The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the original, yet truly updated to enhance its clarity and readability."

History

The NKJV translation project was conceived by

Arthur Farstad Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...

. It was inaugurated in 1975 with two meetings ( Nashville and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) of 130 biblical scholars, pastors, and theologians. The men who were invited prepared the guidelines for the NKJV. The aim of its translators was to update the vocabulary and grammar of the King James Version, while preserving the classic style and literary beauty of the original 1769 edition of the King James Version. The 130 translators believed in faithfulness to the original Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew texts including the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also agreed upon for most New King James Bibles were easier event descriptions, a history of each book, and added dictionary and updated concordance. The text for the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

was published in 1979; the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

in 1980; and the full Bible in 1982. The project took seven years in total to complete.

Features

According to its preface, the NKJV uses the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the '' Biblia Hebraica'' for the Old Testament, with frequent comparisons made to the Ben Hayyim edition of the Mikraot Gedolot published by

Daniel Bomberg Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

in 1524–25, which was used for the King James Version. Both the Old Testament text of the NKJV and that of the KJV come from the ben Chayyim text. However, the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the ''Biblia Hebraica'' used by the NKJV uses an earlier manuscript (the Leningrad Manuscript B19a) than that of the KJV. The New King James Version also uses the

Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant deno ...

("Received Text") for the New Testament, just as the original King James Version had used. As explained in the preface, notes in the center column acknowledge variations from Novum Testamentum Graece (designated NU after Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies) and the Majority Text (designated M).

Translation philosophy

The translators have sought to follow the principles of translation used in the original King James Version, which the NKJV revisers call "complete equivalence" in contrast to "

dynamic equivalence The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by Eugene Nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source and target text, as evidenc ...

" used by many contemporary translations. The task of updating the English of the KJV involved significant changes in word order, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. One of the most significant features of the NKJV was its replacement of early modern second-person pronouns, such as "thou" and "thine"; and corresponding verb forms, such as "speakest"; with their twentieth-century equivalents. The Executive Editor of the NKJV, Arthur L. Farstad, addressed textual concerns in a book explaining the NKJV translation philosophy.Arthur L. Farstad, "The New King James Version in the Great Tradition," 2nd edition, 1989, Thomas Nelson Publishers, . While defending the Majority Text (also called the

Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form fo ...

), and claiming that the

is inferior to the Majority Text, he noted (p. 114) that the NKJV references significant discrepancies among text types in its marginal notes: "None of the three extualtraditions on every page of the New Testament ... is labeled 'best' or 'most reliable.' The reader is permitted to make up his or her own mind about the correct reading."

Related publications

The NKJV is the basis for the

Orthodox Study Bible ''The Orthodox Study Bible'' (OSB) is an Eastern Orthodox study Bible published by Thomas Nelson in 2008. It features an English translation of the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint edition for the Old Testament, and utilizes the New King James V ...

. The New Testament is largely the same, being based on the Textus Receptus (which the

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

consider most reliable). Although the Old Testament was translated from the Academy of St. Athanasius Septuagint (which the Orthodox consider an inspired text), it has been rendered in the NKJV fashion. In addition, the

deuterocanon The deuterocanonical books (from the Greek meaning "belonging to the second canon") are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East to be ...

ical books are included, which is the first time they have been modeled according to the New King James style, as the original NKJV, being a largely Protestant translation, did not include them.

Circulation

The NKJV translation has become one of the best-selling Bibles in the USA. it is listed as the sixth best selling Bible by the ESPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association). An unabridged

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

version called "The Word of Promise Audio Bible" has been produced by the publisher. It is narrated by well-known celebrities and fully dramatized with music and sound effects.

Gideons International Gideons International is an Evangelical Christian association for men founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Gideons' primary activity, along with their wives in the Auxiliary, is "encouraging each other to do the work of the Lord, focusin ...

, an organization that places Bibles in hotels and hospitals, at one stage used the NKJV translation along with the KJV, offering the KJV as the default translation and offering the NKJV when an organization asked for a Bible in newer English to be used. After

' acquisition of Thomas Nelson, however, the Gideons have chosen to start using the English Standard Version (ESV) instead of the NKJV.Klein, Peter. ''The Catholic Source Book'', p. 146, Harcourt Religious Publishers, 2000.

Notes

References

External links

Official webpage
{{Authority control 1982 books 1982 in Christianity Bible translations into English