Authorized Quotes

“The idea that the word of God should be permitted to calcify slowly into a language normal people can’t read is one of the reasons we had a Protestant Reformation, a movement launched by a monk whose first act a er defying a church council with, “My conscience is captive to the word of God” was to hole himself up in Wartburg castle and translate the Bible into German. There he sat; he could do no other.”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

“So back to a question I raised in the introduction: What Bible translation will I give my own kids? And the answer is: I won’t give them a single translation. I’ll train them, Lord willing, to appreciate multiple translations. Instead of expressing suspicion toward translations from other tribes, I will express curiosity and interest and gratitude. I’ll teach my progeny that there’s a good reason for the little differences between Bible translations.”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

“Bible translations succeed or fail based on Christian trust, because only a vanishingly small percentage of Bible readers can, and even fewer do, go through the laborious process of checking their English translations against the Greek and Hebrew. The vast majority of Bible readers simply take—they have to take—the word of others that the translations in their laps are faithful. When scholarly Christians and ministry-leading Christians go to battle over Bible translations, in dog fights far above the it’s-all-Greek-to-me heads of people in the pew, some of the flak falls on the flock. The sheep today have many resources—like this book—and can do some good homework, but if they can’t read the original languages of Scripture they must still take sides based largely on whom they trust.”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

“because translation frequently demands minor trade-offs of nuance, it’s wise to make use of multiple translations.”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

“Likewise, revising the KJV shouldn’t scare Christians who love it. The KJV, itself a revision, underwent at least six revisions of varying significance after 1611. The last one—for various reasons the one that “stuck”—occurred”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

“The KJV translators were not KJV-Only. They would most definitely support the work of later translators building on their foundation and being helped by their labors.”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

“The idea that the word of God should be permitted to cal- cify slowly into a language normal people can’t read is one of the reasons we had a Protestant Reformation, a movement launched by a monk whose first act a er defying a church council with, “My conscience is captive to the word of God” was to hole himself up in Wartburg castle and translate the Bible into German. There he sat; he could do no other.”
― Mark L. Ward Jr., Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible