King James Only

King James Only is a movement that promotes the superiority of the King James Version of the Bible. It arose in the 1970s. It is a common view among Fundamentalist Christians in the U.S., especially the Independent Baptists.

The KJO view was articulated by Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1872–1968), a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, in the book Our Authorized Bible Vindicated (1930). Jasper James Ray plagerized the Wilkinson book in God Wrote Only One Bible (1955). Ray's book, in turn, was plagerized by Peter Ruckman and published as The Bible Babel (1964). In 1970, Wilkinson's writing was republished in Which Bible? (1970), properly attributed this time. This book was a collection of writing edited by David Otis Fuller. Several major translations appeared in the early 1970s, making the treatment topical. Fuller's book got far more attention than earlier similar works and is considered responsible for kicking off KJO as a movement.

These authors claim that Textus Receptus, the Greek text used by KJV, is a more reliable text than the "Alexandian text" that is used by modern translation. TR was edited by Erasmus in 16th century and is based on several 12th century Byzantine manuscripts. Modern translations are based on Codex Vaticanius and Codex Sinaiticus, both 4th century manuscripts. In 1881 by B.F. Westcott (1825-1903) and F.J.A. Hort edited the first "Critical Text", i.e. a text a based on these two manuscripts. Westcott and Hort figure prominently in KJO demonology, where the "Westcott and Hort Only" movement is denounced.

Modern translations are based on critical texts produced by Nestle Aland and the United Bible Societies. These are similar to the Westcott-Hort text, but take advantage more recently discovered evidence, such as papyri fragments.

KJO has been comprehensively rejected by religious leaders, fundamentalist and otherwise. Dr. John Rice, editor of The Sword of the Lord and the best known fundamentalist leader of the 1960s and 1970s, wrote:

And now to have many, many common and rather ignorant people - more women than men -- writing that Westcott and Hort, St. Augustine, any Catholic who had any part in the translation, anybody who now raises a question about the proper wording of some passage in the King James, are perverts or modernists or hypocrites or ignorant fools (much of the language which they got from Dr. [Peter Ruckman]), is a sorry business, and you and I will be answerable to God if we develop that kind of attitude among common Christians.

I do not want to grow a generation of Christians, who, if you show them that the word "Easter" in Acts 12:4 of the King James Version is not the proper translation but it ought to be "passover," as is true, will decide that we have no Bible, there is no authority in the Bible. To have anybody making such weighty decisions on an immature judgment about a word or two is not right, and I do not want to put a burden on common people that they must assume a scholarship they do not have, in order to understand the Bible.

Rice died in 1980 and The Sword of the Lord now supports KJO. However, the publication is no longer influential. Bob Jones University, the leading Independent Baptist educational institution, has the following statement on it site: "Bob Jones University does not hold to a King James Only position...we have never taken the position that there can be only one good translation in the English language."

Further reading

• Carson, D. A., The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism Baker Book House Company (1979).
• John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Facts on King James Only Debate (2010).
• White, James R., King James Only Controversy, The: Can You Trust Modern Translations (2009).