Legal Law

Linguistic Features of the King James Version Bible

Since its publication in 1611, the King James Version (KJV) Bible, also known as the Authorized Version (AV), has been the most revered, read, and loved of all forty-five current English-language Bibles. The construction of this literary masterpiece is possibly the most ambitious academic project in the world. Initiated in 1604, King James I of Scotland and King VI of England employed forty-seven of England’s most renowned scholars to translate the Old and New Testaments from Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and the books of the Apocryphal books from Latin to Early Modern English, as accurately as possible.

Even after 400 years, the KJV is still considered the most popular Bible. Many people claim that the KJV is the only accurate English translation because its words are faithful to the original sacred texts. On the other hand, for some of us, this Bible is sometimes difficult to read and understand. Adam Nicolson, author of the national bestseller, Secretaries of God states: “These scholars were not introducing the language of the Scriptures into the English they knew and used at home. The words of the King James Version are just as pushed into English into foreign language conditions as into a foreign language translated into English. “(211). To help clarify the reading of this great book, some of the linguistic features should be explained, so that the KJV is easier to understand.

WORD ORDER: If you read the original Hebrew Old Testament as well as the Greek in the New Testament, it seems that there is no end to manipulation of words and grammar when read. However, the KJV transforms all parts of speech into an endless order of words: adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositional sentences and many others, they are added to the subject (S), verb (V), indirect object (IO) and direct. object (DO). This can make reading this Bible a much more intellectual and breathtakingly beautiful experience.

HEBRAISMS: (1) Common English words, especially nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and conjunctions, receive different meanings when translated from Hebrew. For example, “and” replaces more than twelve words with different meanings in Old Testament Hebrew.

(2) The preposition “of” expands the possessive meaning. Then, “the Son of God” becomes “Son of God”, or “King of kings”, not “the most excellent king”.

(3) Also, Hebraisms use double prepositions: “From under heaven” (Deuteronomy 25:19), not “Under heaven”.

(4) A theme is repeated: “The Lord your God, he will fight for you.” (Deuteronomy 3:22). Active replaces passive verbs: “He will kill the oxen”, instead of “The oxen will be killed”. (Leviticus 1: 5).

In his book, Hebraisms in the Authorized Version of the Bible, William Rosenau fills a glossary with more than 2000 Hebraisms in the King James Old Testament. (170-283).

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GREEK SYNTAX: (1) The verb usually comes before the subject: “Then the disciples came to Jesus.” (Matthew 17:19), “… because with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” (Mark 1:27), “… A rain is coming, and so it is.” (Luke 12:54), “Then Jesus comes from Galilee …” (Matthew 3:13).

(2) The New Testament KJV closely follows the Greek almost word for word. (Original Greek): “Now in those days John the Baptist comes proclaiming in the desert of Judea and saying: Repent, because he has drawn near to the kingdoms of heaven.” (Matthew 3: 1-2) (KJV). “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the Judean desert, and saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” (Matthew 3: 1-2).

(3) The words are arranged so that they have more importance at the beginning of the sentence. This allows the reader or listener to pay attention immediately from the beginning of the sentence: “Truly this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54). “To him who conquers, I will make him a column.” (Revelation 3:12).

ARCHAIC WORDS: The most commonly used words in early modern KJV English are the pronouns “tú” and “tu”. Each one is divided into categories of plural and singular: TÚ (you, plural subject), TÚ (do, plural, singular, object of a preposition), THY (you, plural, possessive adjective), THINE (yours, plural, pronoun possessive) .YE (you, singular subject), TU (singular, preposition object), TU (you, singular, possessive adjective, pronoun).

TWO IMPORTANT WORDS: There are two important words that dominate both KJV wills: “To” and “About.” “… On this rock I will build my church …” (Matthew 16:18), “But Peter … said to them: Men of Judea, and all of us who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to my words. “. (Acts 2:14), Throughout the Book of Matthew, when Jesus is preaching, he repeatedly states, “I tell you …”.

MISSING LETTERS AND WORDS: Misprints were quite common in the seventeenth century: “

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *