The Origin of the King James Bible

[0:00] But we're going to go ahead and turn the rest of the time over here to Brother Sorenson here tonight. And just thankful for him coming and sharing this with us. Well, amen. It's good to be back here again at Plains Baptist Church tonight.

[0:11] And it's been a wonderful time this week. I want to, and I don't know the names, but a gentleman let me use his car these last several days. Thank you. Several of you ladies brought meals over.

[0:22] Thank you so much. The pastor and his wife have been so gracious in their hospitality. Thank you, brother. And it has been good to be here. Tonight, what we're going to be going through is contained in this book.

[0:34] In fact, there's considerably more detail in this book than we're going to say tonight. And I would hate to carry all this weight back with me on the airplane. Got one left. And there's a couple others that are just two or three other books left back there.

[0:48] If you'd like to order one, make sure that you see Pam and she can do the paperwork for you there tonight. Well, last night, as you recall, we dealt with the lineage of the critical text.

[1:03] The origins of it. The editors and those who refined it in recent decades. And it was a litany, a who's who of apostasy and liberalism and unbelief and even the occult and finally even agnosticism.

[1:21] Tonight, we're going to see a totally different lineage of people who love the Lord, people who were soul winners, people who were martyrs. And let's follow tonight.

[1:32] First of all, the traditional text, the traditional received text. And then we'll get into more recent history as we get closer in history. But there is evidence of the received text, the traditional text going back to the earliest days of Christianity.

[1:50] Of course, these folks say that they're based on the oldest and best manuscripts, which really is not true, as we saw the other day. But after World War II, a man was in Egypt exploring, and he came across a manuscript, a portion, a fragment of a manuscript that was called papyri.

[2:13] Now, I'm sure you don't use that word very often, but it refers to papyrus, which was a type of plant that was woven into a very crude type of paper back in biblical times.

[2:25] And because it was basically a paper-type product, it did not last. But in the dry, hot sands of Egypt, several of these old manuscripts were preserved. One was called the Bodmer papyri, and it contains portions of the Gospel of John that are distinctive to the traditional text.

[2:44] And that papyri, or that document, dated to the year 125. That's not far after the death of the Apostle John. Similarly, another ancient papyri was found after World War II, which dated to the year 150 A.D.

[3:03] Again, reflecting the distinctives of the traditional text. We saw some of the issues the other day. Verses left out, verses that are there. Early church leaders quoted various verses distinctive to the traditional text, such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ignatius, Hippolytus, and others in the second century.

[3:28] Now, the second century is the century that began with the year 100. They were quoting texts that are distinctive to the traditional text, and of course that is where the King James Bible is based.

[3:40] And so there is substantial historical evidence going back to the earliest days of Christianity. And we touched just briefly, I think Sunday, maybe Monday, I forget which day.

[3:57] But touched just briefly on some of the early translations. God saw to it that his word was translated into the common languages, the vernacular languages that most people spoke down through the ages.

[4:10] And the first translation that we are aware of, of the New Testament, was called the Peshitta translation. That is a Syrian word. The Peshitta translation was sponsored by the church at Antioch.

[4:25] You'll recall that the church at Antioch was the ascending church, the home church of the Apostle Paul when he went out on his missionary journeys. Early and very early in New Testament history, the church at Jerusalem had come under great persecution.

[4:38] We read about that in Acts chapter 11. And also because of a great economic depression, many of the believers fled from Jerusalem up to Antioch.

[4:50] And it became the central church, the leadership church in the second century, the end of the first and end of the second century.

[5:01] Anyway, in the year 150, the Syrian churches led by the church at Antioch produced a translation, sometimes called the Syriac translation, which means in Syrian.

[5:13] But its title was Peshitta, which in Syrian means just the basic translation. And the Syrian church leaders today say that the Peshitta can be traced back to the beginning of Christianity.

[5:29] We have more conservative scholars will say it was produced in the year 150. But that's very, very early. But what's distinctive about the Peshitta translation is that it follows the traditional text.

[5:42] And as I said the other day, folks, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if a translation follows the traditional text, it was translated from the traditional text. It existed.

[5:54] That was the New Testament. That was the word of God in that era. Well, coming just about seven years later, in northern Italy, a group of churches known as the Italic churches, they had nothing to do with the Roman church.

[6:10] And as I mentioned the other day, the Catholic church hadn't even been invented yet, as it were. That didn't really develop until into the fourth century. So the Catholics would dispute that. I got into a discussion, a very good discussion the other night with a gentleman here about the birth of the Catholic church.

[6:26] He wasn't arguing about it. He just had questions about it. But they will tell you, it goes back to Peter. I don't want to get off on that, Brother Smith. But anyway, the Italic churches in the year 157 produced a translation in Old Latin.

