(Ken Smith) writes:

A further comment on King James language. A book was published shortly after the RSV came out in 1952 listing the many changes which had taken place in English since the 16th century (most of the KJ language is 16th century, not early 17th century). I’ll see if I cane find a reference to it and post it.

Later:

Ronald Bridges and Luther A. Weigle, “The Bible Word Book”, Thomas Nelson, New York, 1960. The subtitle was “Concerning Obsolete or Archaic Words in the King James Version of the Bible”.

For some strange reason neither the Library of Congress nor the British Library list this in their online catalogues. LoC lists a reprint in 1994 with a reference to the original, and a revised version published in 2002 which may be more readily obtainable for anyone interested.

A note I made about the book many years ago indicates that it contains articles on 827 words or phrases in KJV, which in many cases are misleading, comparing these with the RSV. In the (nearly) half a century since the boiok was published there have been other changes in English usage, and the possibility of being misled by using KJV is correspondingly greater.

One of these is the use of “man” to translate both the generic word for people, and also the specific word for males. Thus in I Timothy 2 we read that “God wants all men to be saved” and that “men are to pray”. This is the same in RSV and NIV, but nearly all other modern translations render things correctly as “God wants everyone to be saved” and “men are to pray” – the few versions which try to be inclusive by changing the second of these to “everyone is to pray” are incorrect.

So if there are any male chauvinists out there who want to stop women praying in your church services, insist that Paul’s words here be followed.

Dr Ken Smith

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