Concordia Theological Quarterly
Volume 75:3-4 July/October 2011
Table Contents
Walther and the Revival of Confessional Lutheranism
Martin R. Noland ................................................................................ 195
Grabau Versus Walther: The Use of the Book o/Concord in the American
Lutheran Debate on Church and Ministry in the Nineteenth Century
Benjamin T.G. Mayes ......................................................................... 217
C.F.W. Walther's Use of Luther
Cameron A. MacKenzie ..................................................................... 253
Mission through Witness, Mercy, Life Together in Walther and the First
Fathers of Missouri
Albert B. Collver ................................................................................. 275
Eduard Preuss and C.F.W. Walther
Roland F. Ziegler ................................................................................ 289
Wilhelm Lohe: His Voice Still Heard in Walther's Church
John T. Pless ........................................................................................ 311
Walther, the Third Use of the Law, and Contemporary Issues
David P. Scaer ..................................................................................... 329
The King James Version: The Beginning or the End?
Cameron A. MacKenzie ..................................................................... 343
Theological Observer ...................................................................................... 367
Dean Wenthe: An Appreciation
An Old Seminary, a New President, and the Unfolding
of Divine History
The Sacred Character of Human Life
Book Reviews ................................................................................................... 372
Books Received ................................................................................................ 381
Indices for Volume 75 (2011) .......................................................................... 382
Observing Two Anniversaries
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther was born on October 25, 1811, in
Langenchursdorf, Saxony, Germany. It is appropriate that this issue honor
C.F.W. Walther on this 200th anniversary of his birth because of his
significant influence as the first and third president of The Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod (1847-1850 and 1864-1878) and also president
and professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1850-1887). Most of the
articles below, which were first presented at the 2011 Symposium on the
Lutheran Confessions in Fort Wayne, reflect his influence in many areas of
biblical teaching, confessional subscription, and the life of the church in
mission. These historical and theological studies are offered here so that
Walther may be understood in his context and continue to be a blessed
voice in our synod as we face the future.
This issue also recognizes one other anniversary. The venerated King
James Version of the Bible, first printed in 1611, is now 400 years old. The
article below on the King James Version was originally given as a paper at
the 2011 Symposium on Exegetical Theology in honor of this anniversary.
The importance of this translation for the English-speaking world is widely
acknowledged. Although many may think that its day has passed, this
article demonstrates the ongoing influence of the King James Version
through other translations.
The Editors
CTQ 75 (2011): 343-365
,0
or
The King James Version:
The Beginning or the End?
Cameron A. MacKenzie
When asked to write something for the 400th anniversary of the King
James Bible, I thought it would be an exercise in nostalgia, a fond remem
brance of a Bible that few in the audience could actually recall but that at
least I and a handful of others would recognize as the Bible of our child
hood from which we first learned the word of God. The days when the
King James Version was the Bible in the English-speaking world are long
gone, and it survives today more as a museum piece than as a vehicle for
Christian proclamation and piety. At least, that is what I thought was true
when I began my work, and it probably is true in an assembly like this; but
it is not as true as I had originally thought.
According to the most recent list of best sellers compiled by the CBA
(formerly the Christian Booksellers Association), the King James Version
(KJV) was second only to the New International Version (NIV) among
number of Bibles sold in the U.5., and the New King James Version (NKJV)
was third!1 Given all the competition-to say nothing of the obvious
changes in language and scholarship since 161l-that is really amazing.
Now, of course, just because people buy a version does not mean they
actually read it; nonetheless, these figures suggest that, 400 years after it
first was published, the King James Version of the Bible still has a lot of life
left. Moreover, besides the New King James, one other translation included
in the list of the CBA's 10 best sellers also had direct connections with the
King James, viz., the English Standard Version (ESV), which comes in fifth
place. So both on its own and in its successors, the King James Version
remains a powerful force in shaping the biblical message in the English
1 "February 2011 CBA Best Sellers" http:j jwww.cbaonline.orgjnmjdocuments
jBSL<;jBible_Translations.pdf (accessed on January 16, 2011). When I first accessed this
site (Nov. 24, 2010), it was posting the "December 2010 CBA Best Sellers." The Jist was
very similar. According to the website, the list is based on "actual sales in Christian
retail stores in the United States through January 1, 2011, using CROSS: SCAN as the
source for the data collection." The positions of NIV, KJV, and NKJV were the same in
both the list determined by unit sales and in the one determined by dollar sales.
