New King James Version

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For other uses of King James Version, see King James Version (disambiguation).
New King James Version
New King James Version
Full name: New King James Version
Abbreviation: NKJV
Complete Bible published: 1982
Derived from: King James Version
Textual Basis: NT: High Correspondence to the Stephanus 1550 edition of the Textus Receptus, similar to the Byzantine text-type. OT: Masoretic Text with Septuagint influence.
Translation type: Formal Equivalence.
Reading Level: Middle School
Copyright status: Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Genesis 1:1-3
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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The New King James Version (NKJV) is a modern translation of the Bible published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Anglicized edition was originally known as the Revised Authorised Version, but the NKJV title is now used universally.

The NKJV was published in three stages:

  • New King James Bible, New Testament; 1979
  • New King James Bible, New Testament and Psalms; 1980
  • New King James Version of the Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments; 1982


Contents

[edit] Beginnings

The NKJV translation project, which was conceived by Arthur Farstad, was inaugurated in 1975 with two meetings (Nashville and Chicago) of 68 interested persons, most of them prominent Baptists but also including some conservative Presbyterians. The men who were invited to these meetings prepared the guidelines for the NKJV. The New Testament was published in 1979, the Psalms in 1980, and the full NKJV Bible in 1982.

The aim of its translators was to update the vocabulary and grammar of the King James Version, while preserving the classic style and beauty of the 1611 version. Although it uses substantially the same Hebrew and Greek texts as the original KJV, it indicates where more commonly accepted manuscripts differ.

[edit] Update to King James Version

According to the preface of the New King James Version (p. v-vi), the NKJV uses the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica for the Old Testament, with frequent comparisons made to the Bomberg edition of 1524-25, which was used for the King James Version. Both the Old Testament text of the NKJV and that of the KJV come from the ben Asher text (known as the Masoretic Text). However, the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica used by the NKJV uses an earlier manuscript (the Leningrad Manuscript B19a) than that of the KJV.

The New King James Version also uses the Received Text for the New Testament, just as the King James Version had used. The translators have also sought to follow the principles of translation used in the original King James Version, which the NKJV revisers call "complete equivalence" in contrast to "dynamic equivalence" used by many other modern translations.

The task of updating the English of the KJV involved significant changes in word order, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. One of the most significant features of the NKJV was its abandonment of the second person pronouns “thou,” "thee," “ye,” “thy,” and “thine.” Verb forms were also modernized in the NKJV (for example, "speaks" rather than "speaketh").

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] Language Style

One major criticism of the NKJV is that it is rendered in a language format that has never been spoken. By maintaining much of the Elizabethan structure and syntax of the KJV (an intentional effect on the part of the revisers, who intended for a reader to be able to follow along in one version as the other version is read aloud), the NKJV at times has been criticized for putting modern words into archaic orders. Unlike the Revised Version of 1881-85 and American Standard Version of 1901, which sought to take advantage of modern scholarship but left the overall text worded in archaic Jacobean language, the NKJV sounds neither Jacobean nor particularly modern.

[edit] Underlying texts

A second major criticism involves the fact that it is based, as noted above, solely upon the ancient texts available during the time of King James and not on earlier manuscripts and documents which have since been discovered. Since these manuscripts, most of which reflect an Alexandrian text-type, are argued by some of today's scholars to be more reliable, the NKJV's adherence to the Majority Text (which has ties to the Textus Receptus) seems to many to violate the spirit of open scholarship and open inquiry, and to ascribe a level of perfection to the documents available to the 17th century scholars that they would not have claimed for them. (Regarding this point see David Dewey, A User's Guide to Bible Translations, pp. 162-3, where he quotes strong criticism of the NKJV's textual basis by Steven Sheeley and Robert Nash.)

However, not all textual critics agree that the earliest manuscripts are the most accurate. Alternative readings based on other texts do appear as footnotes in the New King James Version, and unlike other translations the NKJV does not contain subjective comments like "the best manuscripts add, etc." Instead, the footnotes simply state which manuscript sets do not contain the passage. However, this is unlikely to placate those who feel that the "Johannine Comma" (at 1 John 5:7), for example, is not a legitimate portion of scripture and should not be treated as such.

[edit] King James Only Belief

Believers in the "King-James-Only Movement," see the New King James Version as something less than a true successor to the KJV. In their view, the NKJV makes significant changes to the meaning of the KJV translators. For example, Acts 17:22, in which Paul in the KJV calls the men of Athens "too superstitious," is interpreted in the NKJV to have Paul call them "very religious".

At the same time, many churches and evangelical groups have embraced the NKJV as an acceptable compromise between the original KJV and a Bible that uses a more modern syntax.

[edit] See also

[edit] External texts

[edit] Online text of the NKJV

  • Bible Gateway.com provides information on NKJV and links to the text of each chapter.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

(1982) The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers. ISBN 15558194320. 

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