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American publishers are taking liberties with the text of the King James Bible.Here is a look at some of the changes.
Updated February 2008
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Are you concerned? Should you be?
The purpose of this booklet is NOT to make comparisonsbetween various modern Bible versions with the King James
Bible, but rather to look at the changes that are being made to the text of King James Bibles. If you do not believe the
King James Bible is the preserved Word of God and that it is without error, this booklet will not be of any interest to you.
This has been written for those who believe the promise of God that He would preserve His Word, and who believe any
change made to the Bible is a sin against the following scripture warnings:
Deut. 4:2, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it,
that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”
Prov. 30:5,6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto
his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
Rev. 22:18,19, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of
life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
Often these verses are used to warn against the modern versions. But those versions are not the Word of God; rather
these warnings specifically refer to the text of Gods Word,the King James Bible. Take some time to look through this
short resource guide, and see whether the following changes have been made in the King James Bible that you own.
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No copyright on the King James Bible The King James Bible is the only English Bible whose textdoes not contain a copyright.
Any number of organizations may freely make copies of it. That may sound good, but it has resulted in many changes to the text of our Bible.
The Bible says of the devil in Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the
LORD God had made.” If he cannot get you to discard your King James Bible for any of the new versions, he will
try to corrupt the very text of your Bible, while keeping the name “King James” or “Authorized Version” on the cover.
One may ask “Are these changes that big of a deal?”
Remember the warning, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Galatians 5:9. After you look at the following
changes that have been made, you will agree that the serpent has slithered through the doors of a lot of American
publishing organizations. He has begun a new battle for the book he has hated for so long.
We will look at changes in the following areas:
1. Doctrinal changes
2. Word changes
3. Spelling changes
Bibles from a number of publishers have been compared.Some publishers put out several different KJV texts that do
not even agree with each other. It is hard to find any American published KJV Bibles that are identical.
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Doctrinal Changes
As born again Christians, we believe the Bible doctrine of the Trinity; that is, God manifested in three Persons. This
doctrine is rejected by various cults. Many deny the deity of the Holy Spirit, and teach that the Holy Spirit is merely the
active force of God. To capitalize the S in “spirit” when referring to the Holy Spirit is proper and right. A small S
would be in agreement with the cults theology. Check the following verses in your King James Bible to see if they
have been tampered with:Genesis 1:2; 41:38
Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6; 14:19; 15:14
I Samuel 10:6; 10:10; 11:6; 16:13, 14; 19:20,23
II Samuel 23:2
I Kings 18:12; 22:24
II Kings 2:16
II Chronicles 15:1; 18:23; 20:14; 24:20
Job 33:4
Isaiah 40:13; 48:16; 59:19; 61:1; 63:10, 11, 14
Ezekiel 11:5
Matthew 4:1
There are verses in your Bible containing the word “spirit”with a small S, which refer to the “spirit of God”. If you
study the passage, you will see it is not referring to the person of the Holy Spirit, but rather to Gods spirit or
emotion.
Word Changes
Luke 4:4, “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
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II Corinthians 2:17, “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”
See if the following changes have been made in your King James Bible. Take the time to look up the definitions of the words, and consider how the meaning of the verse is altered by the new word usage:Reference Gods word Changed to Mark 12:1, Is 63:2 winefat winevat II Timothy 3:17 throughly thoroughly Numbers 20:14 travail travel Joshua 19:2 or and I Samuel 6:4,5,11,17 emerods hemorrhoids Proverbs 22:7 lender leader Numbers 10:25 rereward rearward Joel 2:24, 3:13 fats vats II Samuel 8:4 houghed hocked I John 2:11 darkness blindness Some King James Bibles even go so far as to change Daniel 3:25 from “the Son of God” to “a son of the gods.” Others change all “Greek to English” translated words and names from the New Testament to match the “Hebrew to English” translated Old Testament words, i.e. Noe to Noah, Esaias to Isaiah, Josias to Josiah, Jeremy to Jeremiah.
Who IS Supposed to Handle Gods Word?
The Old Testament teaches us that it was the responsibility of the High Priest to handle the Holy Things. Only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies. In Rev. 1:6, the Word of God says that we (those that are washed from their sins), are kings and priests. So, as New Testament kings and priests, it is our responsibility to handle the Word of God. It
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It is the responsibility of Gods people to print it, produce it, and preserve it. Handling the Word of God is not, nor should ever be, the responsibility of the Bible societies or the world. In allowing the world to print the Word of God, we now have over 120 different English translations, professing to be the Bible.They are also tampering with our King James Bibles, and very subtilely trying to make changes. When approaching some of these publishers, we received the response: “Most people wont notice, and even if they did, they wouldnt care.” Can we expect any less from the world? Read carefully the following quote taken from Webstes Encyclopedic Dictionary, published in 1933, for the word “savior” and then the next entry, the word “Saviour”: Savior- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. Saviour- Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, who is called the Saviour by way of distinction.
