King james Bible – Reflections
The King James Bible was written at a critical point in the evolution of the English language, when it had a stately diction that perhaps it has lost today, and it definitely went a long way to standardise the language. (Proof: it was written about the same time as Shakespeare – but see how many obsolete words Shakespeare contains compared with KJB: Shakespeare has far more).
Most would recognise that the writers of the KJB were masters of prose. Their translation was aimed at oral recitation among other things. The Douay Bible was produced at about the same time, and it was aimed more as a study aid. The natural flow of English was sacrificed in places, in favour of what was considered an accurate translation.
The KJB ignored S. Jerome's Vulgate and went straight to the Greek Text, but the actual manuscripts consulted were relatively late, being of the Manuscript Family known as the Textus Receptus, which was 9th - 11th century. The KJB is not nearly so close to the more ancient manuscripts, not to mention the (lost) original manuscripts as its use of Greek would imply.
Certain of the KJB renderings are definitely polemic.
Consider Colossians 1:24:
King James Bible
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church...
Douay-Rheims Bible
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church...
The Catholic teaching affirms the reality of the Mystical Body of Christ, of which we are members by Baptism. Now Christ suffers all things, but some things He suffered in His Body on Earth, and others are suffered by His Mystical Body. We participate in the Work of Redemption. This is a great privilege of the baptised. Now certain sufferings were inappropriate to the Person of Christ: *He did not, we believe, suffer diseases. *All the sufferings peculiar to women; *shameful temptations; it is our privilege to bear these trials and Offer them Up.
Since the Protestants denied the genuine merit of Good Works (derived from Martin Luther's neurosis and disobedience), the KJB translators stretched the Greek words here until they creaked. The text reads 'kai antanapléro ta hysterémata tón thlipseón toú Christoú' (accents here put in to identify long vowels)... Now hysterémata comes from the verbs hystereó, hysterizó = to come later, or to be lacking. Both meanings are in harmony with the Catholic Faith. hystereó, hysterizó can also apply to a place, in which case it means 'to be behind'; or as Americans say, 'to be in back of'. [Ref: Liddell & Scott's Greek - English lexicon ©1896.]
The Jehovah's Witness Bible translation illustrates the dangers of translating even from the wonderfully expressive Greek into English while ignoring the testimony of Catholic Tradition, not to say Authority.
For documentary evidence that the other churches even as early as the end of the Apostolic Age (while John was still alive) deferred to the authority of Rome, see