If the KJV
contains more words than any other translations of the Bible, then the claim
that the KJV is the most literal version would be invalid. Dan Wallace writes:2
...the Greek New Testament has about
138,000–140,000 words, depending on which edition one is using. But no English
translation has this few. Here are some examples:
RSV 173,293
NIV 175,037
ESV 175,599
NIV 2011 176,122
TNIV 176,267
NRSV 176,417
REB 176,705
NKJV 177,980
NET 178,929
RV 179,873
ASV 180,056
KJV 180,565
NASB 95 182,446
NASB 184,062
NLT, 2nd ed 186,596
TEV 192,784
It’s no surprise that the TEV and NLT
have the most words, since these are both paraphrases. But the translations
perceived to be more literal are often near the bottom of this list (that is,
farther away from the Greek NT word-count). These include the KJV (#12), ASV
(#11), NASB (#14), NASB 95 (#13), and RV (#10). Indeed, when the RV came out
(1881), one of its stated goals was to be quite literal and the translators
were consciously trying to be much more literal than the KJV.
In fact, Dan Wallace cites KJV’s
preface, which claims that it is not exactly a literal translation, “The
preface to the KJV actually claims otherwise. For example, they explicitly said
that they did not translate the same word in the original the same way in the
English but did attempt to capture the sense of the original each time...”
So to
conclude, the KJV’s preface and its word count lends credence to the fact that it
is NOT the most literal translation of the Bible. But it is very important to
note that the KJV does not impede man’s salvation in any possible manner. It is
as trustworthy as the ESV, RSV, NASB, NIV et al.
Endnotes:
1Dan Wallace is the Senior Research
Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and Executive
Director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts [CSNTM].
2https://danielbwallace.com/2012/10/08/fifteen-myths-about-bible-translation/
Websites last accessed on 15th January 2022.
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