Henry Neufeld has an interesting post today about selecting a Bible translation for public reading. He discusses the KJV, REB and NJB translations, though he finds the latter two to not affect American ears as well as he’d like.
He goes on to consider the monolithic status of the KJV and how many “people love the quality of literature it represents” despite the fact that “they could make out the words, but they couldn’t express the content in their own words.” He suggests that this affords the less reputable teacher or preacher the ability to “infuse into [the words of scripture] just about any meaning he prefers. [...] Having scriptures in language the people do not understand is a great boon to those who would like to maintain power over them.”
Read more at Henry’s “Participatory Bible Study Blog”.
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I go to a KJVO church, and the quality of literature is not the issue. Rarely, have I heard that excuse as the reason for continues usage of archaic English.
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[...] I ended up at Henry’s blog this morning after a tip on He Is Sufficient (Power and persuasion: reading the KJV) about a post about the KJV. Henry says a lot of controversial things and I agree with him from [...]