Expert: Cooper P. Abrams III - 6/22/2006

Question
Dear Pastor Abrams,
Thank you for your work in advancing God's Kingdom.
I wonder if you have analysed NKJV New Testament text? Is it a reliable translation? Are the Greek texts that it is based on reliable?
I understand this is a question that requires a long answer. I will appreciate if you can provide a brief and less technical answer to my question.
Please take your time to answer my question.

Thank you and may the grace of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you.

Wes

Answer
Hi Wes,
    With all the new translations coming out about every few months lots of people are confused. The NKJV seems to be the answer and is says it has remained true the Received Greek text which the KJV is translated from.   Problem is that statement is not accurate.   
      The KJV is the most accurate translation of the Greek text we have.   It can be trusted and has been for 400 years.    The really NJKV does nothing to make our English translation better.   It removes the "thees and thous" but most people do not know that make is less accurate.   There is an article at

http://av1611.com/kjbp/articles/reynolds-nkjv.html which explains in some detail, the issues.    

  It is clear and scholarly.  There is a lot hype out there to criticizing the NKJV with incorrect information.    But there is a great deal of sound scholarship that truthfully looks at the problems that translation has.

  It is hard to explain without an understanding of the issues involved.  Let me briefly explain.       The controversy is based on the fact that there are two sets of Greek manuscripts.  There is the Minority or Eastern Greek text (3 to 5 manuscripts) which is the Greek text on  which all modern English versions are based.  The Minority text manuscripts show clearly they have been changed, and tampered with.    Further these three or five text do not agree with each other and have major differences.   In Marks Gospel alone they different over 650 times and that trend continues throughout the texts.     Egypt was a hotbed of heresy for over three hundred years and produced many heretical sects who perverted the word of God.   So it is natural that these heretical sects would change to Bible to suit their ideas.

     The KJV is based on the Greek Western or Majority text (close to 6000 manuscripts) that accurately reflects the Greek text found in Asia Minor and Greece and eastern Europe (where the NT was written) and has only minor variations comprised of mostly the spelling of words.  

      The KJV also is a translation of the Masoretic Hebrew which was shown to be 99.8 percent accurately preserved when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.   The Masoretic text dates to the Seventh to the Tenth Century AD.   The Dead Sea Scrolls were dated around 200 BC.   A comparison of the two texts shows that God has accurately preserved His Word in the Masoretic. They are almost perfectly identical.     The modern versions and the NKJV modifies the Masoretic Hebrew with the LXX (Septuagint-Greek Old Testament produced in Egypt), the Latin Vulgate, a variety of other ancient versions.   There was absolutely no reason to use the other questionable texts because the Masoretic text was shown to be accurate..

     Problem with the NKJV.....it translates some the other Hebrew texts with these questionable texts .    The question I have asked and never received an answer is why did the NKJV people do that?   

      So....it is a matter of basing our English Bible on and accurately preserved Greek and Hebrew text.   The modern versions and to some degree the NKJV use ancient text that are not accurate.   You cannot trust the NKJV to be accurate in spite of what the publishers and the modern liberals tells you.

      There is a great deal more the matter of course, but this is the jest of the issues.   I do not use it...and do not recommend it to others.   I have done a lot of study in the matter and even I cannot really know when reading the NKJV that it is accurate or has been changes.   I can read the KJV with confidence that I have God's preserved word.

    Other links:

      http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/whatabout-nkjv.html

      Hope this helps.

Cooper Abrams
Romans 12:1-2
http://bible-truth.org