The dignity and glory of the old Authorized
Version
I
suppose that the most popular of all the proposals at the
present moment is to have a new translation of the bible. ...
The argument is that people are not reading the Bible any longer
because they do not understand its language-- particularly the
archaic terms-- what does your modern man ... know about
justification, sanctification, and all these Biblical terms? and
so we are told the one thing that is necessary is to have a
translation that Tom, Dick and Harry will understand, and I
began to feel about six months ago that we had almost reached
the stage in which the Authorized Version was being dismissed,
to be thrown into the limbo of things forgotten, no longer of
any value. Need I apologize for saying a word in favor of the
Authorized Version in this gathering? ...
It is a basic proposition laid down by the Protestant Reformers,
that we must have a Bible 'understanded of the people.' That is
common sense ... we must never be obscurantists. We must never
approach the Bible in a mere antiquarian spirit ... but it does
seem to me that there is a very grave danger incipient in so
much of the argument that is being presented today for these new
translations. There is a danger, I say, of our surrendering
something that is vital and essential ...
Take this argument that the modern man does not understand such
terms as justification, sanctification and so on. I want to ask
a question. When did the ordinary man ever understand those
terms? ... Did the colliers to whom John Wesley and George
Whitefield preached in the 18th century understand? They had not
even been to a day school ... they could not read, they could
not write. Yet these were the terms that were used. This was the
version that was used--Authorized Version. The common people
have never understood these terms. ...We are concerned here with
something that is spiritual something which does not belong to
this world at all; which, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, the
princes of this world do not know. Human wisdom is of no value
here--it is a spiritual truth. This is truth about God
primarily, and because of that it is a mystery. ...
Yet we are told---it must be put in such simple terms and
language that anybody taking it up and reading it is going to
understand all about it. My friends, this is sheer nonsense.
WHAT WE MUST DO IS TO EDUCATE THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE UP TO THE
BIBLE, NOT BRING THE BIBLE DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL.
One of the greatest troubles today is that
everything is being brought down to the same level, everything
is cheapened. The common man is made the standard of
authority; he decides everything, and everything has to be
brought down to him....
Are we to do that with the Word of God? I say No! What has
happened in the past has been this -- ignorant, illiterate
people, in this country and in foreign countries, coming into
salvation have been educated up to the Book and have begun to
understand it, to glory in it, and to praise God for it, and I
say that we need to do the same at this present time. What we
need is therefore, not to replace the Authorized Version ...we
need rather to reach and train people up to the standard and the
language, the dignity and the glory of the
old Authorized Version (the King James Version).
Very well, my friends, let me say a word for the old book, the
old Authorised Version. It was translated by fifty-four men,
every one of them a great scholar, and published in 1611.
Here is another thing to commend it to you: this Authorised
Version came out at a time when the church had not yet divided
into Anglican and Nonconformist. I think there is an advantage
even in that. They were all still as one, with very few
exceptions, when the Authorised version was produced.
Another important point to remember is this. The Authorised
Version was produced some time after that great climactic event
which we call the Protestant Reformation. There had been time by
then to see some of the terrible horrors of Rome, and all she
stood for. The early Reformers had too much on their plate, as
it were; Luther may have left many gaps; but when this
translation was produced, there had been time for men to be able
to see Rome for what she really was. These translators were all
men who were orthodox in the faith. They believed that the Bible
is the infallible Word of God and they submitted to it as the
final authority, as against the spurious claims of Rome, as
against the appeals to the Church Fathers, and everything else.
Here, I say, were fifty-four men, scholars and saintly, who were
utterly submitted to the Book. You have never had that in any
other version. Here, and here alone, you have a body of men who
were absolutely committed to it, who gave themselves to it, who
did not want to correct or sit in judgment on it, whose only
concern and desire was to translate and interpret it for the
masses of the people.
In view of all this, my argument is that the answer does not lie
in producing new translations; they are coming out almost every
week, but are they truly aiding the situation? No, and for this
reason: men no longer read the Bible not
because they cannot understand its language, but because they do
not believe in it. They do not believe in God; they do not want
it. Their problem is not one of language and of terminology; it
is the state of the heart. Therefore what do we do about
it? It seems to me there is only one thing to do, the thing that
has always been done in the past: we must preach it and our
preaching must be wholly based upon its authority.
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, (1939-1981) - speaking at a rally at
the Royal Albert Hall in 1961
