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Question: Who were the translators of the King James Bible?

Answer: God brought together over 54 of the finest Bible translators English has ever known, to translate the King James Bible.

Researching the Translators
For twenty years (the late 1830s to the late 1850s) researcher Alexander McClure pored over records to learn all he could about who translated the King James Bible. His resulting book, Translators Revived: Biographical Notes on the King James Version Translators, stands as a monument to these dedicated Christian men. It may be read online at www.books.google.com. I highly recommend it.

A Few Short Examples
Here are some of the qualified translators of the King James Bible.

John Harman, M.A., New College, Oxford.
In 1585 he had been appointed King’s Professor of Greek. He had published Latin translations of Calvin’s and Beza’s sermons, and was also adept in Greek. He was a member of the New Testament group that met at Oxford.

John Spencer
At 19 years of age he had been elected Greek lecturer for Corpus Christi College in Oxford University. It was written of him, “Of his eminent scholarship there can be no question.” He was a member of the New Testament group (Romans through Jude) that met at Westminster.

Thomas Bilson
McClure wrote that he was “so complete in divinity, so well skilled in languages, so read in the Fathers and Schoolmen, so judicious in making use of his readings, that at length he was found to be no longer a soldier, but commander in chief in the spiritual warfare” (Translators Revived, pp. 214-416).

Dr. George Abbot, B.D., D.D.
Dr. Abbot started at Oxford in 1578, getting his B.D. in 1593 and at 35 years of age both received his doctorate and became first Master of University College, and later Vice Chancellor. He became Bishop of Lichfield in 1609 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611. He was regarded as “the head of the Puritans within the Church of England.” He was in the Oxford New Testament group.

Sir Henry Saville
In 1565 Sir Saville was Fellow of Merton College and Warden in 1585. By 1596 he was Provost of Eton College and tutor to Queen Elizabeth I. He founded the Savillian professorships of Mathematics and Astronomy at Oxford. His many works include an 8-volume set of the writings of Chrysostom.(1) He also worked in the New Testament group at Oxford.

Lancelot Andrewes
From Terence H. Brown, (Secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society, London, England) comes this description of Westminster committee member Lancelot Andrewes:

He “… had his early education at Coopers Free School and Merchant Taylors School, where his rapid progress in the study of the ancient languages was brought to the notice of Dr. Watts, the founder of some scholarships at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Andrewes was sent to that College, where he took his B.A. degree and soon afterward was elected Fellow. He then took his Master’s degree and began to study divinity and achieved great distinction as a lecturer. He was raised to several positions of influence in the Church of England and distinguished himself as a diligent and excellent preacher, and became Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth I. King James I promoted him to be Bishop of Chester in 1605 and also gave him the influential position of Lord Almoner. He later became Bishop of Ely and Privy Counsellor. Toward the end of his life he was made Bishop of Winchester.

“It is recorded that Andrewes was a man of deep piety and that King James had such great respect for him that in his presence he refrained from the levity in which he indulged at other times. A sermon preached at Andrewes’ funeral in 1626 paid tribute to his great scholarship:

‘His knowledge in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic, besides fifteen modern languages was so advanced that he may be ranked as one of the rarest linguists in Christendom. A great part of five hours every day he spent in prayer, and in his last illness he spent all his time in prayer — and when both voice and eyes and hands failed in their office, his countenance showed that he still prayed and praised God in his heart, until it pleased God to receive his blessed soul to Himself.'”

Transcending Their Human Limits

Gustavus S. Paine, author of The Men Behind the King James Version, made this assessment about the work of the combined translators:

“Though we may challenge the idea of word-by-word inspiration, we surely must conclude that these were men able, in their profound moods, to transcend their human limits. In their own words, they spake as no other men spake because they were filled with the Holy Ghost. Or, in the clumsier language of our time, they so adjusted themselves to each other and to the work as to achieve a unique coordination and balance, functioning thereafter as an organic entity–no mere mechanism equal to the sum of its parts, but a whole greater than all of them.” (2)

While these scholars were perfectly suited for the task of translation individually, they still had to agree on every single word of the Bible. That meant man’s mere opinion could not be allowed to stand in the text.

The One Who Started It All

But these translators were standing on the shoulders of great men and Christians who went before them. And one man did more for the English Bible than any single person before or since: William Tyndale. He was ordained a priest around his late teens, in 1502. By 1515 he had earned his M.A. at Oxford and later transferred to Cambridge. It was there that he came upon the preserved Greek New Testament of Erasmus, and at the same time as Martin Luther, he came to understand the truth of the gospel. Tyndale began preaching and teaching the gospel message, which made the Roman Catholics angry with him, branding him a heretic. One day, while proving a “learned” Roman Catholic scholar wrong, the papist cried out, “It were better for us to be without God’s laws, than without the Pope’s!” To which Tyndale prophetically replied,

“I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than you do!”

