Dear Ingrid and Randy,

Congratulation to you on 25 years in Polk County publishing our favorite newspaper.  If we are not mistaken we believe we met at a drive-a-way dinner in late '85 or early '86. No matter where, we are glad we met and again congratulations.

Mardee & Dan Kauffman

Ducktown

Dear Editor,

Which Bible Version Should You Read?

I appreciate the beauty, majesty, familiarity and general accuracy of the King James Version of the Bible.  But, I am concerned about its limitations and problems.  My first concern is about the fact that it is written in what is sort of a foreign dialect, since our language has changed in the last four centuries.  We no longer use “thee” and “thou,” “hither” and “thither,” “whither” and “whence.” Our word, “meat” does not include the meaning of “bread” and “ouches” (meaning “sockets” in yesteryear) is no longer a word.  “Prevent” used to mean “precede” and “quickeneth” means “makes alive.”  In 1 Kings 2:16, “pictures” should be “ships.”  And in Ezekiel 25:4, “palaces” should be “encampments.”

By the late 1800s, many people were coming to realize that English had changed to the point that a new translation was needed.  And so, many scholars have embarked on the task and we now have many versions.  My own preferred version is the New King James Version, which retains a lot of the flavor of the KJV, but updates the wording.  However, there are those who believe that the New American Standard Bible is the most accurate of the major translations. 

But my main concern is that everyone should have a Bible that is easy for them to read, especially children and the intellectually challenged.  So, poor readers and children might choose a simpler version than the NKJV.  Go to a good Bible bookstore that has a variety to choose from or look up various versions on biblegateway.com and examine them.  But, regardless of which version they choose, they need to study it. 

Study materials, such as concordances, are available for some of the major modern translations, such as the NKJV and the NASB.  There may be occasional advantages to consulting the KJV, but I consider it unhelpful to stick to it, to the exclusion of modern translations.  And if it is not helpful for well-educated, good readers to only use the KJV, how much more so for children, poor readers and immigrants, whose primary language is not English.

Alvin Fisher

Benton