1 Peter 5:13

When folks look for arguments against the King James Bible, one verse they use is 1 Peter 5:13. Several arguments may be thrown in, like the kitchen sink, including “following the Vulgate instead of the Greek,” and that the NKJV better translates the TR. Notice the difference in the AKJV and the NKJV, including church that is is in italics in the King James translation.

• AKJV: The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.
• NKJV: She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son.

The relevant Greek text is: ασπαζεται υμας η εν βαβυλωνι συνεκλεκτη και μαρκος ο υιος μου

Shown in a Greek-English Interlinear fashion:

Instead of “followed the Vulgate” perhaps the simpler explanation has been overlooked. The King James translators followed the English translation tradition that precedes them, as well as translation rule #1: “1. The Ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishop’s Bible, is to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the originals will permit.”

1 Peter 5:13 in the 1602 Bishops Bible

“Church” is in the Bishop’s Bible. Evidently the King James translators believed that what they had there agreed with the truth of the originals, if not the literal wording (i.e., “she” = “church”). The Geneva Bible has church; it is congregation in the Great Bible; Tyndale has “the congregacion that is gaddered tegedder at Babilon.” The prior English translation tradition was to substitute a noun for the pronoun.

Aside from what we might think is “best,” the more direct or closest source for the word church is keeping what was already in the Bishops Bible – in contrast to any suggestion that the reading had to come from the Old Latin, Syriac, Sinaiticus, or Beza’s Latin translation.

I am not sure when “church” was first put in italics, but it was in differentiated type (in roman where the base was blackletter) at least in the 1639/1640 Cambridge printing of Buck & Daniel (NT page has 1639; cover page has 1640).

This might be much ado about nothing were it not for the apparent joy that some people get from arguing for or against the King James Bible.

---

Note: Theodore Beza explains it this way in his 1598 Greek New Testament:

“Vobiscum electa [Ecclesia] συνεκλεκτὴ Ecclesiae nomen omittit, ut in vocabulis communiusu tritis fieri saepe solet.”

“The word ‘chosen with you’ [συνεκλεκτὴ] omits the name ‘Church’, as is often the case in commonly used terms.”

Or, in other words, “church” would be commonly understood as who she is.