The Origin of the King James Bible

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We read about that in Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And also because of a great economic depression, many of the believers fled from Jerusalem up to Antioch.

And it became the central church, the leadership church in the second century,

the end of the first and end of the second century.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And in studying it,

guess what?

William Tyndale came to Christ.

William Tyndale got saved.

He was a scholar.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He was chained to the stake,

he was strangled to death,

and then the fire materials

underneath him

were ignited,

and he was burned.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And John Rogers

went back to England

and translated

or produced

another run,

another reprint

of the Tyndale Bible.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

it's good enough for me. Well, amen. Okay, questions? Yes, ma'am.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.