NOTE: The footnotes herein will jump you to a definition or explanation of what something is that can range from a couple of sentences to a couple of paragraphs. If a word is linked, it will jump you to an article or multiple articles.

The King James Only movement asserts that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is superior to all other translations of the Bible. Adherents of the King James Only movement, largely members of evangelical,[1] conservative holiness movement,[2] traditional High Church[3] Anglican,[4] and Baptist churches, believe that the KJV is the greatest English translation ever produced, needing no further improvements, and they also believe that all other English translations which were produced after the KJV are corrupt.

These assertions are generally based upon a preference for the Byzantine text-type[5] or the Textus Receptus[6] and a distrust of the Alexandrian text-type[7] or the critical texts[8] of Nestle-Aland,[9] and Westcott-Hort,[10] on which the majority of twentieth- and twenty-first-century translations are based.

Variations of KJV Onlyists

Christian apologist[11] James White[12] has divided the King James Only movement into five main classifications:[13]

• “I Like the KJV Best” – Although White lists this point of view as a subdivision of the KJVO group, this is disputed by some. This group simply regards the KJV as a very good translation and prefers it over other translations because the church which it attends uses it, has always used it, or prefers its style.
• “The Textual Argument” – This group believes that the KJV’s Hebrew and Greek textual base is more accurate than the alternative texts used by newer translations. Many in this group might accept a modern Bible version based on the same Greek and Hebrew manuscripts which are used in the KJV. White claims that Zane C. Hodges[14] was a member of this group.[15] Hodges considered that the Majority Text[16] “corrects” the Received Text.
• “Textus Receptus Only”[17]/“Received Text Only” – This group holds the position that the traditional Greek texts represented in the Textus Receptus were supernaturally[18] (or providentially)[19] preserved and that other Greek manuscripts not used in this compilation may be flawed. The KJV is viewed as an exemplary English translation that is based on this Greek grouping of Bible manuscripts put together by Desiderius Erasmus,[20] but it is also believed that other translations based on these texts have the potential to be of equal quality. The views of the Trinitarian Bible Society fit into this TRO division. The Trinitarian Bible Society[21] does not believe that the Authorized Version (KJV) is a perfect translation, only that it is the best available translation in the English language.[22] The Society believes this text is superior to the texts used by the United Bible Societies[23] and other Bible publishers, which use texts that incorporate as their basis a relatively few manuscripts from the 4th century, and some going back to the early 2nd century.[4]
• “The Inspired KJV Group” – This faction believes that the KJV itself was divinely inspired. They view the translation to be an English preservation of the very words of God and that they are as accurate as the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts found in its underlying texts. Often this group excludes other English versions based on the same manuscripts, claiming that the KJV is the only English Bible sanctioned by God and should never be changed. White believes most KJV-Onlyists would belong to this group.
• “The KJV As New Revelation” – This group claims that the KJV is a “new revelation” or “advanced revelation” from God, and it should be the standard from which all other translations originate. Adherents to this belief may also believe that the original languages, Hebrew and Greek, can be corrected by the KJV. This view is often called “Ruckmanism” after Peter Ruckman,[24] a staunch advocate of this view.[25]

These classifications are not mutually exclusive, nor are they a comprehensive summary describing those who prefer the KJV. Douglas Wilson,[26] for instance, argues that the KJV (or, in his preferred terminology, the Authorized Version) is superior because of its manuscript tradition, its translational philosophy (with updates to the language being regularly necessary), and its ecclesiastical authority, having been created by the church and authorized for use in the church.[27]

Although not expressly “King James Only”, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[28] recommends the Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Version of the Bible.[29]

What Makes the Alexandrian Manuscripts that Make Up All Modern Bibles Superior to the Byzantine Manuscripts of the KJV and NKJV?