[6:40] And it was based, and it follows the traditional text of the New Testament, the received text. It was the working text. I mean, this is powerful, powerful evidence of which text is correct, the traditional text or the critical text.

[6:56] In the year 350, a missionary in southeastern Europe by the name of Uphilus. How do you like to have that for a last name?

[7:09] And you go to kindergarten and say, spell your last name. But anyway, a man by the name of Uphilus on the field in southwestern Germany produced a translation of the New Testament in the Gothic language, which was the language of much of Eastern Europe at that time.

[7:27] It follows the traditional text. And incidentally, there is still a copy of the Gothic translation at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, one of the city's universities there in the nation of Sweden.

[7:42] It also follows the traditional text. A missionary on the field without access to libraries and things you might find in the big cities, the big churches. But he translates, and it's clear he's working from the traditional received text.

[7:56] Again, this is powerful, powerful evidence of the validity and the integrity of the traditional text. And there are other ancient translations as well. But moving a little bit forward into history, in the year 1453, Constantinople, which was the headquarters of the Eastern Empire, the Greek Empire, of the Roman Empire, I should say, in 1453, Constantinople fell to the Muslims.

[8:24] And they overran that region of the world. And as you know, the Muslims usually were not kindly disposed to Christianity. And so many Greek spiritual leaders fled from Greece up into Central Europe, and they took with them many manuscripts of the New Testament.

[8:48] These were largely produced at a place called Mount Athos, which is just south of Thessalonica, where there, to this day, are numerous scriptoriums where they copy the scriptures. They sometimes are called the Byzantine text.

[9:02] It's another synonym for the received text. But anyway, so now the Greek New Testament manuscripts are in Central Europe. In the year 1440, a German goldsmith by the name of Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press and revolutionized it, and really brought on not only the Reformation, but the Renaissance.

[9:26] And so in the year, the early 1500s, which would be the early 16th century, a Catholic scholar by the name of Erasmus, there had not been any Reformation yet.

[9:40] There were not any Protestants yet. But a scholar in Europe by the name of Erasmus began studying the Greek New Testament. And little by little, his first name was Desiderius, Erasmus was converted.

[9:58] He became a born-again Christian. And he became intrigued with publishing the New Testament. And so now with the advent of printing, in the year 1516, Erasmus, as I mentioned the other day, did something that had never been done before in human history.

[10:15] And that is that he put the New Testament into print. Now this is a recent edition of it, but this is basically Erasmus' text. He took the New Testament in Greek and printed it.

[10:30] The first one to publish the Word of God in printed form. And it began to go all over Europe. Now, over a span of 20 years, Erasmus not only became a Christian, a true Christian, a born-again Christian, but toward the end of his career, as he continued to study the New Testament, the man became very closely aligned with the Anabaptists in Central Europe.

[10:58] Now the Anabaptists are our historical forerunner. The word Anabaptists means re- And then tacked down to the preface, Anna, to the word Baptist, it means re-baptizers.

[11:10] And, by the way, it was a pejorative term. People who had been sprinkled as a Catholic, and then they got saved, and then they went down to the local river and were immersed, they called them re-baptizers.

[11:23] It was not a compliment. But, Erasmus came to a Baptist position in his writings. He talked about, after a person is saved, then he follows the Lord in the water of baptism by immersion as a public testimony.

[11:38] Folks, that's Baptist doctrine. And there was communication between him and Balthasar Hubmeyer, who was one of the leaders of the Anabaptist movement. And Erasmus did not officially join the Anabaptists, but doctrinally he became a Baptist.

[11:55] And that's significant. Here is a man who's working with a text, and he gets saved, and he basically becomes a Baptist. But anyway, Erasmus, over the course of the final years of his career, produced a total of five editions of the New Testament.

[12:11] Now, last night we talked about editions, how in modern printing and publishing, an edition means something's been changed. Back then, an edition meant just a reprint, because of the nature of letterpress printing, which was very primitive and by modern standards.

[12:26] But nevertheless, when we talk about these editions then, they basically are just reprints of the earlier, today with computers and so forth. In fact, I was dealing with one of my books today with a printing company, and they have the PDF files on archive there, and you can reprint easily anywhere.

[12:46] But back then, every page had to be reset manually with letters, and we'll get into that here tonight. But anyway, Erasmus printed five editions of his New Testament.

[12:57] He died. And sometime not long thereafter, in Central Europe, another man by the name of Robert Stevens, in French it would be Robert Esteens, in Latin it's Robert Stephanus, all referring to the same guy.

[13:13] He was a printer by trade and by profession, and he specialized in printing religious books. And he began to study these Greek manuscripts, or rather, I should say, Erasmus printed Greek text, and he began to print Erasmus text.

[13:31] And as a result, in his studying of the Greek text, Robert Stephanus became a born-again Christian, and was publishing the New Testament in Paris.