Cameron A. MacKenzie is the Ellis Professor of Historical Theology and
Chairman of the Department of Historical Theology at Concordia Theological
Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
344 Concordia Theological Quarterly 75 (2011)
speaking world. Whether this is a good thing or not is another question,
one to which I will return shortly; but before I do so, I will consider briefly
how this happened in the first place. How did the King James Version
achieve such eminence in the English-speaking world?
To answer that question, we need to review a little history and recall,
first of all, that the King James Version was the culmination of much
translation work that came before it during the Reformation. Or, to put it
another way, the King James Version represents the end of the beginning
in the story of the English Bible.2
The beginning of the beginning is, of course, the work of William
Tyndale.3 His pioneering efforts resulted in an English New Testament in
1526 and parts of the Old Testament thereafter.4 Subsequent translations in
the 16th century usually began with Tyndale. That was still true with
respect to the King James Version. In the preface to the latter, Miles Smith
indicated its relationship to its Protestant predecessors in answer to
Catholics who criticized Protestants for publishing new versions of the
English Bible:
We never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a
new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one ... but to
make a good one better, or out of many good ones one principal good
one, not justly to be excepted against, that hath been our endeavour,
that our mark.S
2 See Appendix A on 364. For the prehistory of the King James Version, see Brooke
Foss Westcott, A General View of the History of the English Bible, 3rd rev. ed. by William
Aldis Wright, reprint ed. (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998); J. Isaacs, "The
Sixteenth-Century English Versions," in The Bible in Its Ancient and English Versions, ed.
H. Wheeler Robinson, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940), 146-195; S.L. Greenslade,
"English Versions of the Bible, 1525-1611/' in The Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 3:
7he West from the Reformation to the Present Day, ed. S.L. Greenslade, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1963), 141-163; and F.F. Bruce, History of the Bible in
English, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxfql-d University Press, 1978), 24-95.
3 For Tyndale's translatiOl.ywork, see J.F. Mozley, William Tyndale (London: SPCK,
1937), 75-109, 173-186, and ¢vid Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography (New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press, 19~4), 108-116, 134-142, 283-315, 330-331.
4 Besides the Pent~tluch and Jonah that appeared in print during Tyndale's
lifetime, both Mozley, Tyhdale, 179-186, and Daniell, Tyndale, 333-357, credit him with
the translation of the historical books, Joshua through 2 Chronicles (Mozley) or
Nehemiah (Daniell), that appeared in Matthew's Bible and became the basis for subse
quent 16th-century translations.
5 "The Translators to the Reader," in The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with the
Apocrypha: King James Version, ed. David Norton, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
345 MacKenzie: The King James Version
m, Improving on their predecessors-but not repudiating them-was the
fly goal of the King James translators right from the beginning. In fact, in the
on "rules" provided for the translators, the first of them specified that "the
ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops' Bible, to be
followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the original will permit," andlIt
a subsequent rule told the translators to use these versions-Tyndale's,
ch
Matthew's, and Coverdale's Bibles, the Great Bible, and the Geneva
: it
Bible-in places where they were more accurate than the Bishops' Bible. 6
ng
Moreover, all of these versions incorporated huge amounts of Tyndale,
and none of them besides his began totally afresh from the original
1m languages. Together, they constitute a family of closely related versions
in known as the Great Tradition'? The similarities are quite evident when one
in compares particular passages.
ith
Here are a couple of examples. Let's start with the first two verses of ith
Genesis:8 to
he Tyndale:9 In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth
was void and empty, and darkness was upon the deep, and the spirit
of God moved upon the water.
