The purpose of this article is not to make comparisons between various modern Bible versions with the King James Bible, but rather to look at the changes that are being made to the text of King James Bibles. If you do not believe the King James Bible is the preserved Word of God and that it is without error, this booklet will not be of any interest to you. This has been written for those who believe the promise of God that He would preserve His Word, and who believe any change made to the Bible is a sin against the following scripture warnings:
Deut. 4:2; “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”
Prov. 30:4,5; “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
Rev. 22:18,19; “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
Often these verses are used to warn against the modern versions. But those versions are not the Word of God; rather these warnings specifically refer to the text of God’s Word, the King James Bible. Take some time to look through this short resource guide. See whether the following changes have been made in the King James Bible that you own.
The King James Bible is the only English Bible whose text does not contain a copyright. Any number of organizations may freely make copies of it. That may sound good, but it has resulted in many changes to the text of our Bible. The Bible says of the devil in Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” If he cannot get you to discard your King James Bible for any of the new versions, he will try to corrupt the very text of your Bible, while keeping the name “King James” or “Authorized Version” on the cover. One may ask “Are these changes that big of a deal?” Remember the warning, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Galatians 5:9. After you look at the following changes that have been made, you will agree that the serpent has slithered through the doors of a lot of American publishing organizations. He has begun a new battle for the book he has hated for so long.
As born again Christians, we believe the Bible doctrine of the Trinity; that is, God manifested in three Persons. This doctrine is rejected by various cults. Many deny the deity of the Holy Spirit, and teach that the Holy Spirit is merely the active force of God. To capitalize the ‘s’ in “spirit” when referring to the Holy Spirit is proper and right. A small ‘s’ would be in agreement with the cults’ theology. Check the following verses in your King James Bible to see if they have been tampered with:
 | Genesis 1:2; 41:38 |
| Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6; 14:19; 15:14 |
| I Samuel 10:6; 10:10; 11:6; 16:13,14; 19:20,23 |
| II Samuel 23:2 |
| I Kings 18:12; 22:24 |
| II Kings 2:16 |
| II Chronicles 15:1; 18:23; 20:14; 24:20 |
| Job 33:4 |
| Isaiah 40:13; 48:16; 59:19; 61:1; 63:10,11,14 |
| Ezekiel 11:5,24 |
| Matthew 4:1 |
There are verses in your Bible containing the word “spirit” with a small ‘s’, which refer to the “spirit of God”. If you study the passage, you will see it is not referring to the person of the Holy Spirit, but rather to God’s spirit or emotion.3
“And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4:4
“For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” II Corinthians 2:17
See if the following changes have been made in your King James Bible. Take the time to look up the definitions of the words, and consider how the meaning of the verse is altered by the new word usage:
| Reference: | God's Word: | Changed to: |
| Matthew 26:39 | further | farther |
| Mark 12:1 | winefat | winevat |
| 2 Timothy 3:17 | throughly | thoroughly |
| Numbers 20:14 | travail | travel |
| Deuteronomy 17:20 | his | this |
| Joshua 19:2 | or | and |
| 1
Samuel 5:6, 9, 12 1 Samuel 6:4, 5, 11, 17 |
emerods | hemorrhoids |
| 2 Chronicles 33:19 | sin | sins |
| Proverbs 22:7 | lender | leader |
| Jeremiah 34:16 | ye | he |
| Nahum 3:16 | flieth | fleeth |
| The next 6 references are the same: | ||
| Numbers 10:25 | rereward | rearward |
| Joshua 6:9, 13 | ||
| 1 Samuel 29:2 | ||
| Isaiah 52:12; 58:8 | ||
| The next 6 references are the same, except some are plural: | ||
| 1 Corinthians 10:11 | ensample | example |
| Philippians 3:17 | ||
| 1 Thess. 1:7 | ||
| 2 Thess. 3:9 | ||
| 1 Peter 5:3 | ||
| 2 Peter 2:6 | ||
| Acts 27:40 | hoised | hoisted |
| 1 Thess. 5:14 | we | who |
| James and other verses like this: | to morrow | tomorrow |
| to day | today | |
| Revelation 12:12 | inhabiters | inhabitants |
Twenty-three references for the word “alway” have been changed to “always”
American publishers have taken the liberty to change the spellings of many words. Notice the following list taken from the introduction to a King James Bible from an American publisher:
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FROM:
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TO:
