The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism by D. A. Carson

Author:D. A. Carson [Carson, D. A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 1978-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

PART 2

Nontextual Questions

CHAPTER 8

Preliminary Considerations

Several preliminary observations may help to dissolve potential misunderstandings.

First, the textual matters I have dealt with concern only the New Testament. The reasons for this are twofold. (1) The defenders of the TR do not usually discuss Old Testament textual problems, and this book is largely a rebuttal. (2) There has not yet occurred as decided a shift in textual tradition in Old Testament studies as took place in New Testament studies almost one hundred years ago. Nevertheless the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provides us with manuscripts of Old Testament books almost one thousand years older than anything previously known. New targums (ancient Aramaic paraphrases) have been discovered. Advances have been made in Semitic lexicography, although certainly it is true that what is sometimes taken as a major advance proves chimerical on the long haul. Septuagintal studies have been gaining momentum.

These developments have not, by and large, prompted scholars to abandon the standard Masoretic text. Minor changes have been made here and there as new readings have come to light;1 but there is little doubt that the Masoretes and the Jews before and after them were generally more faithful copyists than their Christian counterparts. What has developed, however, is an entire school of thought concerning the textual developments of the Old Testament biblical text. This school is connected with the names of Frank Moore Cross and his pupils,2 and I think it could become extremely influential. For an able reply, written by an evangelical who is a member of the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical Research, one might profitably consult the recent article by D. W. Gooding.3

I mention these points because I think exclusive focus on New Testament textual-critical problems is symptomatic of (a) a tendency to expend apologetic energy on faddish targets and (b) the very real danger of ignoring other pressing problems that in the long run could prove far more inimical to the church of Jesus Christ than the ones currently drawing a lot of fire from certain quarters.

Second, not all modern translations and paraphrases should be lumped together. The Living Bible (LB) really should not be compared with the New American Standard Bible (NASB) or the NIV.

Third, it is methodologically indefensible to hunt for the half-dozen worst mistakes or lapses in judgment in a particular translation, and on that basis write off the whole translation. If that method were applied to the KJV, it too would be written off.

Fourth, it follows that no translation is perfect. No translation has ever been perfect. Words in different languages and cultures have various shades of meaning. Even when two words are very close, their semantic overlap is seldom if ever perfect. From language to language, idioms differ, syntax differs, sentence length differs. The stylistic devices used to indicate intensity of emotion are not the same. Poetical standards differ. Words and phrases change their meaning with time. On top of all this, old-fashioned human fallacy intrudes again and again, and just as there is no

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