Why you should read it:
- It is one of the few “church Bibles” we protestants have. Even though it was produced by the state of England, at the time, that was indistinguishable from the Anglican Church.
- It is an important piece of literature in Western Civilization.
- It isn’t under copyright.
- It is the inspired writ, so reading it is just good for you.
- Pulling a quote from the KJV has a poetic effect that is rhetorically useful simply due to our built in reverence for the king’s English.
- Due to the effort required to follow each sentence, if you’re a lazy reader, you may find yourself reading it more carefully.
Why you should read other translations:
- The King James Bible can be hard to understand (this can be remedied with a dictionary).
- The King James Bible, though it has some excellent renderings, also has some places where the rendering is uncertain (look up the marginal notes and the 1611 preface). Certain modern findings related to ancient Semitic languages have helped us, especially in OT translations.
- The Greek Text underlying the King James Bible, though a marvelous achievement in its day, has been advanced upon in many ways. Note: if you wish to have a Greek Text on the cheap, you can get that version from the Trinitarian Bible Society website for 10 bucks. I don’t know that any other bound edition of the GNT is so inexpensive. (Note: that website seems to be a KJV Only website, but a ten dollar GNT is hard to pass up if you don’t already have one. I have that text type GNT already, otherwise I would buy it.)
- Because you should read the Bible in the dialect most similar to your own if you aren’t a Bible scholar.
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