History of King James Onlyists

Benjamin G. Wilkinson[30] (1872–1968), a Seventh-day Adventist[31] missionary, theology professor and college president, wrote Our Authorized Bible Vindicated (1930) in which he asserted that some of the new versions of the Bible came from manuscripts with corruptions introduced into the Septuagint[32] by Origen and manuscripts with deletions and changes from corrupted Alexandrian text. He criticized Westcott[33] and Hort,[34] believing they intentionally rejected the use of the Textus Receptus and made changes to the text used in translation using their revised Greek text based mainly on the Codex Vaticanus[35] and Codex Sinaiticus[36].[37]

Gail Riplinger[38] (born 1947) has also addressed the issue of differences in current editions of the King James Bible in some detail.[39] A lengthy critical review of her book New Age Bible Versions, originally published in Cornerstone magazine[40] in 1994, authored by Bob and Gretchen Passantino of Answers in Action, described the book as “erroneous, sensationalistic, misrepresentative, inaccurate, and logically indefensible”.[10]

Jack Chick[41] (1924–2016), a fundamentalist Christian[42] who was best known for his comic tracts, advocated a King James Only position.[43] His comic Sabotage portrayed a Christian whose faith was shipwrecked by the rejection of the King James Version as the Word of God, only to be rescued by another character’s defense of the King James Version.[12]

Joey Faust, a Baptist pastor and researcher, is the author of The Word: God Will Keep It: The 400 Year History of the King James Bible Only Movement which documents a number of KJV Only proponents throughout history.

The 2015 Manual of the Bible Missionary Church,[44] a Methodist denomination in the conservative holiness movement, states: “We wholeheartedly endorse the use of the Authorized Version (King James Version) of the Bible as the final authority in our English-speaking churches and schools. We also go on record as being opposed to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, The Living Bible, the New English Translation of the Bible, the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version, the New International Version and the public use of other modern versions.”[45]

Textus Receptus vs Alexandrian Text

1. G. Wilkinson of Washington Missionary College writes in his book Truth Triumphant:[46]

The Protestant denominations are built upon that manuscript of the Greek New Testament, sometimes called Textus Receptus, or the Received Text. It is that Greek New Testament from which the writings of the apostles in Greek have been translated into English, German, Dutch and other languages. During the dark ages, the Received Text was practically unknown outside the Greek Church. It was restored to Christendom by the labours of that great scholar Erasmus. It is altogether too little known that the real editor of the Received Text was Lucian. None of Lucian’s enemies fails to credit him with this work. Neither Lucian nor Erasmus, but rather the apostles, wrote the Greek New Testament. However, Lucian’s day was an age of apostasy when a flood of depravations was systematically attempting to devastate both the Bible manuscripts and Bible theology. Origen, of the Alexandrian college, made his editions and commentaries of the Bible a secure retreat for all errors, and deformed them with philosophical speculations introducing casuistry and lying.

TEXTUAL STUDIES: Lucian of Antioch (c. 240-312 C.E.): The Teacher of Arius?

John William Burgon[47] opposed what he called the “two irresponsible scholars of the University of Cambridge” (Brooke Foss Westcott and Professor Fenton John Anthony Hort) and their revised Greek Text.[48]

Herman C. Hoskier:[49] “the text printed by Westcott and Hort has been accepted as “the true text”, and grammars, works on the synoptic problem, works on higher criticism, and others have been grounded on this text.”[50]

J. H. Greenlee[51] of Asbury Theological Seminary:[52] “The textual theories of W–H [Westcott & Hort] underlies virtually all subsequent work in NT textual criticism.”[53]

D. A. Carson:[54] “The theories of Westcott and Hort … [are] almost universally accepted today. … Subsequent textual critical work [since 1881] accepted the theories of Westcott and Hort. The vast majority of evangelical scholars hold that the basic textual theories of Westcott and Hort were right and the church stands greatly in their debt.”[55]

Wilbur N. Pickering: “The two most popular manual editions of the text today, Nestles-Aland and U.B.S. (United Bible Society) really vary little from the W–H [Westcott & Hort] text.”[56]

King James Version Arguments

KJV Onlyists often criticize how new versions do not feature some verses that are found in the KJV. For example, some of the verses in John 5 and John 7 are left out from modern versions.

