Wednesday, August 30, 2017

On changing Bible versions and the next one.

I am firmly KJVO. KJV Once upon a time when I was young and when newly converted in a tradition that used it, my parents' and their parents' generations and beyond to 1611. ( I am told that 1611 was not the change date as they held on to their Geneva bibles for several decades.) Since then I have matured through RSV, NIV and ESV. RSV was around 1964 to 1984. I listened to Lloyd-Jones expound from KJV at Westminster Chapel 64 to 67 but it was archaic. The first task was to understand English then Scripture. My contemporaries at university and beyond were RSV, and it was a revision of the KJV or AV as we called it. Yes one knew of a few liberal blips but no real problem. Then from around 1984 to 2008, NIV. Our church used it an it had become the evangelical version of choice. For accurate study I has a NASB but its literalness made for poor public reading which is where NIV excelled. Then along came the revisions of the NIV and inclusive pronouns etc. Our church changed and so dis I. So 2008 to date, ESV and I do not anticipate another change. Heaven? Little is hnown of the intermediate state or the language version used. But onto permanence. New Heavens and New Earth? Will we have Bibles? I am stopping now. I honestly have never before asked the question. I am having conflicting thoughts about not needing one and God's word not passing away. So my timeline is
1946 - 1964 KJV = AV
1964 - 1984 RSV
1984 - 2008 NIV
2008 - date ESV
If I believed in numerical progression I should find out about the intermediate state in 2032 or 2040. But no-one knows when they will cross over. Like the second coming, it could be later today. Realistically one might expect more signs of my departure than that of the Lord's return.

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