Intro

This blog gains its name from the book Steele's Answers published in 1912. It began as an effort to blog through that book, posting each of the Questions and Answers in the book in the order in which they appeared. I started this on Dec. 10, 2011. I completed blogging from that book on July 11, 2015. Along the way, I began to also post snippets from Dr. Steele's other writings — and from some other holiness writers of his times. Since then, I have begun adding material from his Bible commentaries. I also re-blog many of the old posts.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Mistakes in the King James Version

QUESTION: A Southern preacher is teaching that there are 2,000 mistakes in King James' version of the Bible. Is this so?


ANSWER: There is not a mistake which affects any Christian doctrine. There are petty defects in minute details, like the omission to dot the letter i or to cross a t in a manuscript. One translator says "Herod the King;" another says "King Herod;" this would be counted a mistake. I presume there are 2,000 variations in the American Standard from King James' Version, but not one of them can be called a mistake. The new version is an improvement by substituting modern words for those that are obsolete, such as "knew" for "wist" in Lu. 2:49, "knew ye not" etc., and "who" and "that" for "which" when referring to a person, such as "Our Father who art," etc.; and "are" for "be" in indicative clauses; and "an" for "a" before an aspirated "h." All these are doubtless counted as a part of the 2,000 mistakes. Preachers should be on their guard against statements which shake the confidence of the people in their Bibles.

Steele's Answers pp. 269, 270.

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