This changed Tyndale forever. He wrote about this incident,

“Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in the mother tongue” (Translators Revived, p. 23).

Tyndale was well suited to his task. Spalatin, a friend of Martin Luther, wrote this in his diary of what professor Herman Buschius told him about Tyndale and his New Testament:

“The work was translated by an Englishman staying there with two others,–a man so skilled in the seven languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, and French, that which-ever he spake, you would suppose it his native tongue” (Translators Revived, pp. 27-28)

By the time Tyndale was betrayed by his friend, imprisoned and nearly frozen during a cold winter in his cell, he had translated the New Testament into English, along with some Old Testament books, and had trained at least two others to carry on his work. But he wasn’t finished, even when burnt at the stake on October 6, 1536, he cried out prophetically:

“Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes” (Dr. William Grady, Final Authority, p. 137)

That very day a copy of Tyndale’s New Testament was being printed by the King’s own printer!

Conclusion
Tyndale’s work of translation was so excellent, that easily 70% of the words of the Bible are Tyndale’s. God had set the standard. Over the next century, God’s preserved words were translated and revised by many scholars, a great many “good translations.” These, along with God’s preserved words in Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch and other languages were all “good translations.” But the goal of the king’s translators of 1604-1611 was not to write a new Bible from scratch, nor was it to make a translation from the Roman Catholic perversions:

“Truly, good Christian Reader, we never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one; … but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against; that hath been our endeavor, that our mark” (The Translators to the Reader, 1611 KJV, ninth page).

And that is exactly what God did. Throughout history God preserved His words. And, culminating with over 54 dedicated, learned Christian men, God put His words in English in its perfection in one final translation: The King James Bible.

May God bless you as you read His preserved words in English, the King James Bible.


Footnotes

  1. Chrysostom was a 4th century Greek-speaking minister and writer.
  2. Gustavus Paine, The Men Behind the King James Version, p. 173, quoted in Crowned With Glory: The Bible from Ancient Text to Authorized Version by Thomas Holland, p. 90 (Emphasis mine).

More on the Bible Versions here.

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Abiding

Antichrist or Christ? [podcast]


Recorded at a fellowship in Colorado.

Who is truly reigning in my heart?

“But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” Luke 19:27 

Am I an antichrist?

Are there professing Christians who have “the spirit of antichrist” reigning in their hearts, their personal lives?

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

Sitting upon the throne in the heart of this temple would make me an antichrist.

Anti as in antichrist means in place of: It’s the “spirit of antichrist” working through Satan’s false ministers that robs the glory from Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:12-15; Colossians 1:18; 2:8-10, 18-19; 1 John 4:1-3, etc.).

anti – a. Against, opposed to. b. Before, predating. c. Usurping, in place of.

“Deceived people have no idea that they have been deceived, so they fight those who attempt to direct them back to the truth of the gospel.” Jim Borge

Those not excited for Jesus to return simply love this fleeting world and are not ready to meet the KING! Jesus is coming

We know when “that spirit of antichrist” is working through a rebel when he speaks contrary to God’s Word (John 8:47; 1 John 4:3). “That spirit of antichrist”anti (in place of) Christ is anything that contradicts what God’s Word says, working to subvert divinely stated truth while posing as Christ’s minister (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).

“That spirit of antichrist” is witnessed in the human agents, possessed by devils who make it all about something, anything but Christ. The emphasis is taken away from Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:18-19). They make it about the church, Zionism/Israel, a nation, a genealogical people, a mere pastor, a man or men, an organization, a creed, a fraternal order, etc. This becomes clearer as the word “antichrist” is broken down. Anti means in place of.

Read Colossians 1 and 2 each morning this week.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:1-4 

Support | STORE | Podcasts | Christology | Be Ready in the Morning [podcast]The Sure Mercies of David [podcast]That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached [podcast] | At His FeetThe 7 Sayings of Jesus on the CrossHow We Know the Bible is the Only Holy Book | More on Antichrists

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Apostasy

How Has Women Leaving Their Homes Hurt Culture?

by The Transformed Wife, Lori Alexander

Many women despise my teachings on women being keepers at home. They will often give me names of all the great and powerful women who left their homes and did good things in order to back up their defense that women don’t need to be keepers at home. They will tell me that I am shaming women for teaching these things. They confuse shaming with conviction. God’s Word convicts them. If they feel shame, they are really feeling conviction. If they are doing what they know is right, no one would be able to shame them.