[13:43] Well, Paris was a Catholic, or France was a Catholic country. And the Catholics took a very dim view of the publication of the scripture. They did not want people to read it. And he faced the French Inquisition, which forced him to flee Paris to Geneva, Switzerland, which was a Protestant enclave.

[14:02] Incidentally, getting back to Erasmus, the Catholics said about Erasmus that Erasmus laid the eggs, and Luther hatched them. In other words, that Erasmus was the forerunner of the Reformation, because Luther read Erasmus' New Testament, and in due course, left the Catholic Church.

[14:21] Well, that's another story for another day. And so Erasmus was followed by Stephanus. And Stephanus did something that no one else had done in biblical history.

[14:32] And that, in his third edition, in his third reprint, he put in what we consider today to be the standard chapter and verse divisions.

[14:44] Prior to that time, there was just biblical books, but there were no chapters and verses. You'd have to fish into the book of John to find what we call John 3.16 today. But Stephanus is the one who developed the chapter and verse divisions, which continue to this day.

[15:00] Well, he died. And back in Paris, again, another printer who specialized in religious books began to print the New Testament that Erasmus had originally printed, and Stephanus was printing, his name was Theodore Beza.

[15:19] He likewise got saved from studying the Word of God. And he was forced to flee. He had to pack up his printing business in the middle of the night and flee to Geneva, Switzerland, because of the persecution he was facing there.

[15:37] But he went on in the course of his career to publish ten editions, or ten reprints, if you will, of the New Testament. What is significant about Theodore Beza is that when the King James translators sat down to begin their work in the year 1604, and you have a list of the translators there, we'll get to that here in a few minutes, but when they began their work, they worked primarily from Theodore Beza's fifth reprint, or fifth edition.

[16:04] And so, here are men who came to Christ, faced persecution, pled for their lives, or printing the New Testament, in this case, in Greek.

[16:19] Well, we moved to England, and in the early 1500s, another English Catholic, a man by the name of William Tyndale, got a hold of one of Erasmus' printed New Testaments.

[16:38] And in studying it, guess what? William Tyndale came to Christ. William Tyndale got saved. He was a scholar.

[16:51] He was a linguist. He was a brilliant man. And he got a burden to place the Word of God into the English language. Now, back in 1382, Jonathan Wycliffe had translated the New Testament from the Latin Vulgate, the Catholic Bible, into Middle English.

[17:14] Now, that is the forerunner of modern English, and we would have much difficulty understanding it. It's almost like a different language. But, Wycliffe had put the New Testament into Middle English.

[17:26] This was before the advent of the printing press, and every copy of Wycliffe's Bible were hand-copied. But it produced a revival in England. And it was expensive.

[17:37] I mean, somebody had to pay the people who were copying these page after page. And a common workman in England might have to spend a week's wage to get one page of the New Testament.

[17:51] But, by the end of the 1300s, and these who followed Wycliffe and became born-again Christians were called the Lollards. And it was named after a Waldensian leader that they picked up that name.

[18:04] But, by the end of the 1300s, the end of the 14th century, it was said that one out of every two people you'd meet on the street in London was a Lollard.

[18:17] And they basically were born again, were Baptists, Independent Baptists, in their doctrine. Pardon me, more medicine. But, William Tyndale, in the 1500s, put the New Testament into English and published it.

[18:34] Now, the Catholic authorities in England would not allow it, so he went to the continent and did his work, some in Belgium, some in Holland, some in Germany, wherever he could keep one step ahead of the Catholics, published it and smuggled it back into England.

[18:51] They'd take Wycliffe's New Testament, and he published also a portion of the Old Testament, and placed them in barrels of flour to smuggle them into England. Well, the Catholics caught on to that, and they rounded up as many of Wycliffe's Bibles as they could and burned them in great bonfires.

[19:11] And an arrest warrant went out from the King of England, who at that point was still a Catholic, Henry VIII, he would soon change, but still a Catholic, and he issued an arrest warrant to whoever and wherever.

[19:24] And an Englishman went to Belgium, where Wycliffe was now living, and was like a Judas Iscariot. he portrayed himself as one loyal to Wycliffe and one who was a friend and he'd come to help him when in fact he was plotting to turn him over to the authorities, which he did.

[19:45] And he reported to the Catholic authorities where Wycliffe lived, I'm sorry, Tyndale lived, and as the Catholics were coming in the front door, they arrested Tyndale, though his associate, Coverdale, was going out the back door with some of his materials.

[20:01] But Tyndale suffered for I think about eight months in a most dismal dungeon there in Belgium, and in 1536, he was led to the stake, and before he died, he said, Lord, open the eyes of the king of England.

[20:21] He was chained to the stake, he was strangled to death, and then the fire materials underneath him were ignited, and he was burned.

[20:32] This book is a picture, at least an artist's depictation of Tyndale being burned and saved. He became a martyr of Jesus Christ. Well, after his death, his associate, Miles Coverdale, continued his work.

[20:48] In the meantime, Henry, King Henry VIII, had become, quote-unquote, a Protestant. He left the Catholic Church, and some of you know that history, I won't go into that much here tonight. And now, it was no longer illegal to print Bibles in England.

[21:06] And so, Coverdale completed the Old Testament, which Tyndale had not done before he was martyred, though Coverdale had to work from the German and Latin because he didn't know Hebrew well enough to translate it.

[21:17] But nevertheless, in 1535, he produced the Coverdale Bible. And then, several years later, Henry VIII determined that we need to have a Bible for every church in England to put on the pulpit.

[21:33] And it was a large pulpit Bible, family Bible type thing. I forget, it was about this big. And they called it the Great Bible. But again, it was Tyndale's New Testament and Coverdale's Old Testament because Tyndale had been accused of being a heretic.

[21:48] He didn't put the name of Tyndale on it. But nevertheless, Henry died, and in the year 1553, and there was a short reign of his son Edward for six years, who was a godly young king from nine years old to 15 years old.

[22:03] But then, when little Edward died, Mary's, I'm sorry, Henry's daughter, Mary I of England, ascended the throne. Ascended the throne. She was a staunch Roman Catholic, a virulent, a vehement Roman Catholic.

[22:19] And she soon received the nickname of Bloody Mary because she sought out to find all these people who were printing Bibles or using Bibles, those who were the Puritans or the developing Puritan movement, and over the course of Mary's five-year reign, she put 300 of them to the stake, earned them to death.

[22:41] Bloody Mary. Well, Miles Coverdale escaped by the skin of his teeth because his brother-in-law was the British ambassador to Denmark and he prevailed upon Queen Mary to release his brother-in-law and so he went to Denmark and then eventually down to Geneva.

[22:59] Meanwhile, a Catholic priest in England had pastored a small Catholic parish in London and I guess thought it was too small or whatever, but he went to Belgium and went to work for a British shipping company and was the company's chaplain, paid chaplain.

[23:19] But while there in Belgium he ran into William Tyndale and Tyndale led him to Christ. Tyndale was not only a translator and a publisher, folks, he was a soul winner. And he led John Rogers to Christ.

[23:31] And John Rogers went back to England and translated or produced another run, another reprint of the Tyndale Bible.

[23:42] It was called the Matthew Bible because A, he was not the translator. B, Tyndale had been declared a heretic earlier. And C, I think he hoped by using a pseudonym he would escape the wrath of Queen Mary.

[23:55] He did not. He was arrested. He was burned at the stake for printing the Matthew Bible. And so, because of the persecution of Bloody Mary, scores, in fact, hundreds of Puritan Englishmen.

[24:13] Puritans were basically the fundamentalists of their day. They were not exactly Baptist. They'd be more of a Presbyterian flavor. But nevertheless, they were Bible believers and many of them were born-again men.

[24:25] And about 800 families fled to Geneva, Switzerland to escape the wrath and the terror and the inquisition of Bloody Mary. She died, incidentally, in 1558. But while there in Geneva, several of those scholars, English scholars, produced a translation to the Bible called the Geneva Bible.

[24:45] And it was sent back to England and it became widely accepted by the common people and many, many thousands of the Geneva Bible were printed. In fact, it's still in print today.

[24:57] However, the Geneva Bible had several distinctives. It was interesting in that it was the first Bible to have marginal notes, the first Bible to have introductory notes, the first Bible to have maps at the back, sort of like a Schofield Bible.

[25:13] Study Bibles we recognize today. But it was, had this characteristic. It was highly critical of the hierarchy of the Church of England and all the pomp and ceremony of the Anglican Church.

[25:31] It also was critical of the divine right of kings to rule. And so that would later irritate King James when he came on the scene. And so, because the Geneva Bible was popular with the people yet critical of the Church of the Church leadership, the Church of England sponsored their own Bible.

[25:50] in the year 1568 they called it the Bishop's Bible produced by the bishops of the Church of England. And basically it just went to each parish church there in England.

[26:03] It was not read by many people and those who did read it did not like it. It was a poor translation. It was, it did not flow smoothly. It was not well translated.

[26:14] And so it basically was just the pulpit Bible in the Anglican churches. And as we touched there I think on Monday night we've gone through six translations in a relatively brief period of time in the English language.

[26:30] Also, I might add that the Geneva Bible was the first Bible to be completely translated from Greek in the New Testament and particularly the Old Testament completely in Hebrew.