Coverdale:1o In the beginning God created heaven and earth; and the
earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the deep, and the
spirit of God moved upon the water.
Matthew's:l1 In the beginning GOD created heaven and earth. The
earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the deep, and the
spirit of God moved upon the water.
)ke
am
rhe Press, 2005), xxxi. Unless otherwise noted, all citations of the King James Version come
ed. from this edition. For the ascription of the preface to Miles Smith, see Bruce, History, 98.
Ide, b Alfred W. Pollard, Records of the English Bible: The Documents Relating to the
.3: Translation and Publication of the Bible in English, 1525-1611 (London: Henry Frowde,
1ge: Oxford University Press, 1911), 53-54.
. in 7 The first time I came across this designation, the Great Tradition, for the family of
Bibles connected to the King James Version was in the title of Arthur L. Farstad, The New
::K, King James Version in the Great Tradition (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989).
8 For ease of reading, I have either employed a modernized spelling and punc
tuation edition or else have updated it myself.
Ie's 9 David Daniell, ed., Tyndale's Old Testament: Being the Pentateuch of 1530, Joshua to 2
lith Chronicles of 1537, and Jonah, Translated by William Tyndale (New Haven, CT: Yale
or University Press, 1992).
lSe- 10 Unless otherwise noted, Coverdale Bible citations are from the electronic version
of the 1535 text available in The Bible in English at http://collections.chadwyckcom.
the ezproxy.lib.ipfw.edu/bie/htxview?template=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx, (accessed
sHy November 30, 2010).
I;
co
346 Concordia Theological Quarterly 75 (2011)
Great Bible:12 In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The
earth was void and empty; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Geneva: l3 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And
the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.
Bishops':14 In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and was void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters.
King James: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.
A New Testament example, Matthew 6:7, shows how a difference in
understanding the Greek could affect the tradition. Should r)UnuAoYEw be
rendered "babble" or "vain repetitions"? Then again, maybe it was just a
matter of style: Does "babble'! belong in the mouth of our Lord or is "vain
repetitions" more fitting? Whatever their thinking, the translators in the
Great Tradition had a hard time making up their minds.
Tyndale:15 And when ye pray, babble not much, as the heathen do, for
they think that they shall be heard, for their much babbling's sake.
11 Unless otherwise noted, Matthew's Bible citations are from the electronic version
of the 1549 text available in The Bible in English at http:/ / collections.chadwyck.com.
ezproxy.lib.ipfw.edu/bie/htxview?template=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx, (accessed
November 30,2010).
12 Unless otherwise noted, Great Bible citations are from the electronic version of
the 1540 text available in TI1C Bible in English at http://collections.chadwyck.com.
ezproxy .lib.ipfw .ed u/bie/htxview?templa te=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx, (accessed
November 30,2010).
13 Unless otherwise noted, Geneva Bible citations are from TIle Geneva Bible: A
Facsimile of the 1560 Edition, intro. Lloyd E. Berry (Peabody, MA: Hendrick.<;on
Publishers, 2007).
14 Unless otherwise noted, Bishops' Bible citations are from the electronic version of
the 1568 text available in The Bible in English at http://collections.chadwyck.com.
ezproxy.libjpfw.edu/bie/htxview?template=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx, (accessed
November 30,2010).
15 Unless otherwise noted, Tyndale New Testament citations are from David
Daniell, ed., Tyndale's New Tcstamcnt Translated from the Greek by William Tyndale ill 1534,
modern spelling ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989).
347
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MacKenzie: The King James Version
Coverdale: And when ye pray, babble not much, as the heathen do,
for they think that they shall be heard, for their much babbling's sake.
Matthew's: But when ye pray, babble not much as the heathen do; for
they think that they shall be heard, for their much babbling sake.
Great Bible: But when ye pray babble not much, as the heathen do: for
they think it will come to pass that they shall be heard for their much
babbling's sake.
Geneva: Also when ye pray, use no vain repetitions as the heathen, for
they think to be heard for their much babbling.
