The following explanation of the “Guidelines” developed for the New King James Version of the Bible was given by its executive editor, Arthur L. Farstad, in The New King James Version: In the Great Tradition (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1989, pp. 33-34).
“The initial guidelines stated:
“The purpose of this project is to produce an updated English Version that follows the sentence structure of the 1611 Authorized Version as closely as possible. As much of the original King James Version as possible will be preserved. The intention is to clarify the 1611 translation by the use of current words, grammar, idioms, and sentence structure so that this edition of the King James Version will speak to the individual reader in a clear and accurate manner. The intention is not to take from or alter the basic communication of the 1611 edition but to transfer the Elizabethan word forms into twentieth-century English.
“The traditional texts of the Greek and Hebrew will be used rather than modern critical texts based on the Westcott and Hort theory. Because of the continued popularity of the traditional text (Textus Receptus) and the increasing number of scholars who prefer this text because of its support by the majority of manuscripts, it is important that a version of the Bible based on this text be available in current literary English.
“In order to accomplish these goals, the following guidelines were followed:
“1. Retain all doctrinal and theological words unless the Greek or Hebrew clearly indicates otherwise.
“2. Retain words for items no longer in current use (i.e., chariot or phylacteries).
“3. Correct all departures from the Textus Receptus. [See Chapter 10.]
“4. Words that have changed meaning since 1611 should be replaced by their modern equivalents.
“5. Archaic idioms should be replaced by modern equivalents.
“6. Words and expressions that have become vulgar or indelicate in current English usage should be replaced by their proper equivalent. [This would be the removal of KJV words like piss, dung, whore, ass, cock, bowels, etc., rlv.]
“7. Alter punctuation to conform with that currently used.
“8. Change all Elizabethan pronouns, verb forms, and words having ‘-eth’ endings to their current equivalent.
“9. Attempt to keep King James word order. However, when comprehension or readability is affected, transpose or revise sentence structure.
“10. Eliminate the inordinate usage of the auxiliary verb ‘shall.’ Follow current grammatical style for these changes.
“11. Attempt to keep sentences reasonably short without affecting text or meaning.
“12. Attempt to use words that avoid misunderstanding.
“13. When making corrections, use other words already represented by the same Greek or Hebrew word in the KJV, if possible.
“14. Capitalize all personal pronouns referring to deity.
“15. Proper names should agree with Old Testament when possible.
“16. All obsolete and archaic words as defined by one or more recognized dictionaries should be replaced by their current equivalents. This applies to phrases and idioms.
“In addition, after the printing of the first edition of the NKJV New Testament in 1979 (which used no italics), the King James tradition of italicizing supplied words was restored by popular demand of the readers.”
No comments:
Post a Comment