[26:41] And likewise was the Bishop Bible. They all, incidentally, were translated from the traditional received text. Well, let's move to Scotland. In the year 1566 a baby boy was born to Mary Queen of Scots and was named James Stewart.

[26:59] His father's name was I think William Stewart. Maybe wrong in the first name but his last name was Stewart. And so we're talking now about a little boy by the name of James Stewart. His mother Mary Queen of Scots not the same Mary Bloody Mary different person but she was called Mary Queen of Scots.

[27:16] She was a Catholic and the leadership in Scotland by this time had become largely Protestant. They were not happy with having a Catholic Queen and long story short and it did involve a short civil war but Mary was thrown off the throne and she was forced to flee to England in exile.

[27:41] Meanwhile her husband had died in fact all indications were he was murdered. The woman the man that Mary Queen of Scots was probably having an affair with blew up his house and he died in the explosion.

[27:53] I mean these are not good people. But anyway so Elizabeth I'm sorry Mary Queen of Scots is now in exile and Elizabeth by now was the new queen in England Queen Elizabeth I.

[28:08] first. She was well aware that Mary Queen of Scots was a Catholic and Mary thought she was entitled to the throne of England. Elizabeth was aware of that and she put her under house arrest. And in due season a plot was uncovered to overthrow Elizabeth by the Catholics and by the way when England went from being a Catholic nation to a Protestant nation folks it did not go smoothly.

[28:32] I mean we're going to see some other incidents here in a moment. But so Mary Queen of Scots was involved in an insurrection and as a result she was sent to the Tower of London and off came her head.

[28:48] She lost her mind. They beheaded her. Now back up in Scotland little James who by the way was a royal James at the age of 13 months became King James the 6th of Scotland.

[29:06] I like to hear King being 13 months old. Well obviously he did not actually sit on the throne then but he was in the direct lineage of that and he was tutored and raised by what were called regents and the principal regent who tutored little James from the time he was 4 years old to the time he was 17 years old was a man by the name of George Buchanan and that is significant.

[29:35] George Buchanan was considered not only one of the best scholars in Scotland but he also was a born again Christian who loved the Lord and knew the scriptures very well.

[29:48] He basically homeschooled little James for 13 years even paddled him you know corporal punishment imagine spanking the king but he taught and trained little James in the basic classical studies of reading and math and history and science but he also thoroughly trained little James in Bible and in theology in biblical Hebrew and biblical Greek this was King James the 6th of Scotland and by the time he ascended the throne at the age of 17 years old he was probably better trained theologically than most pastors were of that day and even today he was very very well trained in Bible James was said to know the entire Bible by heart well I think that's an exaggeration but he obviously knew large amounts of scripture he'd memorized

[30:51] James would attend church services on Sunday every Sunday and Sunday afternoon faithfully they did not have midweek services but what James did is direct local preachers Bible preachers were basically Presbyterians but the Presbyterians back then although we would disagree with them on baptism and a few other things but they basically were born again Bible preachers and he brought them in to his palace his castle several times a week for a chapel service and required his courtiers to attend those chapel services and they heard Bible preaching he wrote a book for his son his first son was Henry who he assumed would ascend the throne but Henry died and so later it was Charles who would succeed him but he wrote a book entitled I don't remember the name of it but anyway it was a book describing how a godly king should rule how to seek the Lord's guidance and how to live a godly life he even translated scriptures not anything to do with the King James Bible but just for his own personal enjoyment and in his earlier years

[32:07] I believe that King James the sixth of Scotland and would soon become King James the first of England that in his the first part of his life there probably was not a more godly king since the time of Josiah that is saying quite a lot later in life as some of the kings of Judah did as he became wealthy and powerful and famous he backslid and there were problems in his life later on but in these formative years he was a godly man and God I believe was preparing him for a special task which would take place not long thereafter well in the meantime Queen Elizabeth who had been the the the the queen of England now for for decades was in poor health down in London and she knew and her those close to her knew that her days were numbered and she was not married and she did not have any children and I'm not exactly sure of all the protocol of British progression of who succeeds the throne but she had the prerogative to choose her successor and she chose her cousin

[33:19] King James the sixth of Scotland and he soon would become King James the first of England well as I said a moment ago the the transition in England from Catholic to Protestant did not go smoothly and there still were large pockets of Catholics in England and they from time to time openly plotted to overthrow the throne and put Catholics back in leadership I'm going to tell you a story about what happened just two years after James ascended the throne but it was true even before in the year 1605 a Catholic Jesuit by the name of Guy Fawkes F-A-W-K-E-S along with numbers of other Catholics there in England conspired to get rid of King James and the Protestant Parliament here's what they did they rented the building next door to the Parliament and at night they would dig through the basement walls and eventually dug their way into the basement of the Parliament and then by night they brought in 36 barrels of gunpowder and in due course put them in the basement under the Parliament and the King and the Parliament were to meet on November 5th 1605 and commence the government activities well

