My newest project is editing the King James Bible for modern readers. "Why," you may ask? "There are already a dozen or more modern language versions of the Bible."
That's so, but my church, WSCC, uses several of them, and they don't match! For example, one week's sermon was about shame, and it made the story of the garden of Eden all about shame. The trouble was, the King James version has the word "ashamed" only one time in that story, but the version the pastor used had shame in nearly every sentence he quoted.
There was only one English language Bible I knew of until I was grown, the King James. Then in the late seventies my grandmother gave me a Bible she said she didn't like, with "The Way" printed on the cover. I didn't like it either, because the first thing I did was to turn to the ten commandments, where that book said simply "do not lie." The King James says "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," but not all lies are slander any more than all four legged animals are dogs. That made me leery of modern versions, and the New International version really took off. Most churches I've been in in the last couple decades use it.
But the worst thing about modern versions that make me distrust them even more than "The Way" is copyright. Every online Bible site I've seen that use modern versions all have copyright notices with "all rights reserved. Used with permission."
But no man should own God's Bible! I see it as sacrilege. It makes me think that they're only doing it for money, the love of which, the Bible says, is the root of all evil. Copyright is automatic in the US since the Bono act, but I'm using a Creative Commons license; anyone can publish it, even sell copies. If you change the meaning of what it says, I may make you stop. "Thou shalt steal" will get you a stern letter at the very least.
That's the "why", here's the "how".
Obsolete and nearly obsolete words are changed to modern synonyms; "you" for "thee", "here" for "hither", etc.
I have moved some words around so it doesn't sound like Yoda.
Much of its punctuation is changed, as punctuation is far different today than five centuries ago. The original King James has no quotation marks; I've added them. King James' scholars must have had far different rules for colons, because they're everywhere, and from what I have learned, most of them shouldn't be colons. I've changed them to more appropriate marks.
There were a few places where the writing is just bad. Of course, scholars aren't known for writing skills. I've read a lot of scientific papers, and not one was well written. Neither was the King James, and neither are any of the new versions. Sometimes it pretty much says "he said" twice before saying what he said. The worst of these were fixed.
But what about the free books?
Everyone makes mistakes, and I'm no exception. As John Lennon sang, "a million heads are better than one." I have a couple dozen new printed books to bribe you with. If you find any mistake at all or anything else you would like changed in the modern King James Bible at mkjv.info, email me at publish@mcgrewbooks.com and if I incorporate it into the site, you get your choice of book, while the supply lasts.
I have no copies of Voyage to Earth and only one copy of Grandma's Cookbook left. There are many copies of Yesterday's Tomorrows, which I pulled from publication because of a typo that changed a date. It will likely be valuable in the future because fewer than two dozen copies were printed. I'll release a second printing in a year or two with expanded author biographies.
The rest of my books are also available. You can choose the title, and whether hardcover or paperback depending on availability. To get the book I'll meet you at George Ranks at the time of your choosing.
Genesis is finished.
The 1619 project
You can read or download my books for free here. No ads, no login, just free books.
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