Understanding the KJV

Introduction

Psalm 119:27 “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: So shall I talk of thy wondrous works.”

I mentioned last week, that if we are going to be edified by our English bibles, we need to be able to understand them. To an extent people can be taught to read and understand the KJV. For the most part I do not struggle with understanding most of it, but I have been using it now for over 30 years.

What I have found though is that some who think they understand don’t actually. Either they skip over what doesn’t make sense, or they come to wrong conclusions about what the bible says because they don’t truly understand it. So it is important to be taught to understand the features of our bibles. Some of the things we trip over in the KJV are there because they are more accurate than Modern English can convey. Sometimes the words meant something different when they were originally translated and that word was actually really good. But if we are not aware of these things, we will struggle with understanding what we read.

This evening, I would like to go over some of these things that tend to trip us up when we read the KJV. Hopefully, a message like this can help you glean more from your bible as you read along in your devotions.

Grammatical Functions

Word Order- We often talk about older words in the KJV as a hurdle to understanding it, but the difference between KJV English and Modern English is actually more basic than even the words. Sometimes, what trips us up is the word order. The KJV translators sought to translate as exactly as they could and often that meant following the exact word order in the Greek. Sometimes its more poetic but often times it is that way for a reason.

Hebrew word order- Verb - Subject - Object “Then answered Peter…”

Greek word order is more fluid, but when you place a word at the beginning of a sentence it adds emphasis. “John, he is the man who took my bike.”

The KJV tried to keep some of the poetic, literary feel “How do I love thee, let me count the ways…”

The KJV was actually a revision of previous English bibles, so some of the awkward word orders were carried over.

2. Second Person Pronouns- Another feature of the King James that many complain about it the use of Thee/ Thou. We don’t normally speak this way, but people generally understand that they both mean you. There is actually a reason for the difference between Thee and Thou which tips you off to a grammatical function. The word Thou functions as the subject of a sentence while Thee functions as an object. If you know your English grammar, you don’t need this distinction but it is technically more accurate. Easy way to remember:

Thou = you as the doer Thee = you as the receiver

Related to thee and thou is the word Ye. This one catches a lot of people off guard. Ye is actually the same word you but in this case it is plural. When Jesus says “Ye are of your father the devil” he is addressing a group of people. In Modern English, we assume this based on the context of the conversation; but in slang we actually do have a version of this. In PA, it youins, up North You guys, down South Ya’ll. There are times when knowing if it is plural or singular can be helpful. 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Here Paul is talking about the body of Christ the church as the temple of God not you individually.

3. Verb Endings- In English today, we use the present tense to talk about something that happens in the present. If we want to communicate that something is continually happening in the present, we use the present progressive tense. The difference

John walks- Present tense

John is walking- Present Progressive

1 John 2:11 “But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”

The word walketh here is the KJV’s way of translating the continuous action. We use Present Progressive in Modern English.

Dead Words

Definition- Dead words are words that are no longer used and we would not know what they mean. 

These are a little easier to handle because they are words we come across that we just scratch our head and say, “I don’t know what that means.” The King James has over 800 different dead words that have carried over from an older time. There are different categories these could be put into like obsolete or archaic, but we are talking about words you don’t know and we don’t use anymore in English.

I said these are easier to handle because we know we don’t know them. We can look them up. We can stop pull out a dictionary, click on the Greek/Hebrew word in our bible software, or read in a study bible or commentary what they mean. 800 words is a lot of words and they show up more than once, but if you are like me, you put a modern synonym in the margin of your bible so you know it they next time you come accross that word. With these next two categories, we are going to look at five or six examples. Wot- Romans 11:2 “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,” Wot probably is treated like a filler word by most. Your mind sees it and doesn’t know what it means so it skips right over the word. Paul is asking an important question though- Don’t you know what the bible says about Elias? The word wot mean know.

Besom Isaiah 14:23 “I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.” broom

Bewray Matthew 26:73 “And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.” You might be tempted to put the word betray in here for bewrayeth and you would be partially correct except betray implies being tricked. Here the word simply means to reveal. Your speech reveals where you are from.

