Two pages from Samuel Ward’s translation for part of the King James Bible. An American professor who came upon the manuscript last fall at Cambridge says it is the earliest known draft for the King James translation, which appeared in 1611. Credit Master and Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; Maria Anna Rogers (Photo)

The earliest known version of The King James Bible, perhaps one of the most influential and widely read books in history, has been discovered mislabeled inside an archive at the University of Cambridge. The find is being called one of the most significant revelations in decades. It shows that writing is a process of revising, cutting, and then more rewriting. The Bible is no different in this regard, even though some conservative Christians claim it is the divine word of God himself. Perhaps God, then, is a revisionist. This find certainly seems to suggest that.

The notebook containing the draft was found by American scholar, Jeffrey Alan Miller, an assistant professor of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey, who announced his research in an article in The Times Literary Supplement. The New York Times didn’t take long to pick up the story. They ran an article about it, HERE. Mr. Miller was researching an essay about Samuel Ward, one of the King James translators, and was hoping to find an unknown letter at the archives. While you can say he certainly accomplished that end, he definitely wasn’t expecting to find the earliest draft of the King James Bible — which is now giving new insights into how the Bible was constructed.

He first came across the plain notebook not knowing what it was — it was incorrectly labeled. That’s why no one has found it until now. It had been cataloged in the 1980s as a “verse-by-verse” Biblical commentary with “Greek word studies, and some Hebrew notes.” When he tried in vain to figure out which passages of the Bible the commentary was referring to, he realized that it was no commentary at all — it was an early draft of part of the King James Version of the Bible.

Professor Miller described what it felt like when he first knew what he had in his hands:

“There was a kind of thunderstruck, leap-out-of-bathtub moment. But then comes the more laborious process of making sure you are 100 percent correct.”

The material in the manuscript discovered by Miller covers the apocryphal books called Esdras and Wisdom and seems to show that the translation process at Cambridge worked completely different than what researchers had previously known. Until now, it had been assumed that six different teams, or companies of translators that is, had worked more collaboratively rather than individually. Yet — this draft throws that idea out the window.

Ward’s draft seems to indicate the people were assigned individual sections of the Bible and then worked on them almost entirely by themselves — a massive undertaking with little guesswork. You would think this would cause people to become more error prone. In fact, quite hilariously, Professor Miller noticed that the draft suggests that Ward was picking up the slack for another translator. This really shows how human the entire job was, according to him.

“Some of them, being typical academics, either fell down on the job or just decided not to do it. It really testifies to the human element of this kind of great undertaking.”

This is sure to piss off a lot of religious conservatives who claim that the Bible is the “actual word of God.” While this finding certainly doesn’t disprove God, it does show that the translators of the Bible didn’t get a finalized product the first go around — it wasn’t a walk in the park with an angel over their shoulder telling them what to write. It took many different individuals, working separately — and they often suffered from man-made struggles, like meeting deadlines. You know, now that we think of it, doesn’t sound that much different from the writers of today’s workforce.

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2015/10/handwritten-draft-of-king-james-bible-discovered-reveals-no-divine-powers/

Nothing can change my love for Christ Jesus...




I am proud of just one thing in my life... Which is the fact that I have Christ Jesus in my life

TI1919:
Nothing can change my love for Christ Jesus...




I am proud of just one thing in my life... Which is the fact that I have Christ Jesus in my life

Good for you

As the end draws near....hmmm.

All said and done, accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour

Bible was inspird by d Holy spirit n writing by man

Dexpro:
As the end draws near....hmmm.

What end?

dam4wummy:
All said and done, accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour

Why?

007Nasky:
Bible was inspird by d Holy spirit n writing by man

So is your sentence

The kingdom of hell cannot overcome that of Christ. I pity those who will fall victim to the roaring lion seeking their destruction. These attacks just proves the bible is the solid word of God. JESUS I WORSHIP YOU

solite3:
The kingdom of hell cannot overcome that of Christ. I pity those who will fall victim to the roaring lion seeking their destruction. These attacks just proves the bible is the solid word of God. JESUS I WORSHIP YOU

Have you taken your meds today?

Did anyone ever tell you that the translators of the scriptures are infallible? Ofcourse not.

The only writers of the bible that are considered infallible are the original manuscript writers -the prophets, kings, apostles and saints who wrote the original hebrew, aramaic and greek manuscripts that are being translated into different languages. These are the ones considered infallible.

Believers who are now translating the original manuscripts into different languages are doing it within the human limits of their academic understanding of the meaning of the manuscript words, and their sense of love and service towards the work of God.

So while their translations are for the most part correct on an academic level, we don't consider the translators infallible and faultless as we do the manuscript writers.

So that is why if you want to be really studious with the Word of God, you must also get, along with the Holy Spirit; study bibles that include hebrew, aramaic and greek transliterations and dictionary. These study books help bring you closer to home in understanding what was really said and how it was said in the original manuscripts, beyond how it was translated.

I have such study books. Like Strongs' Original Hebrew and Greek Study bible; or The Vines Hebrew and Greek transliterations. Many android bible apps also have it too. Like MySword bible app, Blue Letter Bible app etc.

The bible passed through four stages of languages before it got to us.

1. The event-occurence language: This was the language that was spoken when that bible event actually took place real time.

2. The Narration language: This was the language in which the story was written down by the original manuscript writers, that we consider infallible.

3. The Translation language: These are the various languages that the original manuscripts have been translated into today. Like Latin, English, Spanish, Yoruba, Igbo bible translations.

4. The Spirit language: This is the language of the heart and mind of God. It is the revelation of what God had in mind, and wanted to convey, when He allowed the event to occur and/or be written down.

So understanding the bible requires more than just literacy in a language or simply reading the bible academically in the languages they were translated into. You need the Holy Spirit most importantly, and sometimes an extra study of the verses in the language of the manuscript writers.

So yes, the Bible is the Word of God, but the translations are not infallible. That's why we need to STUDY the Bible and not just READ it.

Shalom!

hahn:

Why?

because he is the only one that saves

This doesnt change the fact that the real manuscripts still exist.
If you have any doubts consult the original manuscripts. Period.
Afterall, he speaks only for the eearliest kjv translation.
So many versions av been compared with the manuscripts since then
And released.

I wonder what the person was even expecting to discover by the way.
That he could draw so many inferences.
Not new tho, he should go study the manuscripts and draw conclusions.

dam4wummy:

because he is the only one that saves

Who has he saved recently?

Do you have a picture of him?

That most part of bible is based on lies ? That's not news anymore. Just more proofs.