Bible Version Trends

In NEW AGE BIBLE VERSIONS: An Exhaustive Documentation Exposing the Message, Men, and Manuscripts Moving Mankind to the Antichrist’s One World Religion, the author, G.A. Riplinger, lists 12 trends that she sees occurring in the new translations (NIV, NASB, etc.) as opposed to the venerable KJV. The things she points out may be subtle, but they definitely give you something to think about!

Here’s a brief survey of the first six trends. (I’ll cover the other six trends another time).

1). One tendency of the new translations is to soften the definition of what’s right and wrong, thus leaving more wiggle room for people to interpret the scriptures in a more humanistic, liberal way. The NASB uses the word immorality instead of fornication in a myriad of places including Rom 1:29, 1 Cor 5:1, 1 Cor 6:13, Eph 5:3, Rev 2:14, Rev. 9:21, and Rev. 17:2 among others. Immorality is defined as the state or quality of being immoral (not moral) which is a lot more nebulous than calling it fornication, the word the King James version uses, which means illicit sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person. The NASB also takes the KJV term whoremonger which is a man given to whoring which is again unlawful sexual intercourse and translates it as immoral person or immoral men (as in 1 Tim 1:10, Rev. 21:8, and Rev. 22:15).

2). A second trend is to take out or soften the idea of holiness. ‘Holy men’ becomes simply ‘men’ in 2 Pet 1:21 and men are ‘equipped’ or ‘mature’ rather than ‘perfected’ (Eph 4:12 and 13, Heb 13:21, 1 Cor 2:6).

3). The new versions tend to blur the line when it comes to showing that salvation brings spiritual riches like faith, mercy, and good works and not necessarily material wealth. Compare the NIV translation of Prov 21:21 -- ‘finds life, prosperity’ -- with the KJV translation which says ‘findeth life, righteousness’. Jeremiah 29:11 as famously stated in the KJV says “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace’ comes across very differently when you say ‘I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you’ as the NIV does In 1 Tim 6:6, the KJV says ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’ as opposed to ‘godliness actually is a means of great gain’ in the new versions which again hints at material rewards. It's certainly much easier to preach the ‘prosperity gospel’ using the new translations.

4). The new versions feed the hardheartedness which will characterize the last days. These versions omit Matt 5:44 ‘do good to them that hate you’ and also Matt 11:26 ‘ But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.’ The KJV says ‘do violence to no man’ (Luke 3:14), but this becomes ‘don’t extort money’ in the new versions. Instead of ‘despisers of those that are good’ (2 Tim 3:3), the new versions have ‘haters of good’. Drunkenness in the sense of sobriety also goes missing. Instead, the new versions translate ‘sober’ and ‘sobriety’ as sensible, temperate, self-restraint, discreetly, and prudent.

5). Honesty seems to have become more of an irrelevant concept in the new versions. ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’ from Romans 13:9 is completely omitted. The word ‘honest’ instead becomes ‘honorable’ or ‘excellent’ (i.e. Phil 4:8, 1 Pet 2:12) while ‘dishonesty’ in the KJV becomes ‘shame’ (2 Cor 4:2) and ‘deceit’ becomes ‘error’ (1 Thess 2:3).

6). The new versions subtly feed men’s self-esteem, thus giving fuel to the idea that men are proud and lovers of their own selves. The KJV tells us ‘not to please ourselves’ while the new versions have us ‘not just please ourselves’ (Rom 15:1). Somehow the latter statement doesn't pack the same Biblical punch. In 1 Pet 3:3 we have ‘whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning’ vs ‘let not your adornment be merely external.’ That qualifier (merely) makes a lot of difference.

Bottom line: it certainly behooves all of us to contrast and compare the newer versions to the KJV, especially when it comes to Bible study.