This post is a Claude.ai summary of the Misquoting Jesus pod cast of 10/2/206. The transcript is in his directory in Dropbox. The summary enumerates the issues Bart Ehrman thinks are most significant in the KJV v.1611.
Summary: Bart Ehrman on the KJV 1611
Source: Ehrman & Lewis, “KJV is a Literary Masterpiece and a Disaster Study Bible” (transcript). Bart groups his criticisms into four categories, then adds a set of printing errors. All verse quotations below are the KJV wording as Bart gives it, not NRSV or ASV text.
1. Archaic Words No Longer in Use
The issue: Many KJV words have dropped out of English, so readers must guess their meaning from context.
Context he gives:
- He first tried reading the Bible at 16 in the KJV and didn’t understand much of it.
- Example words: almug, cracknels, gat, habergeon, cab, ligure, ring-straked, wimples.
- Animals that don’t exist or aren’t recognizable: the unicorn (Deut. 33), satyr, dragon, cockatrice, and arrow snake. Megan Lewis notes this gives modern readers a “semi-mythological” impression of the biblical world.
- Unclear phrases: “ouches of gold” (Exod. 28), “colops of fat” (Job), “naughty figs” (Jeremiah), and “moraine of cattle.”
- In 1611 these terms were understood, but they are opaque today.
2. Whole Sentences That Don’t Make Sense
The issue: The archaic idiom extends from single words to entire sentences.
Context he gives:
- 2 Cor.: “We do you to wit of the grace of God.”
- 2 Cor.: “Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own bowels.”
- 1 Kings (Jeroboam’s judgment): “him that pisseth against the wall.” Bart calls this one fully understandable but not how anyone would say it now.
- His general point is that the passages “sound great” but are often unintelligible.
3. “False Friends”: Familiar Words That Have Changed Meaning
The issue: Bart calls this a bigger problem than unknown words, especially for his students, because readers think they understand and don’t.
Context he gives:
- Phil. 3:20, “our conversation is in heaven”: The word means citizenship. He heard sermons in his youth claiming it forbade telling dirty jokes.
- “Strange women” (Solomon): Bart places this in 2 Kings, though the Solomon account is in 1 Kings 11, which may be a slip or a transcription error. It means foreign (non-Israelite) women.
- Rev. 17:6, “I wondered with great admiration”: Admiration meant astonishment. John is stunned by the grotesque “Whore of Babylon,” not admiring her.
4. Theological Bias in Translation
The issue: The translators let their own doctrinal commitments shape their rendering instead of producing a straightforward translation.
Context he gives:
- Daniel 3 (the fiery furnace): The KJV says the fourth figure resembled “the Son of God.” Bart says the Hebrew indicates a divine or angelic being, and the translators read Jesus into it.
- Isaiah 7:14: Bart says the Hebrew means “a young woman has conceived, and she will bear a son,” but the KJV reads “a virgin shall conceive.” This turns it into a messianic prediction of the virgin birth, a reading that had been in Christianity since the second century.
5. Flawed Source Manuscripts (Especially the New Testament)
The issue: For the NT, the translators relied on a Greek text that was based on late and inaccurate manuscripts. Bart says this is “not much debated among textual scholars,” and that he knew it even as a conservative evangelical.
Context he gives:
- The Hebrew Bible text was roughly comparable to what we have now. The problem is chiefly the New Testament.
- The KJV followed the 16th-century Greek edition of Erasmus, built on a few very late manuscripts.
- Passages in the KJV that were not original:
- The woman taken in adultery (John 7–8).
- The last 12 verses of Mark, including handling snakes and drinking poison.
- The Trinitarian statement in 1 John 5 (“three in heaven… and these three are one”).
- The translators couldn’t have known this, since the relevant manuscript discoveries hadn’t been made yet. Bart calls it a cautionary note for anyone reading the NT in the KJV.
6. Printing Errors in Later Editions
The issue: Movable-type setting errors introduced mistakes into reprinted editions.
Context he gives:
| Edition | Date | Error |
|---|---|---|
| Unrighteous Bible | 1653 | 1 Cor. 6:9 reads “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom?” |
| (unnamed edition) | 1716 | Letters switched in John 8:11, so Jesus says “Go and sin on more” |
| Vinegar Bible | 1717 | A paragraph heading reads “parable of the vinegar” instead of the vineyard |
| Wicked / Adulterous Bible | 1631 | The negative was dropped from the seventh commandment: “Thou shalt commit adultery” |
Bart’s Overall Verdict
- As literature: One of the great classics of English, and influential. He credits Tyndale (whose translation the KJV team largely revised) for much of it.
- As a study Bible: “One of the worst,” for the reasons above: unknown words, shifted meanings, translator bias, and unreliable NT manuscripts.
- His recommendation: Modern translations done by committees of mixed faith backgrounds. His personal preference is the NRSV (updated edition), ideally in an annotated study edition such as the HarperCollins Study Bible or the SBL Study Bible.
- He also cautions that the NIV shows evangelical bias in places, such as translating contradictions out of existence. He respects its translators personally.
Note: The transcript also includes a short bonus Q&A on the origin of original sin (Augustine, not Jesus or Paul), which is unrelated to the KJV and not covered above.
