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There is a specific theological movement known as King James Onlyism. Its a minority position and not held among (theologically) liberal or conservative bible s
by jlos 7y ago
There is a specific theological movement known as King James Onlyism. Its a minority position and not held among (theologically) liberal or conservative bible scholars. In fact, the KJV version most popular is actually the 1811 Authorized Version, which itself underwent nearly 200 years of revision and updates.
The original translation of the King James, like Luther's German bible, was a monumental work of cutting edge scholarship and had profound social impact. For several centuries leading up to the 16th century no full Greek or Hebrew manuscripts were available for translation.
The main issue with the King James Version is that we have better manuscripts available. The Textus Receptus, which was a truly amazing piece of scholarship at its time, is no longer preferred. Scholars now use an 'eclectic' text, a combination of manuscripts. I believe we have something on the order of 24,000 manuscript fragments of varying length for the New Testament, some even potentially dating to the first century. Modern translators have access to better resources than the KJV translators did.