Bishops': But when ye pray, babble not much, as the heathen do. For
they think it will come to pass that they shall be heard, for their much
babbling's sake.
King James: But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen
do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
For the sake of contrast with the Great Tradition, consider two modern
language versions, the Revised English Bible16 (REB) and the Good News
Bible17 (GNB), in order to see that the Tyndale rendering is not inevitable.
First, Genesis 1:1-2:
REB: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The
earth was a vast waste, darkness covered the deep, and the spirit of
God hovered over the surface of the water.
Verse one sounds like Tyndale, but verse two certainly does not. The
difference is even more pronounced in GNB.
GNB: In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was
formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was
engulfed in total darkness, and the power of God was moving over
the water.
Similar departures from the Tyndale tradition are evident in Matthew 6:7
also:
REB: In your prayers do not go babbling on like the heathen, who
imagine that the more they say the more likely they are to be heard.
16 The Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha (Oxford University Press and
Cambridge University Press, 1989).
17 Good News Bible: The Bible in Today's English Version (New York: American Bible
Society, 1976).
348 Concordia Theological Quarterly 75 (2011)
GNB: When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the tire
pagans do, who think that God will hear them because their prayers Lut
are long. Lut
ehaThese passages show that an English translation does not have to
Lutsound like William Tyndale, but the 16th-century versions to which the
King James translators referred all show a reliance upon the first version, sarr
abothat of Tyndale. Therefore, the King James Version was just one more step
a. tr,in the development of this particular line of Bibles. Of course, it was a very
impressive step since it involved dozens of translators from both Oxford arra
pIa(and Cambridge as well as scholars outside the universities,18 and they
committed themselves first of all to faithfulness to the original languages. nUll
After all, Rule #1 directed the translators to follow the Bishops' Bible only
insofar as "the Truth of the original will permit."19 Nonetheless, when the nab
work was finished more than seven years after the king had first agreed to cha
it, the end result remained quite close to its predecessors. In fact, one esti avo
mate is that 90% of the King James is Tyndale,20 at least in those portions AgE
that Tyndale had completed before his death: the entire New Testament, "ch
the Pentateuch, Jonah, and very probably Joshua through 2 Chronicles. 21 (Lu
(LuFor Lutherans, it is probably also worth noting that Tyndale was
indebted to Martin Luther for both his Bible translation and his theology.
In fact, the history books sometimes call him "Lutheran."22 This is not en-
Mor
18 For the origins and organization of the King James translation, see Westcott, 107- El'lgl
121; J. Isaacs, "The Authorized Version and After," in Robinson, Ancient and English, Mac
1%-204; Bruce, History, 96-112; and Gordon Campbell, Bible: The Story of the King James
Version 1611-2011 (Oxford: University Press, 2010), 32-85. Also very informative are the Edit
following (although aimed more at a popular audience than an academic one): Gustavus (Phi
S. Paine, The Men Behind the King James Version (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1959, 294,
paperback ed., 1977); Olga S. Opfell, The King James Bible Translators Oefferson, NC:
Mcfarland & Co., 1982); Alister McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James
Bible alld How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (New York: Doubleday, 365
2001); and Adam Nicolson, God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (New
York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003). pam
19 Pollard, Records, 53. 133.
20 See G. E. Duffield, "Introduction," in TIle Work of William Tyndale (Appleford,
Bershire, England: The Sutton Courtenay Press, 1964), xxxv-xxxvi, but Campbell, Bible, Cam
15, says only 83 percent. ed. (
21 Perhaps the best book demonstrating the literary connections between the King
James Version and its predecessors is Charles C. Butterworth, The Literary Lineage of the -Ty
King James Bible, 1340-1611 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941), but Lutl
see also Gerald Hammond, The Making of the English Bible (Manchester, Great Britain: Sept
Carcanet Press, 1982); Isaacs, "Authorized Version," 204-223; and Westcott, 123-284.
