The Benefits of Reading Aloud

In a recent issue of the Quarterly Review of the Trinitarian Bible Society, there is an article that recommends reading aloud while reading the Scriptures in one’s private or devotional reading. In the past, largely due to the statements made by others, I considered moving the lips or reading aloud to oneself be a sign of low intelligence!  While I’ve occasionally read a hard to understand sentence or passage aloud through the years, reading aloud isn’t something that I had given much thought.  However, after reading the linked article, I’ve tried off and on for the past few months (mainly with the KJV, which I’ve been reading more of recently) and I have found the practice to have several benefits.

First, it forces me to slow down.  Particularly when reading the Bible, it seems that reading slower is better when reading publicly as well.  Second, I find that it aids in comprehension. It’s probably also an aid to memorization since you’re both reading and hearing the Word.

On some occasions when doing this, I’ve found myself wanting to read more than usual.  In particular, I’ve enjoyed reading several of the shorter epistles all the way through, which is how I imagine they would have been read to the original recipients.  Of course there isn’t always the time to read a dozen chapters per day, particularly when reading more slowly. That being said, for most of us, if we spend much time doing things like watching television or surfing the internet, more time can probably be found on some days than we might imagine.

Have you ever been in the habit of reading the Bible or any other book aloud on any kind of regular basis?  If so, what are your thoughts?

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Zondervan’s KJV 1611 400th Anniversary Edition

About two weeks ago, I came across a most unexpected sight at Walmart:  A 1611 KJV 400th Anniversary Edition for $4.97!  You can see more about it on Amazon.  I was planning on doing a short review of this edition, but I see that Fred Butler has already basically written what I had planned to.

Several days ago, I received the latest version of Doug Kutilek’s As I See It.  Included in this issue is a short article on the topic of the AV 1611 and King James Onlyism that I thought I’d post here.

The Best Cure for KJVOism: A Real 1611 KJV 

It has been widely publicized that the year 2011 is the 400^th anniversary of the original publication of the so-called “Authorized” or “King James Version” of the Bible in English.  This translation has historically been the most widely used, at least since it overtook the previous champion, the Geneva Bible of 1560 (chiefly, at least initially, as a result of the legal suppression of the printing of the Geneva Bible by the British monarchy, in favor of the KJV).  It should be noted, however, that the great majority of the editions and copies of the KJV printed and read in the past 400 years have been revisions rather than reprints of the original form of the KJV, with literally tens of thousands of revisions in spelling, punctuation and the use of italics, plus many hundreds in the precise wording of the text, to say nothing of the switch from “black letter” (“Gothic”) type to Roman, the widespread omission of the Apocrypha in the 18^th and later centuries, along with the omission of an extended calendar and charts of Biblical genealogies, and most unfortunately, the omission of the extremely important and informative introductory essay, “The Translators to the Readers,” which was in the original edition.  In short, most KJV users, particularly those who claim to be “King James Version 1611 Only” in their beliefs, have never actually seen or used a real 1611 King James Version in the original form in which it was issued from the press in 1611.

In the past, there have been from time to time facsimile reprints of the 1611 KJV.  In 1833, “The Holy Bible, an exact reprint page for page of the Authorized Version published in the year 1611” was printed at the University Press, Oxford; it was in Roman type (see A. S. Herbert, Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible 1525-1961.  London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1968; p. 377).  In 1911, the University Press at Oxford issued two 1611 reprints–the first a facsimile (in black letter) in reduced size of the original 1611 KJV, the other an exact reprint page-for-page but in Roman type, of the 1611 edition, both with introductory essays by A. W. Pollard (see Herbert, p. 458).  I have owned a copy of the 1911 Roman type reprint for almost 35 years.

This 1911 Roman type reprint was reissued in the 1970s (or early 1980s) by Thomas Nelson of Nashville, about the time they issued their New King James Version (and for a time Nelson sold the two volumes together in a slipcase).  This reprint omitted the Pollard essay (and perhaps other features–I gave my copy to one of my sons a few years ago and cannot check it directly).  Later–probably in the 1990s–, Hendrickson Publishing (the publishing arm of Christian Book Distributors) also reprinted the1911 Roman type edition (in precisely the form Nelson had).  These two recent reprints are easy to find via the internet.

Besides these, there have been over the years several full-sized facsimile reprints of the 1611 KJV by various publishers; my brother has a copy of one made in the 1950s, for which he paid $350, used, a decade ago.  Such full-sized facsimiles are rarely met with and are generally rather pricey (in the hundreds or even many hundreds of dollars)

Now, another edition, widely available and quite inexpensive, has appeared, this made by Zondervan and sold at Wal-Mart (and perhaps other retail outlets).  The ISBN is: 978-0-310-44029-1.  It is a facsimile–an exact reproduction in the original black letter script–of the 1611 edition, but in a reduced size, and with one feature of the original omitted–the thirteen books of the Apocrypha (as noted on p. viii of the Introduction to this new edition).  That the 1611 KJV originally did have the Apocrypha can be visually confirmed in this edition on the page containing Malachi 4, where the “catch-word” at the bottom of the page is “APO-“ which points to “APOCRYPHA” which is at the top of the page in the original (and in my 1911 reprint), after which originally followed the complete text of those non-canonical books).

The printed retail price of this Zondervan 2011 facsimile reprint is $7.99, though I have bought several copies at Wal-Mart in Kansas for $4.97 and I have heard it priced about a dollar higher elsewhere (and I suspect they hope to make a profit on the publication of the KJV at that price).  I would strongly urge EVERY PREACHER, EVERY CHRISTIAN READER and EVERY CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN COLLEGE LIBRARY to get a copy AT ONCE.  If you have any KJVO friends, buy and give them a copy.  There is no quicker cure for KJVOism that the direct and extended study of the 1611 edition, introductory material and all.

One finds in the actual, original, genuine 1611 KJV (no doubt “preserved in the form God wants us to have”) an introductory essay that states the translators’ perspective on their own and other translations (they, at least, were decidedly NOT “KJVOnly”).  If I could do just ONE thing, I would make every KJVO partisan read carefully those 11 highly informative pages.  The original translator’s English Bible text has literally thousands of variant marginal renderings (showing that they did not believe their translation as found in the text was infallibly correct), plus variant manuscript readings, showing that they did not believe that the manuscript reading given in their text was necessarily always right.  One will also find numerous places where words are “omitted,” “added” or altered as compared with all modern editions of the KJV, to say nothing of a considerable number of printer’s errors (are these also part of the “perfect preservation” we hear so much about?).  And one can discover on the title page of the NT those revealing words: “cum privilegio” (Latin: “with privilege”) which demonstrate the undeniable fact that this translation was COPYRIGHTED FROM THE DAY IT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED (contrary to the gross misrepresentation on this point that is part of the accepted KJVO “wisdom”).

I am quite sure that the quickest “cure” for the absurdity of KJVOism is the close and careful study of the actual original KJV itself.  I would challenge–even dare–every KJVO partisan to get this facsimile of the original KJV and study it “cover to cover” and margin to margin, spending a year and more in the process, and try to prove me wrong.

—Doug Kutilek

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