Expert: Cooper P. Abrams III - 2/21/2008

Question
I have a question regarding the Bible choice. What would you recommend to a foreign person who wants to memorize passages from the Bible? Should he/she keep reading the Bible in their own language or should they try to memorize and study passages from the King James Bible? I'm asking this because when I compared chapters in the KJV and my translated bible, I've noticed that some lines have been omitted. I will read definitely read your answer. Thank you.

Answer
Hi,
   For a person who speaks English and another language it would be better if their native tongue Bible was translated from the Western text (Texus Receptus)which is the best Greek text.

    However, many non-English Bibles are translated from the Westcott-Hort and Minority Text (Eastern) which is corrupted.   

        If a person speaks only one language of course they should use their native tongue. If they are bilingual then use the KJV which is an accurate translation if the Bible in their native tongue is from the corrupted Eastern texts.

   It is definitely better to memorize Scripture accurately and the KJV can be fully trusted.  

   There are efforts being made to translate the Western or Majority text into other languages.   However, some Bibles were translated from the Minority text and there is no Majority text translation available.   In that case the person would have to use what the have.    An example is Korea where until recently they did not have a choice as the Korean Bible was from the Minority text.  However, recently they have a new translation based on the Majority text.   Many people were saved reading the Bible they had even though it was not a fully accurate translation.  The same is true of Spanish also.

   I hope this helps. If you have further question or comments please write.

Cooper Abrams
http://bible-truth.org