22 E.g., Conrad Russell, "The Reformation and the Creation of the Church of Mar
England, 1500-1640," in The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain, ed. John 19~
349 MacKenzie: The King James Version
he tirely accurate, especially regarding the sacraments, but Tyndale did use
Luther's works to create his own, often just translating or paraphrasing
Luther's German into English, e.g., his An Exposition Uppon the V. VI. VII
Chapters of Matthew,23 and other times, just integrating large portions of ~ve to
Luther into his own material, e.g., The Parable of the Wicked Mammon.24 The
ch the
same is true of the materials that accompany his Bible translations, e.g., ~rsion,
about 75 percent of Tyndale's prologue to Romans in his 1534 Testament is ~e step
a translation of Luther's preface that first appeared in 1522.25 Tyndale even
a very
arranged the books of the New Testament the way Luther did and so)xford
placed Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation at the end without:i they
numbering them.26
uages .
.e only Finally, Tyndale also translated like Luther in that he employed a
len the natural vernacular instead of a more stilted and latinate style that often
'eed to characterized the pre-Reformation versions27 and, again, like Luther,
le esti avoided terminology that reinforced the aberrant theology of the Middle
)rtions Ages. For example, Tyndale used 1/congregation" for EKKA1]oLa instead of
3ment 1/ church" (Luther used gemeyne); II elder" for rrpw~ln:epoc; instead of priest
~S.21 (Luther used Elltiste); and "repent" for lletavOelt£ instead of 1/ do penance"
(Luther used bessert euch).28Ie was
!ology.
lot en-
Morrill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 267, and Richard Rex, Henry VIII and tile
)tt,107- English Reformation, 2nd ed. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England: Palgrave
English, Macmillan, 2006), 113.
'1g James 23 Duffield, Work, 180-304. For Luther, see Martin Luther, Luther's Works, American
! are the Edition, 55 vols., ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann
~ustavus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press; St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1955-1986), 21: 1
sc,1959, 294 (hereafter LVI/).
on, NC: 24 Daniell, Tyndale, 156-169, discusses this work, including its relation to Luther.
'1g James 25 Duffield, Work, 119-146; Westcott, General View, 147-148. For Luther, see LW 35:
lbleday, 365-380.
,Ie (New 26 For the degree of Tyndale's dependence upon Luther in the material that accom
panied the biblical text, see Westcott, General View, 139-153, and Daniell, Tyndale, 113
133.
'pleford, 27 for medieval vernacular versions, see "The Vernacular Scriptures," in The
~ll, Bible, Cambridge History of the English Bible, vol. 2: The West from the Fathers to the Reformation,
ed. G.W.H. Lampe (Cambridge: University Press, 1969), 338-491.
:he King 28 For examples of each of these, see Matt 18:17 ("congregation"), Titus 1:5 ("elders"
Ige of the -Tyndale's first edition used "seniors"), and Matt 3:2 ("repent"). For references to
)41), but Luther's Bible, I have used Martin Luther, Das Neue Testament Deutsch Wittenberg 1522:
. Britain: Septembertestament, facsimile ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994) .
·284. For Luther's influence on Tyndale as a translator, see especially Heinz Bluhm,
lUrch of Martin Luther: Creative Translator, reprint ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
ed.John 1984, c. 1%5), 169-180, and Heinz Bluhm, "Martin Luther and the English Bible:
...J
350 Concordia Theological Quarterly 75 (2011)
Some of this material made it into the King James version, e.g., "elder" somet
and "repent." But in general, there is little direct influence from Luther on debate
the King James Version. Coverdale omitted the prefaces, the Great Bible all, no
reintegrated Luther's antilegomena into the New Testament canon, and James.
Geneva brought back in "the church." In fact, the King James translators PE
were ordered to use "the old Ecclesiastical Words ... the Word Church not becam
to be translated Congregation, etc,"29 Moreover, by the time we get to the
over tl
second half of the 16th century, the most direct influences upon the
alists,English versions were Reformed scholars like Theodore Beza; the so-called Angli