1 John 5:7-8: The Story of an Interpolation

1 John 5:7

Most new versions do not have the Johannine Comma[57] (“the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”), because it is not found in any of the earliest manuscripts.[58] However KJV Onlyists often defend this reading by quoting early church fathers, who sometimes used phrases similar to the reading. This reading is also defended by claiming corruption of the early texts, such as the Sinaiticus. KJV Onlyists have also claimed that the absence of the reading causes a grammatical error in the Greek.[59]

For example, Cyprian seemed to quote the comma, and this has been used by KJV Onlyists to defend the verse: The Lord says, ‘I and the Father are one;’ and again it is written of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, ‘And these three are one.’”

Acts 8:37[46]

Most new versions do not have Acts 8:37 because it is not found in the earliest manuscripts.[60] KJV Onlyists will also defend the verse by using quotes from early church fathers, such as Irenaeus, who seemed to know the verse, which predate the earliest manuscripts available:[61] “[Philip declared] that this was Jesus, and that the Scripture was fulfilled in Him; as did also the believing eunuch himself: and, immediately requesting to be baptized, he said, ‘I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.’”

— Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.12.8

Hades[62]

The KJV translates ᾅδης (hades) and Γέεννα (Gehenna) both as “hell”, unlike modern versions of the bible which translate ᾅδης as ‘Hades’. KJV onlyists criticize that the idea of Hades being separate from hell is an idea from Paganism and not biblical.[63]

Alexandrian text-type

KJV Onlyists often claim that the Alexandrian text-type[64] is corrupted. KJV Onlyists cite early church fathers as evidence for the corruption of the Alexandrian texts, for example Origen is cited to have said that there were changes made into manuscripts.

KJV Onlyists will argue that older readings are not necessarily better.[65]

Septuagint

KJV Onlyists favor the Masoretic text[66] over the Septuagint[67],[68] and KJV Onlyists sometimes argue against the common belief that the New Testament quoted the Septuagint.[69]

Copyright

KJV Onlyists argue that copyright laws force Bible translators to make substantial changes to the Bible, in order to claim copyrights.[70]

QUESTIONS FOR THE KJVOists

The Church did not reject them. And even if they had been, that would make no difference as to their validity. The Church accepted a Pope, transubstantiation, praying to Mary, and hundreds of other False doctrines. So, just because something is accepted or rejected by a group means nothing. Evidence is what everything means. The majority of something means nothing and is no evidence. The good condition argument is just weak, really. You have Byzantine MSS almost as early in good condition. You are using weak arguments. Vaticanus has its name because there is where it was housed. 

You have all papyri that date 200 years before the oldest codices, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and 400+ years before the oldest Byzantine text, and some only decades from the originals. They are all Alexandrian text-type; this tells us which text is correct. 

Now, the Church like a cult worshiped the Byzantine text, like the Septuagint was favored before that by the Jews and then the Christian. The Textus Receptus was worshiped, then the KJV was worshiped, and you could be killed to say otherwise. So, it took brave men to even put discrepancies in footnotes for hundreds of years. It was until Karl Lachman, Tregelles, Tischendorf and Westcott, and Hort that you could print a text different than the TR. Many textual scholars from the 1700s forward started seeing the problems, and more MSS were found each century.

The Stephanus TR (1550) became the standard form of the Greek NT text in England. It became a literary sensation. This, together with its inexpensive price, resulted in its becoming the first Bible best seller. Nevertheless, none of the editions differed greatly from Froben’s Erasmus text. Luther used the 1519 edition of Erasmus.

There are about 93 differences between the Stephanus 1550 and the Beza 1598. These differences are minor. They are NOTHING when we look at the nearly 6,000 differences, many being quite substantial between the Alexandrian Critical Text and the Textus Receptus.

You tell me,

KJVOists and TROists and BTOists Questions

(1) If God’s Word is only found in the 1611 KJV, where was God’s Word from 100 A.D. – 1610 A.D.?

(2) How many textual errors (differences) are in the Byzantine manuscripts used to make the Textus Receptus, which is behind the KJV?

(3) How many textual errors (differences) are in the handful of Byzantine manuscripts used to make the Textus Receptus, which is behind the KJV?

(4) If there are no textual differences in the 4,000 Byzantine texts (which there are), what was the Word of God before the fifth-century Byzantine text of Codex Alexandrinus (400-440 A.D.)? Only the Western and the Alexandrian family texts existed in the third and fourth centuries and only the Alexandrian in the second century. So, God allowed errors by the copyists of the Alexandrian and Western manuscripts but miraculously inspired the thousands of Byzantine copyists from 400 -1455 A.D.?

(5) The Byzantine Advocates (the text behind the TR) acknowledges there are differences between the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus, and Textus Receptus Advocates believe there are differences between the TR and the Byzantine text. So, where is the miraculous preservation of Scripture?

(6) The TROist and the KJVOists argue that the New Testament original is found in the majority of the manuscripts, which is the Byzantine. However, there is a problem, there was no Byzantine text for the first four centuries, and the Byzantine text did not become the majority of the manuscripts until the 9th century. So, what was the New Testament Text before the 9th century when the Byzantine came to be the majority and up until that time the Alexandrian was the majority?

(7) Which is inerrant the Latin Vulgate Erasmus used to make some of the Textus Receptus or the Byzantine texts?

[8] What was the inerrant word of God in the second and third centuries AD before the development of the Byzantine text?

(9) You say scribes/copyists do not make changes to the text intentionally and unintentionally, so how do you explain the copyists who write in the margins that a previous copyist made changes? How do you explain the differences in the manuscripts?

(10) Speaking of the Textus Receptus, which of the four editions by Desiderius Erasmus do you prefer (1519, 1522, 1527, 1535), or the four editions of Robert Estienne (Stephanus) (1503– 1559), or the nine editions by Théodore Beza (1519– 1605)? How did the term Textus Receptus come about? How did the Greek text develop from Desiderius Erasmus to Robert Estienne to Théodore Beza, and did any of the editions have a critical apparatus with variants, and did any of these men consult any Alexandrian manuscripts?

(11) If the KJVOist advocates are correct and the copyists for the Byzantine text DID NOT make all of the additions to the Greek text but rather the Alexandrian copyists removed them, why do the 140+ papyri manuscripts discovered in the 1930s – the 1950s date with decades of the originals, 200 years before the 4th-century Alexandrian Vaticanus and Sinaiticus and 350 years before the earliest 5th-century Byzantine text looks just like the Alexandrian of manuscripts?

(12) THE PREFACE to the 1611 KJV by the translators says the KJV was a revision of the 16th-century translations of Coverdale, Tyndale, the Great Bibles, and others. The translators said they expect new revisions of their KJV translation when more manuscripts come to light, and if there was an improved understanding of Hebrew and Greek, there should be revisions. Were those translators wrong?

(13) What do you do with the fact that the KJV has 1,000 different words that do not mean today what they meant in 1611, even having the opposite meaning? Our understanding of Hebrew and Greek has astronomically improved since 1611. There have been thousands of manuscripts discovered since 1611, and we now have 5,898 Greek NT manuscripts and numerous ones dating within decades of the originals. And the 1611 KJV translators said in the 1611 PREFACE that a new revision should be made upon such circumstances. So, why reject efforts to do so with the 1881 English Revised Version (ERV), the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV), the 1952 Revised Standard Version (RSV), the 1995 New American Standard Bible (NASB), the 2001 English Standard Version (ESV), and the forthcoming Updated American Standard Version (UASV)? Are not these revisions simply following the instructions of the 1611 KJV translators? 

(14) Why is the earlier Byzantine text more similar to the Alexandrian text in that it differs from the later Byzantine text in roughly 3000 places?

“The manuscript evidence, as found in the major majuscule codices [Vaticanus and Sinaiticus], and then confirmed by early papyri [esp. P66 (150 C.E.) and P75 (175-225 C.E.)], points to the Alexandrian text-type as the earliest (and a very stable) textual witness.” Stanley E. Porter. How We Got the New Testament (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology) (p. 64). Baker Publishing Group. 

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BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

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CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

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CHRISTIAN FICTION

[1] Evangelicalism also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being “born again”, in which an individual experiences personal conversion, the authority of the Bible as God’s revelation to humanity (biblical inerrancy), and in spreading the Christian message. The word evangelical comes from the Greek (euangelion) word for “good news.” Its origins are usually traced to 1738, with various theological streams contributing to its foundation, including Pietism, Puritanism, Quakerism, Presbyterianism and Moravianism (in particular its bishop Nicolaus Zinzendorf and his community at Herrnhut).