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| alway afterwards apparelled armour armoury asswage(d) astonied baken Balac basons behaviour behoved brasen broided broidered caterpiller chesnut clamour cloke colour counsellor defence(d) distil Elias enclose(d) endeavour enquire(d) ensample fats favour forbad fulness fulfil furbushed grisled heretick honour unblameable Isaias Jonas jubile knop(s) labour lentiles lien lothe(d) marvelled morter musick neesing neighbour Noe odour offence Osee payed publick rebukeable recompence repayed reproveable rereward rigour rumour Saviour savour sceptre sepulchre serjeant shew shewbread Sion sith spue stedfast straked subtil subtility ubtilly succourer sycomore throughly Timotheus traffick intreat traveller utter vail valour vapour wilfully winefats withs worshipped Zacharias |
always afterward appareled armor armory assuage(d) astonished baked Balak basins behavior behooved brazen braided embroidered caterpillar chestnut clamor cloak color counselor defense(d) distill Elijah inclose(d) endeavor inquire(d) example vats favor forbade fullness fullfill furbished grizzled heretic honor unblamable Isaiah Jonah jubilee knob(s) labor lentils lain loathe(d) marveled mortar music sneezing neighbor Noah odor offense Hosea paid public rebukable recompense repaid reprovable rearward rigor rumor Savior savor scepter sepulcher sergeant show showbread Zion since spew steadfast streaked subtile subtilty subtilely succorer sycamore thoroughly Timothy traffic traveler entreat outer veil valor vapor willfully winevats withes worshiped Zechariah |
This is just one publisher’s list of spelling and word changes. You will see the word “Saviour” has been changed to “Savior.”
Read carefully the following quote taken from Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary, published in 1933, for the word “savior” and then the next entry, the word “Saviour”:
Savior- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger.
Saviour- Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, who is called the Saviour by way of distinction
Savior is a six letter spelling and in Bible numerology, six is the letter of man. Saviour is a seven letter spelling, and in Bible numerology, seven is deity or completion. You could be a savior in a temporal way, rescuing someone from a burning building. But only the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the only one who can save you from your sins. The devil is very subtil. Even if most Christians do not know the difference between the two, he does, and would like to bring our Saviour down to the level of any temporal savior. It would be wise for us to leave the spellings alone.
When people learn English as a second language in other countries, they learn the spellings that are used in our King James Bible, not these “Americanized” spellings. If they are given a Bible published by an American publishing house, their understanding of some verses could be limited or changed.
The Old Testament teaches us that it was the responsibility of the High Priest to handle the Holy Things. Only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies. In Rev. 1:6, the Word of God says that we (those that are washed from their sins), are kings and priests. So, as New Testament kings and priests, it is our responsibility to handle the Word of God. It is the responsibility of God’s people to print it, produce it, and preserve it.
Handling the Word of God is not, nor should ever be, the responsibility of the Bible societies or the world. In allowing the world to print the Word of God, we now have over 120 different English translations, professing to be the Bible. They are also tampering with our King James Bibles, and very subtilely trying to make changes. When approaching some of these publishers, I received the response: “Most people won’t notice, and even if they did, they wouldn’t care.” Can we expect any less from the world?
Are you concerned that these few changes are too many? If these changes go unchallenged, what will be next? Many Bibles that claim to be KJV on the cover are not KJV inside. These are often published by ungodly men, and are always done by organizations outside of the God-given authority of the local New Testament Church. When God’s work is done outside of his churches, that work is done outside the place of God’s blessing. Why would we allow something so precious as the publishing of God’s Word to be overseen by men of this world? If we believe that the Authorized Version, the King James Bible as we commonly call it, is the preserved Word of God, why do we have so little concern for its purity? And why would we hand it over to the world to do with it as they please? Let us get back to God’s way of publishing His Word, through the local New Testament church. Let us guard the book that has made our Saviour known to us, that has given us faith for this present pilgrimage, and that has given us “light unto our path.”
Bibles from a number of publishers have been compared. Some publishers put out several different KJV texts that do not even agree with each other. It is hard to find any American published KJV Bibles that are identical.
