Kenyon Bowers

While reading through the Apocrypha recently, I was reading the Additions to Esther . In order to get the whole picture, I read through Esther as well using the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) which incorporates the additions into the text of Esther itself. I made frequent comparisons back to the trustworthy King James Bible, and what I found was interesting.   In Esther 2:3, in the King James and in the NRSVCE (it reads the same in other NRSV editions), it reads thus:   "And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: " (KJV) "And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa und...

In the King James Bible, there are italics. They are used to show when the translators supplied words either because the English language requires them to make sense or because of something implied in the originals that isn't "explicitly" there. Originally, in the 1611 King James Bible, there were no italics. Instead, since the text was mostly in Gothic type, the supplied words were in Roman type. When, however, they switched from Gothic to Roman, they began using italics where the Roman type had been originally. I have a leaf from a 1630 King James Bible, and it uses the Roman type with italics, so some point from 1611 to 1630 is when this switch was first being made (but not completely as I found a 1639 KJV with Gothic type). Galatians 4:14 in the 1630 KJV; "even" is in italics   There are three times that the KJV uses italics for something other than supplied words. It was used to denote variances in the received texts in three spots: John 8:6, 1 John 2:23, a...

Recently, YouTuber and author Mark Ward published a video titled False Friends Finale . If you're not aware, Mark Ward's "false friends" list is a list of words that you think you know which have a different meaning in the King James Bible. An example would be the word communication which means "ones manner of living" rather than having a verbal or written correspondence with someone. In his video, Mark Ward calls the word "his" a false friend. Yes, you read that correctly —"his," as in "His favorite dessert is cake." He states:   "False friend 145, 'his'...The Oxford English Dictionary reveals that the simple word 'its' ('i-t-s,' without an apostrophe) as a possessive pronoun did not enter English until some time after the King James was translated. It's kind of complicated because a related form did come in, but phrases like 'the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind' were not poss...

The Certainty, or Lack Thereof Modern Christianity is suffering. They doubt the Text of Scripture and question the legitimacy of many of its passages. However, this is not what God desires. "That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth ; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?" (Proverbs 22:21, emphasis mine) We can have a certainty in the Words of Truth—in the Word of God. We can trust the Words of Scripture! But today, modern translations cast doubt on Mark 16:9-20, John 7:53-8:11, and many other verses. The opposite of certainty is uncertainty. People today are questioning the certainty of those Words they call the Scriptures! "How can such a revision of the Scriptures be said to be the inerrant Word of God when multitudes of passages are brought into question by placing them in brackets?...With the questioning of many passages...how can one in all honesty confess unconditional trust in these new Bibles?"¹ The ...