Is it wrong to correct, improve, revise translations?

[Salamander]

When is the last time you had trouble understanding your KJV? Need I remind you that the MVs are full of words that need further clarification. They are no different than the KJV in this regard.


Pastor Bob , you are being absurd . The MV's are no different than the KJV with respect to words that need furthur clarification ?! Most MV's have their share of 'difficult words' , but come on ! The KJV has thousands of more unfamiliar words than do the MV's . True , there are ample places in the KJV which are not hard to understand -- but the main premise of your post is laughable .

If I may respond? Individual words do not make for doctrine, but the collection of words into a contextual form produce doctrine.

Anything less than purity in that contextual form is less than what is to be considered to establish doctrine.

 

[Rippon]

Sure do, that's why we teach English and have dictionaries.

Why do we have to consult dictionaries that are almost 200 years old ? That fact alone tells a reasonable person that the English language has undergone some significant changes if the dictionaries of the last 100 years do not carry many of the out-dated words of even the 'updated' 1789 .

 

[Logos1560]

Here are some examples of the KJV translators' attempt to make better [improve] or correct the Bishops' Bible in the book of Job

Job 1:5 and gat up early (Bishops) and rose up early (KJV)
Job 5:2 wrathfulness (Bishops) wrath (KJV)
Job 6:7 The things that sometime I might not away withal (Bishops)
The things that my soul refused to touch (KJV)
Job 6:23 hand of the tyrants (Bishops) hand of the mighty (KJV)
Job 7:12 a whale fish (Bishops) a whale (KJV)
Job 10:21 Afore I go thither from whence (Bishops) Before I go whence (KJV)
Job 12:6 they that maliciously meddle against God dwell without care (Bishops)
they that provoke God are secure (KJV)
Job 12:17 out of their wits (Bishops) fools (KJV)
Job 15:32 afore his time (Bishops) before his time (KJV)
Job 17:1 I am hard at death’s door (Bishops) the graves are ready for me (KJV)
Job 17:2 Froward men are with me (Bishops) Are there not mockers with me (KJV)
Job 20:15 shall he parbreak (Bishops) he shall vomit (KJV)
Job 21:13 in wealthiness (Bishops) in wealth (KJV)
Job 22:10 compassed about (Bishops) are round about (KJV)
Job 23:11 his high way have I holden (Bishops) his way have I kept (KJV)
Job 27:13 tyrants (Bishops) oppressors (KJV)
Job 27:21 A vehement east wind (Bishops) The east wind (KJV)
Job 28:18 gabis (Bishops) pearls (KJV)
Job 30:9 jesting stock (Bishops) byword (KJV)
Job 30:27 My bowels seethe (Bishops) My bowels boiled (KJV)
Job 31:25 my hand gat so much (Bishops) mine hand had gotten much (KJV)
Job 35:14 thou sayest to God (Bishops) thou sayest (KJV)
Job 36:16 quiet replenished with fatness (Bishops) should be full of fatness (KJV)
Job 41:7 the fish panier with his head (Bishops) his head with fish spears (KJV)
Job 42:10 as he had afore (Bishops) as he had before (KJV)

 

[Logos1560]

William Tyndale, the father of our English Bible, has been referred to as the "primary" or "principal" translator of the KJV by a couple KJV-only authors because such as large percentage of the KJV is said to come from Tyndale.

In his preface to his 1534 New Testament, William Tyndale wrote: "I had taken in hand to look over the New Testament again and to compare it with the Greek, and to mend whatsoever I could find amiss." Tyndale clearly regarded the Greek New Testament as superior to his translation and as the standard for revising or correcting it. Tyndale thought that it was good to correct and attempt to improve an English translation, using the standard of the Scriptures in the original languages.