[34:49] Guy Fawkes had made the mistake I guess of putting this into writing and there were quite a few Catholics involved in this it just wasn't him alone he was the point man on it and the written plans of this plot fell into the hands of the authorities on the night of November 5th or the night before November 4th the authorities raided the basement of Parliament and caught Guy Fawkes there in the basement with matches ready to light the fuses and his plan was after lighting the fuse he'd run out the door jump on a boat and rode across the Tams River and blew boom him blew him whatever would up go the Parliament King kill the King and all the Parliament it was called the gunpowder plot and what's interesting is in England to this day on November 5th they celebrate the gunpowder plot by shooting off fireworks that still happens every year but I tell you that story to illustrate the atmosphere and the political climate in England of that day because it will have a bearing here in just a moment and so in March of 1603

[35:57] Elizabeth died word was sent up to Edinburgh Scotland informing James that he was now to come and be the new king of England of the entire British Isles and so he packed up his family his wife and his children and they began the 400 mile journey from Edinburgh Scotland down to London now folks you can imagine the roads of those days and imagine the carriages of those days and they bounced and jounced down the road and James got tired of it and got out and rode on horseback his poor wife and children had to ride in the carriage but as they neared London something happened suddenly a band of horsemen interdicted the king's carriage he had just a handful of guards and they sprung to a defensive position but the leader of the horsemen put his hand up and said sire we come in peace the name of that man was John Reynolds John Reynolds was the leader of the Puritan movement in England and he had a petition in his hand signed by 1,000 Puritan preachers petitioning the king to make changes in the church of England they knew if they tried to go up through the channels of the hierarchy of the church it would go nowhere and so they went over the head of the hierarchy and went directly to the new king you see the king then and even now today believe it or not is still the titular head or the official head of the church of England

[37:28] James took their petition it's called the millinery petition took the petition and said yes I will consider it and we'll have a conference to deal with this and so that was in April of 1603 toward the end of the year I mean James got there and had just barely been coronated and then the black plague set in kind of like COVID and it just shut the country down and it wasn't until January of 1604 that James called the conference he'd promised the Puritans which he would do it was held at Hampton Court which is a substantial palace on the north side of England the north side of London I should say and there at the Hampton Court conference was the head of the bishops of the Church of England Richard Bancroft and on the other side was John Reynolds the bishops by the way were not happy about these redneck Puritans trying to change their church that's in the Greek by the way the redneck part but he held the conference and John Reynolds presented their petitions that they would change various things in the church doing away some of the pomp and ceremony of the Anglican church and James did not agree to that but John Reynolds said and finally sire we would petition that you authorize a new translation of the Bible this was in January of 1604

[38:53] James said yes and he knew the Geneva Bible was popular but he didn't like it because it criticized the divine right of kings to rule he knew the bishop's Bible was the official Bible but nobody liked it and so he said we'll come up with a new translation authorize the new translation well guess what that translation was came to be known as the King James translation King James Version and so 52 translators were appointed of the 52 only 47 actually worked some had health problems and some died by the time they got to work but there were 47 translators they were divided up into six companies or we today call them committees two companies or two committees met at Westminster Abbey two met at Oxford University and two at Cambridge University in the sheets that were passed out to you you'll see those six companies or committees and the portions of the Bible that they were assigned each of those companies or committees were assigned about one sixth of the Bible and they began their translating work and what they would do and then in each committee were six, seven, eight men depending on each committee and each of them would be given a slice of that sixth of the Bible they had and they would translate they worked carefully from Tyndale consulting the Reino Valera which was already in print

[40:20] Luther's Bible already in print and then they would switch with other people on the committee and they'd go over each other's work and finally after each committee was satisfied of their own work it was transferred to another committee who swapped with them this went on for five years now let's pause and consider these translators I hear people today say well you know the King James translators they didn't know what they were doing they didn't get it right folks they were some of the most erudite linguists in English history some of these men knew ten languages some of these men could read and write Hebrew when they were five and six years old they were erudite they knew the classical languages they knew the biblical languages they knew other European languages they could consult to see how for example Raina and Valera had translated or how Luther had translated they also were godly men

[41:22] I read a book years ago that said well they were bawdy men they were a bunch of drunks and that's not true many of the men had been converted out of the Roman Catholic Church and they had the zeal of new converts they were preachers they were missionaries they were evangelists some of them were Bible college professors and these men spent five years translating and comparing each other's work now were they inspired I do not believe so the only inspiration was when God gave us the originals he spoke through Moses and Elijah or not Elijah but Isaiah and Jeremiah and Matthew Mark and Luke and so forth but I believe God providentially helped them God knew in advance that their work would become the most dominant translation of the word of God in human history and I have no doubt on my mind that God helped them I think I said the other day some folks said there were mistakes in the King James Bible to which I say show me one that's another subject