Savior is a six letter spelling and in Bible numerics, six is the number of man. Saviour is a seven letter spelling, and in Bible numerics, seven is deity or completion. You could be a savior in a temporal way, rescuing someone from a burning building. But only the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the only one who can save you from your sins. The devil is very subtil. Even if most Christians do not know the difference between the two, he does, and would like to bring our Saviour down to the level of any temporal savior. It would be wise for us to leave the spellings alone. When people learn English as a second language in other countries, they learn the spellings that are used in our King James Bible, not these “Americanized” spellings. If they are given a Bible published by an American publishing house,
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their understanding of some verses could be limited or changed. Reference Godâs word Changed to Joshua 6:9,13 rereward rearward
I Samuel 29:2
Isaiah 52:12,58:8
(The next 6 are the same, except some are plural.)
I Cor. 10:11 ensample example
Philippians 3:17
I Thess. 1:7
II Thess. 3:9
I Peter 5:3
II Peter 2:6
Acts 27:40 hoised hoisted I Thess. 5:14 we who James 4:13 to morrow tomorrow to day today Revelation 12:12 inhabiters inhabitants Gods Word uses both “alway” and “always”, “ensample” and “example” and other pairs of similar words. A thorough study would show that, though similar, these words each have a slightly different meaning as God intended them to have.
The confusion in the world over all of the Bible translations is spilling over because of the changes that are being made in the modern day King James Bibles.
Spelling Changes
Many American publishers have taken the liberty to change the spellings of words in the King James Bible. Notice the following partial list taken from the introduction to a King
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James Bible from an American publisher. This is not by any means a complete list and is only some of the words that one publisher has chosen to change and then put into print that they have changed these words. Some publishers have made as many as 800 or more changes, changing all English spelled words to CONTEMPORARY American spellings,and not mentioning these changes anywhere in their Bible.
FROM: TO: FROM: TO: afterwards afterward Elias Elijah alway always inclose(d) enclose(d) apparelled appareled endeavour endeavor armour armor enquire(d) inquire(d) armoury armory favour favor asswage(d) assuage(d) forbad forbade astonied astonished fulness fullness baken baked fulfil fullfill Balac Balak grisled grizzled basons basins heretick heretic behaviour behavior honour honor behoved behooved unblameable unblamable brasen brazen Esaias Isaiah broided braided Jonas Jonah broidered embroidered jubile jubilee caterpiller caterpillar knop(s) knob(s) chesnut chestnut labour labor clamour clamor lentiles lentils cloke cloak lien lain colour color lothe(d) loathe(d) defence(d) defense(d) marvelled marveled distil distill morter mortar
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Summary
Do these changes just seem trivial to you, or are you concerned that these few changes are too many? If these changes go unchallenged, what will be next? Many Bibles that claim to be KJV on the cover are not KJV inside. These are often published by ungodly men, and are always done by organizations outside of the God-given authority of the local New Testament Church. When Gods work is done outside of His churches, that work is done outside the place of Gods
blessing. Why would we allow something so precious as the publishing of Gods Word to be overseen by men of this world? If we believe that the Authorized Version, the King FROM: TO: FROM: TO: musick music sith sin neesings sneezing spue spew neighbour neighbor stedfast steadfast Noe Noah subtil subtile odour odor subtilty subtility offence offense subtilly subtilely Osee Hosea succourer succorer publick public sycomore sycamore repayed repaid Timotheus Timothy reproveable reprovable traffick traffic rigour rigor traveller traveler rumour rumor intreat entreat Saviour Savior utter outer savour savor valour valor sceptre scepter vapour vapor sepulchre sepulcher wilfully willfully serjeants sergeants winefats winevats shew show withs withes shewbread showbread worshipped worshipe Sion Zion Zacharias Zechariah
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James Bible as we commonly call it, is the preserved Word of God, why do we have so little concern for its purity? And why would we hand it over to the world to do with it as they please? Let us get back to Gods way of publishing His Word, through the local New Testament church. Let us guard the book that has made our Saviour known to us, that has given us faith for this present pilgrimage, and that has given us “light unto our path.” It is our desire to have the pure Word of God in English as God promised He would preserve. However, God uses human instrumentality and because of that fact, and the fact that the devil hates the Word of God, we will always be working on the purity of it, if its “only” an ink splotch or a missing page. We do not claim that this is an exhaustive list of what is happening, but we want you to be AWARE before you just buy your next Bible from the World. We would appreciate feedback from any findings or more changes you come across, so we can keep this booklet updated. Please send any information to us:
Local Church Bible Publishers
1902 E Cavanaugh Rd
Lansing, MI 48910
(517) 882-2112
A ministry of
Parker Memorial Baptist Church