Compared to the other books I've been reading, this was fairly "light." It's 154 pages breeze by quickly, and it's an easy afternoon read. But don't that fool you, as Mark Ward tackles some very important, and life-changing truths.
The Bible version debate is one full of emotion, half-truths, whole-lies, bias, and complexities that tend to cloud over honest attempts at finding what the facts and evidence point toward. Even then, the more I study the subject, the more I'm convinced it's more complex than many would like it to be.
While other books address the Textus Receptus, Byzantine Family, and Alexandrian text-types, among other Greek details, Mark Ward stops and looks at something that's more immediate and concerning for most Christians today: English. He rightly understands that there are various older and newer translations that follow the various Greek traditions and heartily recommends for readers to stick to their textual preferences when that is a deeply held issue.
The basic premise of his book is not to bash one translation over another, no matter the translation philosophy or textual base. In fact, he goes out of his way to never say anything negative about the KJV translators, even when he admits that their translation has been misused. Rather, the entire theme of the book could revolve around one question: "Can you understand God's Word?"
As if to once again ward off undue criticism, Chapter 1 begins very positively examining the subject of "What we lose as the church stops using the KJV." This chapter highlights benefits like the beautiful language and phrases that have permeated our spoken English, the generational links to Christians of the past (and older Christians of the present) and engages with the ideas that using more than one translation can shatter confidence of Christians and non-Christians in the authority and accuracy of the Bible. Blending personal experience, anecdotes, and quotes into the discussion as he laments the genuine loses that occur with losing not only the KJV, but a common version held through all Christianity. He then ends the chapter with a reminder that the long revered Vulgate is, itself, now unreadable to most Christians, and for all it's own literary and historical influence, has been replaced with little regret because it cannot now be understood by most. This thought leads into Chapter Two, which, again, making use of some history and personal stories, reveals that the 400-year-old English simply isn't as clear and readable as it once was. Showcasing a few examples (with many more to come in the next chapter) suffices to show that many people, even those that use only the KJV, do not always understand it's old-fashioned language.
Chapter 3 is where Authorized truly begins to shine. After briefly addressing the hundreds of words that even KJV users admit have become "dead words" since 1611, Mark turns his attention to what he deems as "False Friends." These are words that are still used in contemporary English, but have shifted meaning. The problem is that readers often don't realize that meaning has shifted, resulting in a misunderstanding in what the KJV translators meant for readers to understand. The chapter contains over 30 detailed examples, but though their subtle nature, and limitations of book length, there are, in his words "countless more," some yet undiscovered. (More recent blog posts by the author continue to detail more and more) Other problems, like punctuation, syntax, and phrases, also work to obscure the meaning to modern readers. Throughout this chapter, as well as the entire book, He is careful to point out that this is not the fault of anybody. Not the KJV translators, not modern readers, and not anybody in between. This is simply a result of language shifting over 400 years. Yet, though no one is at fault for this, the problem still exists.
At this point, he turns to address a commonly cited defense of the KJV; a computer readability test. Several KJVO advocates claim the "ease of readability" excuse for new translations is a poor reason, as the KJV scores higher on tests like the Flesch-Kincaid readability analytic test. This chapter, not only looking at the math and method behind those tests, but also their limitations, shows the faults of that conclusion. In short, he demonstrates those tests only measure word count and syllable count, not vocabulary, word order, grammar, formatting, or any other factor. As a finishing touch, Mark reveals the Swedish translation scores far higher than the KJV, again showing that a higher score has little to do with the ability to actually understand by English readers. (In a more recent blog post, he has even replaces various words with nonsense syllables to completely obscure the meaning, yet still get a lower score.)
Chapter 5 then takes up the theme of "The Value of the Vernacular" and begins with Biblical examples where the Word of God was either explained, translated, or given into the common vernacular. He also defines precisely what that "vernacular" would look like today. Also included is a "heat map" that compares the KJV and the ESV translations of Luke 14 and highlights obsolete words, archaic constructions, and punctuation/formatting that would trip up new readers. As would be expected, the KJV has a very high number of highlights, whereas the ESV has one: the word "Dropsy." A single word regarding an illness we are not familiar with, whose modern, technical name would be even more unfamiliar. He then follows that up with noting the historical desires in the Reformation, desires shared by the KJV translators, for the Bible to be given in the common language of the common people.
Chapter 6 anticipates the objections to this idea of making use of vernacular translations. Through the chapter, he addresses ten major objections to the idea of using a modern translation. Though discussing these, Mark is remarkably even and fair. While he does reason against each objection, he freely admits when such objections carry genuine weight and even admits when such changes cause loss. (Like losing the "Thee/Ye" specification) His final objection, quite appropriately, is that the problem is not as bad as he makes it out to be. While Mark addresses this, as he has every objection, he also admits that this is the strongest argument against the premise of the book.
Rounding out the book is Chapter 7, a chapter dedicated to helping readers find the best translation to read and study. While one may expect this chapter to lead to the author's favorite translation, it instead draws to the conclusion that using multiple translations is the best. Rather than lead people from one "translation tribalism" to another, he concludes that different translations have different strengths and using several brings the most advantages.
Authorized is a great book that I would recommend, though I can't shake the feeling that something was missing. Perhaps it was simply the brevity of the book, or the lack of a heavy academic tone. The biggest disappointment I had was the lack of solid lists and comparisons. An appendix listing the hundreds of "dead words" and their modern equivalent, another with a list of the "false friends" he has collected, and even more detailed examples comparing the KJV style punctuation and grammar to modern styles. Without these concrete charts, it's easy to wave off Mark's warnings as more abstract and overblown. It also would have been nice to have some quick figures like 5% of the words used in the KJV are obsolete, or 2% are false friends, or something like that.
Overall, I truly appreciate Mark Ward's presentation. His style is readable, funny, and informative. I'm not sure if it's a pro or con in my book, but this feels like a light afternoon read. It's not heavily academic, or filled to the brim with footnotes. While it does have objective evidence, tests, and references, it also includes a many stories, experiences, and more subjective, yet personal, evidence.
Authorized addresses only a small, yet important, part of the Bible version debate, but I feel it does a good job doing it. His humble approach, and obvious desire to help other understand the Bible better is to be commended. If others took his attitude, the Bible version debate as a whole would be far less hostile and far more constructive. It's a helpful and valuable read.
4.5/5
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