How has women leaving their homes hurt culture? It has hurt culture in many, many ways. Children are no longer being raised by their own mothers. They are being raised by daycare workers and teachers. “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Proverbs 29:15). Children need a lot of teaching, training, and discipline. They aren’t receiving this if their mothers are away from them most of the day. These mothers are giving their best to others instead of to their children. These children are bringing shame to their mothers as they grow up. We are told this in God’s Word. All of the people we see rioting and burning down buildings were most likely not raised by a mother full time.

Women leaving their homes have hurt marriage. Women now initiate divorce 70 percent of the time since they no longer need to depend upon their husbands but can instead take half of what he owns and have them pay child support for many years. They are often too tired to put much time or energy into their marriages due to their careers. Marriage and raising children is FAR more important than having a career. There is nothing more important than raising the next generation, and children need a mother and father under the same roof and involved in their lives.

Women leaving their homes has hurt the old people. Old people no longer have their daughters around to help and give them comfort because their daughters are pursuing their careers. Young mothers hurt because they no longer have their mothers help because they have careers and they don’t have any older women involved in their lives due to careers. Neighbors don’t have people they can call on when they need help when all of the women are working away from their homes.

Women are more depressed and suicidal than ever before. They can’t expect anything different when they leave the clear path that God has chosen for them to pursue their own paths. God is our Creator and He is good. His ways for us are good. Women have been affected negatively since leaving their homes. Children have been abandoned and have been hurt the most. When the least among us is hurt the most, then we must carefully examine the path that we are on and switch course.

God-fearing women, I encourage you to go back to the paths that the Lord has laid out for you. If you think you can’t afford it, step out in faith in Almighty God. He tells us that His commands are not burdensome and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. He wants you home full time. This is where He has given you to work and minister. Your work at home is not worthless! God will use you in powerful ways as you obey Him. He will bless you abundantly and the older you get, the more you will realize this.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Jeremiah 6:16


GOD’S STATED WILL FOR YOUNG WOMEN – AND THE ULTIMATE WAY TO LIVE FULFILLED

“I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” 1 Timothy 5:14

— marry
— bear children
— guide the house

The Role of the Woman – to bring new life into the world, to raise the next generation. Could there be a more noble calling?

Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison MinistryMexico Mission here | ParentsFamily | Godly Manhood | WomenChristology | Because You Care Page | The Greatest of these is CharityBe Ready in the Morning [podcast]The Sure Mercies of David [podcast]That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached [podcast]At His Feet | Prepared to be Used of God The Damning Myth of Unconditional Eternal Security [podcast]The Essential of Fearing God | The KING is Coming [podcast] |

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Articles

Was Jesus the “One and Only Son” OR the “Only Begotten Son”? [podcast]


Why was the virgin birth of Jesus Christ an absolute necessity, essential?

WHAT does the Bible word “begotten” mean to salvation? Everything! Remove it and there is no salvation and God lied!

AND you still don’t think the changes made by satan’s agents in the new fake “bible” versions doesn’t change essential doctrine? You better think again.

What are the 2 central, essential reasons Jesus had to be born of a virgin – “begotten of the Father” in the womb of a virgin? (John 1:14)

  1. Because the Messiah had to be sinless in order to be the perfect sin offering to expiate the sins of fallen men (Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 2:22, etc.).
  2. In fulfillment of Messianic prophecy (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).

“Begotten of the Father” is the only way the virgin birth could occur and the only way Jesus could be sinless (John 1:14).

One writer notes:

“The woman cannot transmit the sin nature to her offspring. The male DNA chromosome is the carrier of Sin that passes it down. Jesus could not be born to an earthly father.

Jesus had to partake (participate) in our plight (Heb 2:14) for us to participate in His resurrection, ascension and session. He was willing to take our sin condition in exchange for His victorious righteousness and glory. He came down to earth and even went under the earth to rescue us to the top of heaven. Eph 2:6.

Jesus demonstrated that it would never be by military might, control, threat, coercion, violence or killing that He would deliver us but only by becoming a helpless little embryo in the woman’s womb then a weak little baby lying in a filthy manger between the ass of ignorance and the ox of self-will. And then a carpenter.

The weakness of God is stronger than man. In the divine economy, power is perfected in weakness.”

John 3:16 compared:

King James Bible

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

NIV

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

NLT

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

To say Jesus Christ was “the one and only Son” of God contradicts Holy Scripture

Unlike the new “bibles”, the King James Bible uses “only BEGOTTEN Son” as is correctly translated from the Majority Manuscripts.

Jesus Christ is unique in all history in that He alone had a divine Father. He was begotten (generated) of Father God in the womb of a virgin. This miracle has never nor ever will happen again. a virgin conceived and bore the “only begotten son of God.”

From now on, when you hear someone quote that Jesus is “the one and only Son,” you will know they are quoting from one of the many fake news “bibles.”

In John 3:16, the Devil’s new “bibles” say “his one and only son” instead of the “only begotten Son” which is essential to the plan of God, the Messiah, the church, and the people of this world for whom Jesus died. Make no mistake: This is a frontal attack on our LORD and Savior by His arch enemy. First off, Jesus was not the “one and only son.” That is a contradiction. How could Jesus possibly be “the one and only son” when the Bible says – “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…” (1 John 3:1)?

This is a robbing of the glory of God which is the work of none other than Satan himself. If Jesus weren’t the “only BEGOTTEN SON” then He wasn’t born of a virgin and isn’t the Messiah. Biblical truth 101 ! The Bible says that we, His people, are “the sons of God … Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” (1 John 3:1-2)

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:

BEGOT’, BEGOT’TEN, Procreated; generated.

After Adam, only one human being in History was procreated, generated by the heavenly Father. Jesus. ALL other men, women, had an earthly father whose blood was contaminated by sin (Romans 5:12, etc.).

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God’s prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would be born of a “virgin.”

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

Jesus Christ, if not “the only begotten of the Father”, is not the Messiah and is a fraud. There could be no more essential doctrine to the Christian faith.

If Jesus is not God He’s not the Messiah. Jesus says: “if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24 )

Isaiah told us that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, “begotten,” and the “mighty God” and “Immanuel”, “GOD with us.” (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Matthew 1:21-23)

What are the 2 central reasons Jesus had to be born of a virgin – “begotten of the Father” in the womb of a virgin? (See John 1:14.)

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Only by being both deity and humanity could Jesus Christ bridge the sin-caused chasm that divided the two parties after the first man sinned (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16).

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” John 1:18

The “spirit of antichrist” denies that Jesus came in the flesh which means He was born of a virgin, begotten of the Father, and therefore divine.

“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:2-3 

Holy Scripture informs us that “God was manifest in the flesh” and that was only possible by way of the divine Father God who begot Him in the womb of a virgin. “Immanuel” means God with us (Matthew 1:21-23; 1 Timothy 3:16 etc.).

There cannot possibly be a perfect sacrifice without a virgin birth executed by divine operation.

One writer notes:

“The DNA/chromosomes of the Sin Nature (“Sin” Rom 5:12) I believe can only be passed down thru the male.  The woman cannot pass it down.  Therefore the woman could be impregnated by the Holy Spirit and the child, Jesus, did not receive from Mary a sin nature or flesh.  He was 100 % human but without a sin nature.  God with sinless skin on.  He maintained this state of sinless perfection all his life and had no sin nature until He drank and absorbed the cup of Sin right before He died.  He was “made sin” in order that we might get rid of sin and become the righteousness of God having received the life of God in this very real exchange that happens at the cross.  2 Cor 5:21.”

Jesus’ blood had of necessity to be sinless, and it was. This is exactly why He had to be begotten, generated by God the Father in the womb of a virgin – one who never knew a man:

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22

“The Blood”

“The Blood”

“The Blood”

“it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11) Say that out loud beloved of God.

Jesus Christ is God

Anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, begotten of the heavenly Father, and is divine, is a Christ-denying unbeliever and not saved.

Saints, let us return to the King James Bible and burn the enemy’s counterfeits. Check this out. Watch how the real Bible uses the phrase “the sons of God” referring to the people of God, the born again disciples of Jesus:
 
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the SONS OF GOD, even to them that believe on his name:” John 1:12
 
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the SONS OF GOD.” Romans 8:14
 
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the SONS OF GOD.” Romans 8:19
 
“And because YE ARE SONS, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:6
 

“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the SONS OF GOD, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” Philippians 2:15

The Only Begotten Son of God [podcast] | Fake News Bible Versions Exposed

God knew that wicked men, posing as His representatives, would appear throughout history to change His Word, as if it were a living, malable document. Not. This is why He told us He never changes and that His Word is “settled in heaven” and will never change by way of Him (Psalms 89:34; 119:89; Malachi 3:6; Mark 13:31, etc.). The LORD who “changeth not” specifically attached highest price tag, most severe punishment, to anyone who dare add to or take away from His words (Revelation 22:18-19). Satan himself is the one who influences wicked me to change God’s Word – “Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word.” (Mark 4:15). This description is not limited to and yet definitely applies to the “bibles” which are peddled by seminarian salesmen as being “easier to understand” and yet, these vile deceivers never mention how the content, the text of Scripture has been butchered.

For the above mentioned biblical reasons, we know of a certainty, that any person who participates in or justifies the changing of God’s Word, is of the devil (Proverbs 30:5-6; John 8:47, etc.). Beware.

Personally, I cannot endorse what are clearly Satan’s cheap subsitutes and counterfeits of God’s Word and therefore cannot recommend and definitely discourage any and all believers, not matter the maturity level, to read the King James Bible.

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