[2] The conservative holiness movement is a loosely defined group of theologically conservative Christian denominations with the majority being Methodists whose teachings are rooted in the theology of John Wesley, and a minority being Quakers (Friends) that emphasize the doctrine of George Fox, as well as River Brethren who emerged out of the Radical Pietist revival and Holiness Restorationists in the tradition of Daniel Sidney Warner. Schisms began to occur in the 19th century and this movement became distinct from parent Holiness bodies in the mid-20th century amid disagreements over modesty in dress, entertainment, and other “old holiness standards” reflective of the related emphases on the Wesleyan–Arminian doctrine of outward holiness or the Quaker teaching on the testimony of simplicity or the River Brethren and Restorationist teachings on nonconformity to the world, depending on the denomination.

[3] The term high church refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernization. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originated in and has been principally associated with the Anglican tradition, where it describes churches using a number of ritual practices associated in the popular mind with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

[4] Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2001.Adherents of Anglicanism are called Anglicans; they are also called Episcopalians in some countries.

[5] In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. Metzger writes, “The Byzantine text, otherwise called the Syrian text (so Westcott and Hort), the Koine text (so von Soden), the Ecclesiastical text (so Lake), and the Antiochian text (so Ropes), is, on the whole, the latest of the several distinctive types of text of the New Testament. It is characterized chiefly by lucidity and completeness. The framers of this text sought to smooth away any harshness of language, to combine two or more divergent readings into one expanded reading (called conflation), and to harmonize divergent parallel passages. This conflated text, produced perhaps at Antioch in Syria, was taken to Constantinople, whence it was distributed widely throughout the Byzantine Empire. It is best represented today by codex Alexandrinus (in the Gospels; not in Acts, the Epistles, or Revelation), the later uncial manuscripts, and the great mass of minuscule manuscripts. Thus, except for an occasional manuscript that happened to preserve an earlier form of text, during the period from about the sixth or seventh century down to the invention of printing with moveable type (A.D. 1450–56), the Byzantine form of text was generally regarded as the authoritative form of text and was the one most widely circulated and accepted.” – Bruce Manning Metzger, United Bible Societies, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition a Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (4th Rev. Ed.) (London; New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), xxi.

[6] In Christianity, the term Textus Receptus (Latin for “received text”) refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus’ Novum Instrumentum omne (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denominations. Metzger writes, “The term Textus Receptus, as applied to the text of the New Testament, originated in an expression used by Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevir (Elzevier), who were printers in Leiden. The preface to their second edition of the Greek Testament (1633) contains the sentence: Textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum, in quo nihil immutatum aut corruptum damus (“Therefore you [dear reader] have the text now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or corrupted”). In one sense this proud claim of the Elzevirs on behalf of their edition seemed to be justified, for their edition was, in most respects, not different from the approximately 160 other editions of the printed Greek Testament that had been issued since Erasmus’s first published edition of 1516. In a more precise sense, however, the Byzantine form of the Greek text, reproduced in all early printed editions, was disfigured, as was mentioned above, by the accumulation over the centuries of myriads of scribal alterations, many of minor significance but some of considerable consequence.

It was the corrupt Byzantine form of text that provided the basis for almost all translations of the New Testament into modern languages down to the nineteenth century. During the eighteenth century scholars assembled a great amount of information from many Greek manuscripts, as well as from versional and patristic witnesses. But, except for three or four editors who timidly corrected some of the more blatant errors of the Textus Receptus, this debased form of the New Testament text was reprinted in edition after edition. It was only in the first part of the nineteenth century (1831) that a German classical scholar, Karl Lachmann, ventured to apply to the New Testament the criteria that he had used in editing texts of the classics. Subsequently other critical editions appeared, including those prepared by Constantin von Tischendorf, whose eighth edition (1869–72) remains a monumental thesaurus of variant readings, and the influential edition prepared by two Cambridge scholars, B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort (1881). It is the latter edition that was taken as the basis for the present United Bible Societies’ edition. During the twentieth century, with the discovery of several New Testament manuscripts much older than any that had hitherto been available, it has become possible to produce editions of the New Testament that approximate ever more closely to what is regarded as the wording of the original documents.” – Bruce Manning Metzger, United Bible Societies, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition a Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (4th Rev. Ed.) (London; New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), xxiii–xxiv.

[7] In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Alexandrian text-type is one of the main text types. It is the text type favored by the majority of modern textual critics and it is the basis for most modern (after 1900) Bible translations.

[8] Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author’s work.

[9] Novum Testamentum Graece (The New Testament in Greek) is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle–Aland edition after its most influential editors, Eberhard Nestle and Kurt Aland.

[10] The New Testament in the Original Greek is a Greek-language version of the New Testament published in 1881. It is also known as the Westcott and Hort text, after its editors Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892).

[11] Christian apologetics (Ancient Greek: ἀπολογία, “verbal defence, speech in defence”) is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity against objections.Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Patristic writers such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, then continuing with writers such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Anselm of Canterbury during Scholasticism. Blaise Pascal was an active Christian apologist during the 17th century.

[12] James Robert White is a Baptist theologian, the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, an evangelical Reformed Baptist Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona and a Christian scholar. He is the author of several books.

[13] White 1995, pp. 1–4.

[14] Zane Clark Hodges (June 15, 1932 – November 23, 2008) was an American pastor, seminary professor, and Bible scholar. Some of the views he is known for are these: “Free Grace theology,” a view that holds that eternal life is received as a free gift only through belief in Jesus Christ for eternal life and it need not necessarily result in repentance or good works, therefore, one need not preach repentance when preaching the message of salvation.

[15] White 1995, p. 5.

[16] In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.

[17] In Christianity, the term Textus Receptus (Latin for “received text”) refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus’ Novum Instrumentum omne (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denominations.

[18] The supernatural is phenomena or entities that are not subject to the laws of nature. It is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis, from Latin super- (above, beyond, or outside of) + natura (nature) Though the corollary term “nature,” has had multiple meanings since the ancient world, the term “supernatural” emerged in the medieval period and did not exist in the ancient world. The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal.

[19] In theology, Divine Providence, or simply Providence, is God’s intervention in the Universe. The term Divine Providence (usually capitalized) is also used as a title of God.

[20] Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus; 28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536) was a Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian who is considered one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance. As a Catholic priest, he was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a pure Latin style.

[21] The Trinitarian Bible Society was founded in 1831 “to promote the Glory of God and the salvation of men by circulating, both at home and abroad, in dependence on the Divine blessing, the Holy Scriptures, which are given by inspiration of God and are able to make men wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” The Trinitarian Bible Society members separated from the British and Foreign Bible Society, itself founded in 1804, due to two controversies: The Apocrypha Controversy, over inclusion of the Biblical Apocrypha in some Bibles published in Europe. Inclusion of an adherent of Unitarianism as an officer in the Society, and refusal of the Society to open every meeting with prayer.The arguments came into the open during the Annual Meeting in May 1831 of the Society.

[22] Watts, Malcolm H. (2007). “The Accuracy of the Authorised Version” (PDF). Quarterly Record. Trinitarian Bible Society. 578 (1): 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011.

[23] The United Bible Societies (UBS) is a global fellowship of around 150 Bible Societies operating in more than 240 countries and territories. It has working hubs in England, Singapore, Nairobi and Miami.

[24] Peter Sturges Ruckman (November 19, 1921 – April 21, 2016) was an American Independent Fundamental Baptist pastor, author, and founder of the Pensacola Bible Institute in Pensacola, Florida (not to be confused with the Pensacola Christian College in the same city). Ruckman was known for his position that the King James Version constituted “advanced revelation” and was the final, preserved word of God.: 126  This view is often called “Ruckmanism” by its opponents; his followers, “Ruckmanites”.

[25] White 1995.

[26] Douglas James Wilson (born 1953) is a conservative Reformed and evangelical theologian, pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, faculty member at New Saint Andrews College, and author and speaker. Wilson is known for his controversial work Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he coauthored with Steve Wilkins.

[27] Wilson, Douglas. “Hearers of the Word”. Credenda/Agenda. 10 (1). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.

[28] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide.

