Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible Paperback – January 24, 2018

I am not a KJV only person by any means. In fact, I rarely use it, but after reading this, I think I need to use it just a bit more. This book is easily 5 stars for what it is and what it tries to get through to the reader as for why the KJV is still valuable and useful. He also shows how people use it incorrectly to create tribes and such. It's an excellent read. I will have to see if he's written other books.My only real caveat is that in 2025 (when I'm reading this) some people no longer care about what is the "best" translation. We live in an ideologically gripped world and so the new question isn't about best, it's about honest. Which translation was done without an agenda. If a pronoun in the Greek or Hebrew text didn't specify a gender or if it used "he" but was the inclusive he, then changing it is fine. However, if a text is specific about gender and a translator changed it so that it conforms to modern ideology, then that's a problem because it's changing the literal meaning and done not with God in mind, but someone's feelings. It seems as though he still skirts around these issues under the guise of best when "best" is not longer what people (at least me) are seeking. (I mean sure, we don't want a hurried and inaccurate one.)But, overall an excellent and quick read that I can easily recommend.

I really enjoyed this book and it helped me work through a lot of my own thoughts, upbringings, and exposures. I love my King James Bible, but I didn't know that I was reading some words and phrases wrong....just like the author said,"You can teach people to look up unfamiliar words, but the issue here is not the words you know you don't know; it's the words (and phrases and syntax and punctuation) you don't know you don't know- features of English that have changed in subtle ways rather than dropping completely out of the language." I am pretty decently well read, and I read quite a bit of literature written in Elizabethan verbiage and I LOVE that kind of poetic literature, I didn't feel like it was too foreign or archaic to read, but wow this book opened my eyes to see what I didn't know that I didn't know. I knew already that there were "dead words" that we no longer use at all in modern day English, and I knew there were "false friends" words such as "halt" that have over time changed the meaning entirely, but I didn't know the extent. I almost felt stupid that I've read some of his examples wrong recently! I'm so grateful for this book and I will definitely be purchasing an Oxford English Dictionary to help me see what certain words meant back in 1611 because I will definitely not be getting rid of my KJV. It's still my absolute favorite translation, and I still believe it is the most accurate as long as it's read correctly. This book has given me more tools in my tool belt to help me read God's word even more clearly and more practically. Other GOOD translations have a lot to offer and when all worked together are all USEFUL to add more depth and understanding to my Bible reading. Like Mark Ward said in the book, "When I read the Bible, I want to know what I'm reading. I want to understand artful metaphors. Reading multiple translations shouldn't be scary, but delightful." Here's a few more quoted from the book that really hit home with me:"Even when the Elizabethan words are perfectly intelligible (and once the readers get a tiny bit of practice, most are) they don't accurately represent what God said - because God spoke in the vernacular. I love the simple syllogism suggested to me by a long-time Christian friend: 1. We should read the Scripture in our own language.2. The KJV is not in our language.3. Therefore we should update the KJV to be in our language, or we should read vernacular translations.""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...""Which Bible translations are the best? All the good ones."

This book is brilliant, written by a language expert with an incredible heart for loving lost sheep. It is hugely helpful to common folks like you and me. Dr. Ward's contribution to my life, and those of my family, has been to point the way away from endless arguments, needless friction. His thesis, or the one pearl I found, was how to pursue understanding of God's word despite language change AND for those who insist on holding to Elizabethan English, how to help them understand God's word in that language. The preface to the KJV by the translators of that day make Dr. Ward's case and he champions the same cause for us today in our English: bring God's word to the everyday ploughboy in the language he speaks. Not only that, Dr. Ward is insightful, funny, gentle and entertaining. Seek out his YouTube channel for a summary of this book, in bite-size pieces. Then buy this book as a reference for yourself before your next family gathering. You will be better prepared to be loving, gentle and gracious to the lost sheep in your own family. I have bought multiple copies of this book for my grown children that they, too, can escape the endless and needless family friction. Help reduce division among believers in your own family. This short book is an amazingly short read. Life-changing.