King James Bible

The New King James Bible Version

The New King James Version was commissioned to be done by Thomas Nelson Publishers in 1975. It took seven years to complete a new and modern translation of Scripture that retained the purity of the original King James Version. The work was done by almost three times as many individuals as it took to translate the original King James Version. There is not any controversy over the copyright status of the New King James Version that there have been with the original King James Version.

One hundred and thirty individuals worked for seven years to complete a totally revised edition of the King James Version. The New King James Version was published in three different parts: in 1979 the New King James Version with the New Testament, in 1980 The New King James Version with the New Testament and Psalms and in 1982 the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, containing both the Old and New Testaments. The translators worked to retain the purity of the original King James Version and kept strict faithfulness in the usage of the original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts as well as more recent findings from research that has been done in archaeology, linguistics and textual studies. The aim of this translation was to put the original into a modern form of English, making it easier to read and follow.

Updating the English in the original King James Version and still being able to maintain the style and beauty of the 1611 version was a hard task. It required the translators to make changes in grammar, spelling, word order and vocabulary. The translators also abandoned the frequent use of second person pronouns and inserted modern forms of verbs. All of the changes made for a more readable Bible of today without archaic word forms to stumble over. And even though it used the same texts for translation as did the King James Version, the New King James Version goes a step forward and indicates where the more commonly held translations differ.

The copyright status is pretty free, when it comes to reproducing parts of the New King James Bible. There is not the huge monopoly of only a few printers being allowed the privilege of printing the Bible like there was with the original King James Version. The only specification regarding copyright is that a proper acknowledgement must be included. And when quotes are used in regards to church functions such as newsletters or religious services, the initials "NKJV" are all that are required to be used at the end of each quotation.

The New King James Version is now used universally in place of the King James Version. The goal of the translators was to mainly update the language of the Bible, making it easier to read for the general public of today than of those from three centuries before. The translators had to keep the original flow and beauty of the original text as they made their translation though. And this edition did not have the same controversy with it as did the original King James Version; there was no monopoly over who controlled the copyright licenses.