[42:26] I have a book in my library that somebody wrote years ago about all those pesky mistakes but anyway and so they worked for five years in the sixth year they presented their work to the executive committee the executive editor who reviewed the work their work and then it was submitted to the printer a man in England a printer by the name of Robert Barker and the job was so large James ordered 10,000 copies that he had to subcontract to several other printers in England but he was given the patent that means the copyright to the King James Bible somebody came to me last night and showed me his study Bible and on the front page it said copyrighted well it's the study notes like in the Schofield Bible Schofield's notes are copyrighted in the Rye Revival the notes his notes are copyrighted but the text is not in America there is no copyright on the text of the King James Bible and so on May 2nd 1611 the King James Bible officially came off the press and was presented to the public it was not immediately well received but within a few years it became the dominant Bible and as we've talked about over the next 400 years over 6 billion copies have been produced but in the fact there were several printers involved and because of the nature of letterpress printing there were typos in the several sub-editions and the translators

[44:04] English was not fully standardized yet the translators some spelled a word one way and some spelled it another way and some punctuated one way and another another way and so in the year 1760 Cambridge University under the leadership of the Church of England authorized a man by the name of Robert I'm sorry Francis Paris to standardize the spelling and standardize the punctuation he died before he was finished and in 1760 another man continued the work and which was released in 1769 by the name of Benjamin Blaney now the King James Bible you hold in your hand tonight is in fact a 1769 edition you could hardly read the 1611 in the Gothic type phrase and the words are spelled somewhat differently but the standard King James Bible today is the 1769 pardon me my voice is cracking it's become the dominant copy of the word of God in all history someone penned these words this holy book

[45:20] I'd rather own than all the golden gems that air in monarch's coffers shone than all their diadems nay were the sea one chrysolite the earth one golden ball and diamonds all the stars of night this book outweighs them all know the soul ne'er found relief in glittering hordes of wealth gems dazzle not the eye of grief gold cannot purchase health but here a blessed balm appears to heal the deepest woe and those who read this book in tears their tears shall cease to flow thou truest friend man ever knew thy constantly I've tried when all were false I found thee true my counselor and guide the minds of earth no treasures give that can this volume buy in teaching me the way to live it has taught me how to die and all God's people said amen the most powerful translation of the word of God in history it is the preserved word of God in the English language for us today now you all know that little old song give me that that old time religion give me that old time religion give me that old time religion well let me change the words here a little bit give me that

[46:40] King James Bible give me that King James Bible give me that King James Bible it's good enough for me give me that King James Bible join me give me that King James Bible give me that King James Bible it's good enough for me from the Antiochan Christians to the Valdan and Walden sees. I love all its verbs and tenses, and it's good enough for me. It was compiled by Erasmus. It was named Texas Receptus, and its words have never left us, and it's good enough for me. Oh, the years to translate seven, finish 16 and 11. God's preserved his word from heaven, and it's good enough for me. Give me that King James Bible. Give me that King James Bible. Give me that King James Bible. It's good enough for me. It's been scoffed at by the liberals. It's been hated by the devil, but its truth is on the level, and it's good enough for me. You may say it is outdated. You may hate how it's translated, but it's God's word plainly stated, and it's good enough for me. Give me the King James Bible. Give me the King James Bible. Give me the King James Bible.

[48:09] it's good enough for me. Well, amen. Okay, questions? Yes, ma'am.

[48:22] So your main focus is the translation from the King James Version and also the King James Version itself. You also mentioned the modern critical text. Where does the Koran and the Latter-day Saints Bible come into play? Where does the Latter-day Saints Bible? Latter-day Saints and the Koran.

[48:42] Where do they fit into all of this? Well, the Koran has nothing to do with the Bible. It's totally on a different universe. I think the Mormons originally used the King James Bible. I'm not sure what they're using today. Jehovah Witnesses used to use the King James Bible, but they've come up with a new translation now. It's called the New World Translation, and they've changed it to alter it to fit their doctrine. So did I answer your question? Maybe. Thanks. Okay.

[49:13] Yeah, when you were reading, you talk about, you said the King James functions came into being on April 2nd. Why did they get you the last year? I'm sorry, slow down. I don't understand you.

[49:23] I'm saying, based on your information, you said when the King James functions were public, that means it was sent on the market to be published, to be published. Did you understand what I'm trying to say?

[49:36] No, sir. Okay. I'm saying when you was reading, you talk about April 2nd. You said the King James functions came into being. I mean, it was public. I mean, for people to be reading it, or the Christian to be reading. But they didn't get a year that it came into being. You said, I always seem April 2nd.