Neesings Job 41:18 “By his neesings a light doth shine, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.” Neesings is an interesting word and there is nothing in the context to help you figure out what it means. It literally means Sneezing. God sneezes and lightning shoots out is the picture here.

leasing Psalm 4:2 “O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.” This word shows up a couple times in the bible and you might be tempted to think it has something to do with idols since that is the context of loving vanity. But the word means falsehood or lying. The point here is that in seeking idols they have turned to something that is false.

Sometimes context will help you determine the meaning of the word but often times you end up guessing. We do have available to us dictionaries like Noah Websters 1828 which was 200 years after the KJV was originally translated or the Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary which has all words new and old. So look up these words as you come across them and write a note in your bible.

False Friends

Definition- Words that are still in common use but have changed meaning in ways that modern readers are highly unlikely to recognize.

These are harder to recognize because they are words we think we know. We read them and our mind has one definition in mind, but the problem is that that wasn’t the meaning of the word in 1611. The problem with these words is that you are probably not going to look them up in a dictionary or stop and read the context to figure out what they mean. You think you know what these words means so you keep on reading, but you don’t actually know what those words mean. Unlike dead words these ones will not be obvious. There are between 50-75 different false friends out there. The list is smaller but these are more dangerous.

If you have been in a church like ours you might know some of these examples that I am going to give tonight, but people coming off the street will not.

1 Thessalonians 4:15 “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.” This is a verse about the rapture promising that those of us who are alive at Christ’s coming will not prevent those who are asleep or dead. Now the question is what does prevent mean? We assume it means to hinder or stand in the way right? So is this verse saying that the living Christians can’t stop the dead Christians from being resurrected? That is not the point of this verse. The word prevent here means to precede. Meaning we will not go before they do.

Philippians 1:27 “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;” I know that most of you know this one. But let’s assume for a moment you didn’t grow up in church. What does this verse mean? Let all your communication be becoming to the gospel. You could take it to mean you should always be talking about the gospel. But the word conversation in this verse is not talking primarily about your speech. It is talking about your lifestyle. Paul is saying live in a way that expresses the truth of the gospel you have believed in.

Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” This is a key verse about worry in the Christians life. But the word careful might lead you to think, the bible is saying stop being so careful, stop planning and taking precautions. Live life to the fullest. But the word careful here means anxious. Paul is saying don’t let anxiety rule you, but instead come to God in prayer with thanksgiving.

John 1:5 “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” We talked about this verse in a previous message. We think of the word comprehend as referring to understanding. So if that were the meaning here, the verse would mean that the darkness does not understand the light. That is probably a true statement, but it paints a picture of an innocent inability to understand. The darkness isn’t just confused by the light, it is at war with the light. The word means to overcome, or defeat.

Ezekiel 30:2 “Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!” This is one I hadn’t seen on anyone’s list, but I came across it in my devotions as I was studying Ezekiel. The phrase itself makes no sense to us today so this one is more obvious than the others; but the word worth is one we use in every day speech today. Worth means the value of something. But here the word comes from an Old English word worthen which means to befall or happen. Ezekiel is saying Woe befalls on the day.

2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” This one is interesting as it speaks of the future coming of the antiChrist and the tribulation. But that day is not going to come until he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. So someone has to be taken out of the way first. We believe this is the Holy Spirit’s work. But that word let is a false friend. Let today means to allow or permit. Is this person permitting inquity? No the word here means to prevent or withhold. The idea is that the Holy Spirit is holding back or preventing sin from having free reign on the earth.

As I said these words are more dangerous to our understanding because we assume we know what they mean. Dead words are more obvious.

Conclusion

If understanding is so important to our edification, then it is important we understand these things as we read our KJV. Many times we just skip over what doesn’t make sense to us, but sometimes it might be something we need to dig deeper into. Seek to understand what we are reading. Some of this confusion could be eliminated by using updated words in these passages. My goal this evening is to help you to understand what you are actually reading. Next week will be my final sermon in this series where I will bring to a conclusion many of the principles that I have been trying to establish from the word of God.

But tonight, I am challenging you to allow the difficult things to spur you on to study and understand. Do not just skip over things or blindly miss that you don’t really understand a passage. Have that craving to search the word of God and understand. Seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit.