Farstad - The New King James Version: In the Great Tradition

The New King James Version: In the Great Tradition

Second Edition

Arthur L. Farstad

Thomas Nelson Publishers

Nashville

The New King James Version: In the Great Tradition

Copyright 1989 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Second Edition Copyright 1993 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Unless otherwise noted, the Bible version used in this publication is The New King James Version, copyright 1982, 1980, 1979, by Thomas Nelson Inc.

E-ISBN 978-1-4185-3830-9

I wish to express my deep thanks to my colleague Dr. William McDowell, English Editor of the New King James Version, for his most helpful suggestions and editorial expertise in the preparation of this book.

My deep gratitude also goes to my fellow language-editor, Dr. James D. Price, Executive Old Testament Editor of the New King James, for his research and help in the historical and Hebraic parts of this book.

And I thank my nephew, Mark J. Farstad, for his splendid job of turning my cryptic handwriting into clean computer copy.

Contents

This fascinating book presents an interesting and exciting account of the background of the New King James Version of the Bible. The overall aim of the project was to preserve the great literary and spiritual heritage of the King James Version in language which modern people can understand. A careful reading of this book will reveal how that objective was accomplished. It is noteworthy that the translation process for the New King James Version took the same amount of timesome seven yearsas that of its illustrious predecessor, the King James Version of 1611.

An important section of this book describes various theoretical approaches to the translation of Scripture, and explains the principles underlying the text of the New King James Version. In addition, numerous examples from earlier Bible translations are included to illustrate how the New King James Version developed.

Dr. Arthur Farstad, an eminent scholar of the Greek New Testament, is ideally qualified to introduce this project to the reader. Initially serving as New Testament Editor, he carefully coordinated the work of New Testament revision. With the New Testament completed and the revision of the Old Testament progressing favorably, he was named Executive Editor for the project and was invited to join the Old Testament Executive Review Committee, headed by Dr. James D. Price. This committee, together with the projects English style editor, Dr. William H. McDowell, determined the final form of the Old Testament English text. Again Dr. Farstad made important contributions to the discussions, particularly in balancing Old Testament style and meaning against corresponding portions of the New Testament. The published New King James Version is a remarkable testimony to his energy, insight, and spiritual dedication.

This book says little about the Committee meetings other than that they were untouched by acrimony. In fact, many were brightened by humor, and Dr. Farstad often entertained our Committee meetings by means of witty chalk cartoons. The sense of fellowship that we as a Committee experienced brought a great deal of cohesion to the project, and it was with real regret that we finally parted, each to resume his normal duties.

R. K. Harrison

Professor Emeritus of Old Testament

Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

Oh, no sir, you wouldnt want The New King Jamesthey merely went through the old King James and changed the thees and thous to yous and thems! (sic).

The scene was a denominational bookstore in a large and famous U.S. city. The speaker was a saleslady and the would-be NKJV-buyer was a young Bible marketing man who already knew far more than she about the version in question.

Now if the NKJV had been a government project, using public tax money, we could easily believe that over 130 people from all over the English-speaking world might spend seven years and over $4 million and do only as much as the lady suggested. Actually, this was the amount of privately funded time and labor spent in producing the NKJV, which was the fifth major revision of the original Authorized Version in over three hundred years. It is an interesting note that the initial translation of 1611 also took seven years to produce.

All of the translators, editors, and reviewers of the NKJV text were competent Christian scholars dedicated to the highest view of biblical inspiration. Also believing in the need for continuity, they were deeply committed to preserving the revered King James tradition for present and future generations of Bible readers. As for the cost, all was provided by Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. Initial funds were made possible by previous sales of a patriotic volume celebrating the 200th birthday of the U.S.A.

After struggling with the archaic and obsolete vocabulary and phrasing in the King James Version, young Joe Moore asked his father, President of Thomas Nelson, Daddy, you make so many Bibles, why cant you make a Bible that I can understand? This question was the genesis of the NKJV.

Founded in 1798 in Edinburgh, Thomas Nelson had already pioneered the English Revised Version (1885), the American Standard Version (1901), and the Revised Standard Version (1952). After Mr. Sam Moore bought the company in 1969, he wanted to contribute a Bible that was understandable to young people like Joe and yet retained the great tradition of the Tyndale-King James Bible in text and style.

No easy task!

Across North America and in a few talks abroad it has been my privilege to present the virtues of the NKJV on radio and TV, to pastors, prison workers, Bible people, publishers, churches, para-church societies, colleges, and seminaries. Since so many had a part in this Bible, I trust no one will find it in poor taste for the Executive Editor to draw attention to its qualities. The NKJV is well worth your consideration as your everyday, standard Bible.

Over the years I have sought to reduce my presentation to two main considerations: Readability and Reliability. We will briefly cover the first in this Introduction.

Readability

A great work of literature could conceivably be accurate in its presentation, beautiful in style, complete in textand yet be unreadable! If my former English literature teachers will forgive my mentioning it, I seem to remember a few very long seventeenth-century poems that fit that very description!

The name New King James Version can be stressed on the New part or the King James part. Both are true. If the latter is stressed too much, people get the impression that the NKJV is difficult for most readers (as are earlier editions of the KJV in many places). If we overstress the New aspect, people could get the idea that we have an entirely new version. This is not true. A sufficiently large part of the King James tradition is retained to merit our name. Yet there are enough changes in the work to make it much more readable. But what is readability?

Readability is the degree of ease with which printed matter can be read. Tests that measure the reading level of printed matter usually express their results in terms of the public schools system of grade levels. Thus, material that has a sixth-grade reading level can comfortably be read by a normal sixth-grade pupil.

Different readability tests measure different characteristics of reading material. For example, the Dale-Chall Formula counts the number of words in a test passage which do