Bible studies

Dear editor:

Mr. Cunningham, in his Oct. 18 letter, suggests that if I “would study a correctly printed Bible (KJV),” I would see that God instituted politics in mankind’s affairs. I should like to remind him that several Bibles were translated into English long before the King James Version, the first authorized Bible to be used in English churches. To suggest that the KJV is the only correctly printed one is quite a stretch. He perhaps is not considering any of the modern translations correctly printed, either.

Wycliffe was the first Englishman who strived for an English translation and he was killed for doing so. Tyndale came later and did translate the New Testament. That was followed by the Geneva Bible, one that had commentary notes that were controversial at the time. King James was himself a translator, but he gathered various Biblical scholars to translate the entire Bible from the Hebrew and Greek, to become the first authorized Bible to be used in all of England’s churches. Actually, the first printing in 1610 was found to have some printing errors so the official date became 1611.

As Mr. Cunningham knows, several translations have appeared since then, as well as some transliterations. My preference for its modern English phrasing is the New English Bible translation. Are these translations incorrectly printed? Surely, Mr. Cunningham is aware that the English language has changed in phraseology and meaning since Old English days.

Later in his letter, Mr. Cunningham states that I am partially correct about our forefathers not wanting a theocracy. How can one be partially correct? The facts about that matter are recorded in our United States history. I have never stated that those forefathers did not pray for God’s direction. The great majority of those leaders were Christians, though some were Deists, believing in God but not accepting Jesus as a divine son.

I do agree that the forefathers were wanting to protect religion from being controlled by the state, thus creating the principle of separation of church and state. But I could never agree that God chooses both good and evil men as leaders, certainly not anyone as evil as Adolf Hitler.

John W. “Doc” Crawford

Hot Springs