[49:56] What year did it become? Oh, very good. Oh, when did it become very public? The year. Well, 1611. 1611, by within a decade of it became very popular.

[50:08] Yes. About 1620. But I mean, it was officially released in 1611. And the Geneva Bible had been the popular Bible, but it slowly faded out, and the King James Bible became the dominant Bible.

[50:21] Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. Yes, sir. Over here. Over here, TJ. All right. On the Geneva Bible, you said it was critical of the hierarchy and the Kings. Does that mean that the, because you said it had footnotes and everything else, was that the footnotes that were critical, or was that the actual text that was changed to be critical?

[50:38] No, it was the footnotes. Okay. The marginal notes. All right. The text was from the received text. I know a number of you hit me back to the table with questions, and they're all good. I think I see one more somewhere.

[50:50] So, I have my own 1611 King James Bible, mostly just for fun, because it is impossible to read. You can barely, just the spellings and everything. But in the middle, in the 1611 King James Bible, they had the Apocrypha.

[51:03] Okay. Why was that taken out? All right. The Apocrypha was considered to be an historic supplement. I think there were 13 books of the Apocrypha. The Catholics still have it woven through their Bible, and they consider it part of Scripture. But the leaders of the church back then determined it was confusing people, thinking it was Scripture, and it is not, so they took it out. It was never considered to be Scripture. It was just considered to be a historical supplement.

[51:33] And some of the history was not very good at that. But it went away. Anybody else? Okay. One there. So, all these Bibles that you talked about are all English Bibles.

[51:45] Yes. All our missionaries that have Bibles that have been translated into their language, Ethiopian, Spanish, whatever, are those translated from primarily one of those two texts?

[51:57] Well, pardon me, the Reina Valera, for example, which is a Spanish Bible, was translated in 1569, and then, again, I think they revised it in 1602. It was based on the traditional text, the received text. But by 1960, there was influence of the critical text in the Reina Valera. And in the Spanish world today, I mean, the controversy there is even greater than it is in the English world about which Bible, fighting over the reign of Valera in 1960. But, and there was the Olivetan Bible in French, based on the traditional text. And many, as we said the other day, Bibles that missionaries have used were actually translated from the King James. They didn't know Greek or Hebrew well enough, if at all, but they did know English, so they translated from the King James into the receptor language.

[52:58] And sadly today, for example, Wycliffe Translators, which is a major translating operation, they work exclusively from the critical text, which is unfortunate. But there are several, in a Pinnabaptist translation ministries, a bearing precious seed, and they only translate from the traditional text. I'm trying to think of another. I can't think of it right now, but, but, you know, we try to work from and encourage missionaries to work from the traditional text if they can. And in the Spanish Bible today, the most recent edition is called the Reina Valera Gomez, a Baptist missionary in Mexico by the name of Humberto Gomez, translated the New Testament again completely from the received text, whereas the 1960 had infringements of the critical text in it.

[53:55] But yeah, it's a problem on the mission field. In some places, I mean, it's either to use a poor Bible or no Bible. And so it's something where missionaries have to tread very lightly. And it's not easy.

[54:05] All right. I know a lot of Baptists have the Schofield Bible, and how close to Scripture is Schofield's notes? Okay, the Schofield text is the New Testament. I mean, it's the Word of God. It's the King James Bible.

[54:21] Schofield's notes are another story. And Schofield was of that conventional wisdom of the oldest and best stuff. And you'll find that in his notes. He said, you know, the oldest and best manuscripts don't have this verse or whatever, like in Acts 8.37 or Mark 9.44 and so forth.

[54:41] So what the virtue of Schofield is that he was a dispensational theology. And I'm a dispensationalist. I don't think in all the years that I was in the pulpit as a pastor, I got up and said, folks, we are dispensationalists.

[54:55] But we are. And the pastors probably ought to say it more. But that's why so many fundamental Baptists have used the Schofield Bible, because of the dispensational notes, which translates practically into a pre-tribulation rapture, as opposed to a reformed theology kind of thinking, which believes in no rapture.

[55:13] Okay, anyone else? Well, thank you so much. It's been great to be here. And by the way, I'll just mention, I was telling the pastor this, that I belong to an organization called the King James Bible Research Council. Let me say that again. You might want to write it down.

[55:28] King James Bible Research Council, KJBRC. And it's a group of scholars and pastors who uphold the King James Bible. You can go online and find some wonderful resources.

[55:42] Many, many YouTube videos. Many. Some, unfortunately, including myself. But it's a good resource if you're looking for more further detail. Okay. Thank you so much. Shall we close in prayer, brother? All right. Father, thank you for the privilege and the opportunity of being here at Plains Baptist Church. Thank you for the stand they take. Thank you for its good pastor and the interests of these people. Bless them as they continue to serve you in this place.

[56:11] And I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.