust. He a man, and a man’s man at that. While he certainly can be aggressive, in his own way, it is generally well-tempered.
In other words, Wilson can and has handled himself well in a debate, which Dr White greatly respects, but many, many, many KJVO/TRO advocates simply melt down when presented with important questions.
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OK. I’m not going to argue about it any more.
But I am going to second your objection.
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I’ve switched recently from a decade of the NASB MacArthur study bible to the NKJV Reformation study bible. The ESV was tempting, but it butchers some things
(like the “effeminate” debate, not rendering “God hates divorce”). The NKJV is quite literal and has footnotes to mention where the NU or Majority text differs. It also has the added bonus that it is quite poetic. Now we just need to get a Reformation study bible that takes a baptist/proper view of the covenants 
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I have the KJV Reformation Heritage study bible. I wish I could have afforded a leather-bound edition, nonetheless it’s my favorite study bible I’ve ever owned.
For those who’ve opted for the NKJV (like yourself), what put you on that path versus the NASB or the KJV? I’ve never had a firm grasp of the reasons for opting for it, but I am curious what it offers as a translation alternative to other popular versions.
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How likely is the publisher of the NKJV, Thomas Nelson, to stand firm when everyone else is producing gender-neutral downdates, I wonder? Two version changes in quick succession would be discouraging.
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Or, consider the fact that Thomas Nelson is owned by, gulp, HarperCollins. Without getting all conspiracy-theorist, the combination of the chance to neuter God’s Word + the big $$$ (the goal of every publisher) found in marketing Bible translations could steer the ship toward those waters quite easily (if it hasn’t been discussed already).
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The NKJV was the first Bible gifted to me and I did a lot of memorization in it. The KJV seems too archaic for my tastes and doesn’t tell you when the NU or M differs. I did wish the NKJV would better distinguish between the 2nd person singular and plural, but that’s a trade off I’m willing to make because it’s otherwise quite literal poetic, imo.
I think that this grossly overestimates most people’s facility with languages. If we want Christ’s gospel to be available to people below 120 IQ, we owe them a Bible in the vernacular. We justly condemn the Papists for hiding God’s truth behind a wall of Latin. Let us not do the same.
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I also said:
The point is not to stop using translations in the common vernacular, but to decentralize the process of translation and provide a check against the power of the big publishers. It’s not a matter of making everyone use only the original languages, but expanding the understanding of the original languages from less than 1% of churchgoers to something like 3% or 5%. That is an ambition goal, to be sure, but it in no way seems impossible to me that 5% of Christians have the capacity to do this if they also had the will and the tools.
I fully agree. And think about how many languages still exist today that don’t have the Bible translated into their vernacular. Wouldn’t increasing the pool of Christians at home who know Greek and Hebrew greatly increase the likelihood of missionaries being sent who can more readily translate the Scriptures into these languages?
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Including pastors, particularly. The problem in the church today is not the lack of facility with the original languages, but the death of reading sustained arguments, and therefore the death of reading comprehension. This is particularly true of men preparing for ministry, and particularly at seminaries. Men who get an A in Hebrew and Greek rarely can read or write. They can’t make or follow an argument. They can read and regurgitate what they read, and so, many men blab and blab on social media abt theological works they’ve swallowed whole. Sometimes they can even argue, but rarely with wisdom, perspective, and self-awareness.
Yes, I’m a believer in pastors knowing the original languages, but only if they realize that 999 out of 1,000 of us only know barely enough to make ourselves dangerous. Why, you can’t even trust men like Don Carson whose problems are most certainly not that he doesn’t know enough Greek. His problem is that he doesn’t know himself, so his pride runs into no roadblocks in its corruption of his scholarship.
Two things: First, the real need in the church today is not the recovery of knowledge of the original languages, but recovery of the authority of the Word of God. It is largely dead today, and especially among those who claim to hold to inerrancy. Most conservative Reformed men today show themselves to be Neo-orthodox in their preaching and writing. They don’t actually believe in the inspiration of the words themselves, but rather in the concepts and meanings conveyed by the words. This is the reason all kinds of Bible scholars who have signed inerrancy statements of faith in order to get paid by their college/seminary have produced neutered Bibles. And the fact that no one is firing them shows their deans and presidents and trustees are also Neo-orthodox.
Second, I’ve been saying for decades we need a new formal equivalence Bible. Maybe it would take $20,000,000 to produce? It should be funded by patrons so, from the beginning, it would be copyright free for everything but maintaining textual integrity. Pray for it. Find someone to fund it. Several of us would be on board immediately, and likely we can get many more to help. The men controlling the ESV quickly proved themselves to untrustworthy. Let’s do it again, and this time humbly and faithfully with no greed for filthy lucre. Love,
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I have the Reformation Heritage KJV bible too. I like it. I’m attending PRTS where Dr. Beeke is the president. I think his study notes are very good. There is an element of personal application always running through them. It also unpacks the sense of the KJV which makes it easier to teach from. The theological essays in the back on various issues are thoughtful, rigorously sourced back to the Scriptures, and generous where they need to be. All in all it’s a wonderful edition.
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Do you have thoughts on the Berean Bible project.
It seems to be an attempt at some of this. From the surface, it seems free from “greed for filthy lucre.” It seems like a good translation to this admittedly ignorant layman. I’ve been reading it for a few years, though the OT is not yet complete.
Never heard of it. Who’s behind it?
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I actually did try to get to that page several times before asking. For some reason I couldn’t click the link on my phone, though. So thanks for getting it.
I love this from the bottom of the page:
After this letter has been read among you, make sure that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. – Colossians 4:16
The Scriptures belonged to the church and were meant to be examined, copied, and distributed. We hope to be able to live up to this example with all the resources we have been entrusted to pass on.
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Grant Osborne died a couple years ago and he was a feminist. That alone would be all I need to know. No feminist ever believes in the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture no matter what he says or what statement of faith he has signed. He simply cannot. Love,
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