Vancouver Province, Saturday, June 20, 1953

BIBLE HISTORY

King James Version

Defended as Best

Third article in a series by Rev. Mark Buch, of the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle, on his opinions as to the true Bible and its origin is printed today. Rev. Mr. Buch is one of the Evangelical Christians who so strongly oppose the new Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The Province prints these articles and the previous set on the Revised Version so that its readers will more clearly understand the tow schools of thought.

By Mark Buch

The truth of Verbal Inspiration has been a controversy ever since the Bible’s earliest writings and will be until the coming of Christ, but increasingly so as the end of the age draws nearer and the great apostasy increases in darkness.

Has God preserved His Word intact for this generation? If it were lost with the passing of the original manuscripts, then with it has also passed the doctrine of individual responsibility of God. Then at best we shall drift on and on until we become shipwrecked upon the dark reefs of eternity’s unknown night.

Happily He who has said:”all scripture is given by inspiration of God” also said: “one jot or one title shall in no wise pass.”

Origin Traced

We have traced the origin, the simple and romantic history of the perfect line of originals and copies. Theses form the basis of our present Authorized Version in 1611.

In 1515, William Tyndale took his M.A. at Oxford. Said he “If God spares my life, ‘ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth a plough to know more of the Scriptures than the Pope.”

In 1525 he published his first English New Testament translated directly from the pure line of manuscripts and based on Erasmus’ copy of the Greek originals.

Tyndale worked under great difficulties. Driven out of England he translated parts at Cologne and parts at Worms during exile.

Copies were secretly imported into England. The Bishop of London ordered all copies burned. Anyone caught reading them was executed.

In 1535 Tyndale published his second edition which included parts of the Old Testament. Upon betrayal by his enemies he was arrested and kept in prison near Brussels sixteen months. He was later strangled and burned, but not until he had won the souls of those who guarded him to Christ.

Thus the first translator of the Authorized Version paid with his life’s blood for his noble part in giving us this sacred book.

Note Comparison

You will note who his persecutors were. This is important, for the advocates of the Revised Standard Version repeatedly compare their Bible’s opposition with that of the first publication of the Authorized Version. Of course anyone quickly grasps the difference between the authorized Version being persecuted by the enemy of the truth and the Revised Standard Version being opposed by Evangelical Christianity.

It ought to be evident that the real deep underlying cause of confidence and faith in the Authorized Version is based, not on bias and emotionalism, but on history and scholarship which combine to prove distinctly that it springs from an entirely different source to the Revised Standard Version and its questionable ancestry.

The powers of anti-Christ paid the work of William Tyndale its greatest compliment by their implacable hatred.

This hatred and persecution was focused on the translating which was made from the pure manuscripts, while there were a number of English translation s in existence at the same time from the spurious line of manuscripts which received no such persecution.

New Translation

In 1604 King James I of England made arrangements for a new translation by appointing a committee composed of the best Hebrew and Greek scholars of the day.

Besides scholastic qualifications never since rivalled, these were men of high moral and spiritual standards with a profound reverence for the Word of God.

It is needless to say that although marvellous their scholarship and deep their reverence for the Word of God, the basis of their translation is paramount.

The Authorized Version was translated directly from the same source which was the basis for Erasmus and Stephanus’ work namely “The Textus Receptus,” the fidelity of this text to the original has never been successfully challenged!

It was further diligently compared to the masterful translation which cost the life of William Tyndale. It is this unquestionably pure and infallible source which causes the Authorized Version to tower peerlessly above all earlier and later translations.

Let me sum up this article by saying that the Authorized Version is a correct translation of a perfect copy of an infallible original!

Article from

“In Defence of the Authorized Version”

~~ One Pastor’s Battle

Mark Buch

This is third of four; each one first appeared in the Vancouver Province in June of 1953.