[29] “400 Years of the King James Bible – ensign”. ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

[30] Benjamin George Wilkinson (1872–1968) was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, educator, and theologian. He served also as Dean of Theology at the Seventh-day Adventist Washington Missionary College (now known as Washington Adventist University) which is located in Takoma Park, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. Wilkinson is considered one of the originators of the King James Only beliefs.

[31] The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming (advent) of Jesus Christ. The denomination grew out of the Millerite movement in the United States during the mid-19th century and it was formally established in 1863.

[32] The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, US also ; from the Latin: septuaginta, lit. ’seventy’; often abbreviated 70; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond those contained in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible as canonically used in the tradition of mainstream Rabbinical Judaism.

[33] Brooke Foss Westcott (12 January 1825 – 27 July 1901) was an English bishop, biblical scholar and theologian, serving as Bishop of Durham from 1890 until his death. He is perhaps most known for co-editing The New Testament in the Original Greek in 1881.

[34] Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), known as F. J. A. Hort, was an Irish-born theologian and editor, with Brooke Foss Westcott of a critical edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek.

[35] The Codex Vaticanus (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; no. B or 03 Gregory-Aland, δ 1 von Soden) is one of the oldest copies of the Bible, one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library, where it has been kept since at least the 15th century. It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters and has been dated palaeographically to 300-330 C.E.

[36] The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum א‎ [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 2 (Soden), or “Sinai Bible”, is a fourth-century (330-360 C.E.) Christian manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, and the Greek New Testament written in uncial letters on parchment. It is one of the four great uncial codices.

[37] Westcott and Hort, The New Testament In The Original Greek (New York: 1882).

[38] Gail Anne Riplinger (born October 10, 1947) is an American writer and speaker known for her advocacy of the King James Only movement and denunciation of modern English Bible translations.

[39] Riplinger, Gail A. “Settings of the King James Bible” (PDF). Our KJV.

[40] Cornerstone was a newspaper and later a magazine published by Jesus People USA, focusing on topics of evangelical Christian faith and engagement with politics and culture. Cornerstone began as an 8-page black-and-white newspaper in 1971, printed at various locations by the itinerant Jesus People community.

[41] Jack Thomas Chick (April 13, 1924 – October 23, 2016) was an American cartoonist and publisher, best known for his fundamentalist Christian “Chick tracts”. He expressed his perspective on a variety of issues through sequential-art morality plays.

[42] Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and American Protestants as a reaction to theological liberalism and cultural modernism.

[43] 2 December 2013.

[44] Bible Missionary Church, founded in 1955, is an Evangelical denomination of Christianity aligned with the Wesleyan–Holiness movement. It is headquartered in the United States.

[45] Manual of the Bible Missionary Church, Inc. Bible Missionary Church. 2015. p. 138.

[46] Wilkinson B.G., Truth Triumphant: The Church in the Wilderness, Hartland Publications, (Rapidan, Virginia, 2004), p. 50.

[47] John William Burgon (21 August 1813 – 4 August 1888) was an English Anglican divine who became the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1876. He is remembered for his poetry and his defense of the historicity and Mosaic authorship of Genesis and of biblical inerrancy in general.

[48] Book review of John William Burgon’s The Revision Revised. Review by J. H. Thayer, found in The Andover Review, Volume 1 (1884), page 458

[49] Herman Charles Hoskier (1864–1938), was a biblical scholar, British textual critic, and son of a merchant banker, Herman Hoskier (1832–1904).Hoskier, as textual critic, generally but not entirely supported the Byzantine text-type against the Alexandrian text-type. He compared, in Codex B and It Allies, the text of Codex Vaticanus with Codex Sinaiticus, and showed how many significant disagreements the best witnesses of the Alexandrian text have.

[50] Herman C. Hoskier, Codex B and Its Allies – a Study and an Indictment, (1914), Vol I, p. 468

[51] Jacob Harold Greenlee was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 12, 1918, the first child of Jacob Andrew and Ethel Edith Jarrett Greenlee. He graduated from Charleston High School in 1935. He holds the degrees of A.B., Asbury College, 1939; B.D., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1943; M.A., University of Kentucky, 1944; Ph.D. in Biblical and Patristic Greek, Harvard University, 1947. He was a Senior Fulbright Fellow, Oxford University, 1950–51, where his work on reading an ancient palimpsest—an erased Greek NT manuscript—led to further palimpsest studies and the publication of a book.

[52] Asbury Theological Seminary is a Christian Wesleyan seminary in the historical Methodist tradition located in Wilmore, Kentucky. It is the largest seminary of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement.

[53] J. H. Greenlee, Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism, (1964), p. 78

[54] Donald Arthur Carson (born December 21, 1946) is a Reformed biblical scholar. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and president and co-founder of the Gospel Coalition.

[55] D. A. Carson, The King James Version Debate, (1979), p. 75

[56] Dr. Wilbur N. Pickering, The Identity of the New Testament Text (1980), p. 42.

[57] The Johannine Comma (Latin: Comma Johanneum) is an interpolated phrase (comma) in verses 5:7–8 of the First Epistle of John. The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by square brackets) in the King James Bible reads: 7For there are three that beare record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.] 8[And there are three that beare witnesse in earth], the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one. It became a touchpoint for the Christian theological debate over the doctrine of the Trinity from the early church councils to the Catholic and Protestant disputes in the early modern period. The passage appears to have originated as a gloss in a Latin manuscript around the end of the 4th century and was subsequently incorporated into the text of the Old Latin Bible during the 5th century, though not the earliest Vulgate manuscripts.

[58] “Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7)”. King James Version Today. “What does 1 John 5:7 mean?”. BibleRef.com. 1 John 5:7-8: The Story of an Interpolation. NTTC 1 JOHN 5:7-8: The Bible Has Survived Attempts to Change the Word of God.

[59] “Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7)”. King James Version Today. 1 John 5:7-8: The Story of an Interpolation. NTTC 1 JOHN 5:7-8: The Bible Has Survived Attempts to Change the Word of God.

[60] “What does Acts 8:37 mean?”. BibleRef.com.

[61] “Should the Bible include Acts 8:37: ‘And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’?”. King James Version Today.

[62] Genesis 2:17 Updated American Standard Version

¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”

What is the punishment for sin here? What is the punishment for rebellion here? Was there some footnote that added eternal torment? 

Why would God hold back eternal torment from Adam? Was it just/right to not inform Adam of eternal torment? Was the serpent [Satan] right, saying God was withholding knowledge from Adam and Eve? Or, maybe … it was exactly as God said. “you eat from it you shall surely die.”

Ezekiel 18:4 Updated American Standard Version

⁴ Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

Romans 6:23 Updated American Standard Version

²³ For the wages of sin is death

What Does the Bible Really Say About Hellfire – Eternal Torment?

What Does the Bible Really Say About Hellfire – Eternal Torment?

What Did Jesus Teach About Hell?

What Did Jesus Teach About Hell?

Is Hellfire Part of Divine Justice?

Is Hellfire Part of Divine Justice?

Is the Hellfire Doctrine Truly Just?

Is the Hellfire Doctrine Truly Just?

The Bible’s Viewpoint of Death

https://christianpublishinghouse.co/2016/12/18/the-bibles-viewpoint-of-death/

Do Humans Have a Soul that Is Apart From Us?

Do Humans Have a Soul that Is Apart From Us?

[63] “‘Hell’ or ‘Hades’ in Matthew 11:23 et al.?”. King James Version Today.

[64] In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Alexandrian text-type is one of the main text types. It is the text type favored by the majority of modern textual critics and it is the basis for most modern (after 1900) Bible translations.

[65] “Aren’t older manuscripts more reliable?”. http://www.kjvtoday.com

[66] The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; Hebrew: נוסח המסורה, romanized: Nusakh Ham’mas’sora) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the mas’sora.

[67] The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, US also ; from the Latin: septuaginta, lit. ’seventy’; often abbreviated 70; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond those contained in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible as canonically used in the tradition of mainstream Rabbinical Judaism.

[68] “Does the Hebrew Masoretic text underlying the KJV have any errors?”. http://www.kjvtoday.com.

[69] “Does the New Testament quote from the Greek Septuagint?”. King James Version Today.

[70] “Why read the Bible in the King James Version?”. King James Version Today.

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