by Rev. Jack Barr

Greetings in The Lord, Brother XXXXX, pastor of XXXXX Assembly of God Church in xxxxxx, xxx.

I thank you for your comment and question.

copy of question.

One thing I have to ask, what do people do concerning scriptures, if their language is not English, such as my father? They don't have the KJV, but they do have the Luther Bible which actually pre-dates the KJV, and now they do have newer translations. Do they have to learn English (King James English)? Just a thought. Pastor XXXXXX

End of question

I have no divine wisdom to give you in answer to your question. Like you, I am just a man, trying to do the will of God as best I can. Only God can truly give you the answer to this question, however I can and will give you what I believe.

While I believe that the only true bible in English is the KJV of 1611, I would have to believe that God also saw to it that His Word was indeed preserved in other languages as well. As has been stated by others, it is not a KJV issue, but rather it is a Word of God issue. I know of nothing wrong with the Luther Bible, it was translated from the original languages, by Luther, and not from the Church's Latin. If this is the language that your father reads in, then I believe that he should continue to read and study from it.

While My Lord God took me away from the other English translations, showing me what was wrong with them, and that they are counterfeits, still it is up to each of us to use whatever God will allow him to use. It is not for me to say that a man cannot use a particular translation, that is between him and God. I can at best, only show him what I know of it, and then only if he desires to know. As I said, which one he uses is between him and God. But for myself, My God has told me to use only the KJV of 1611.

Should a man be denied the privilege of reading God's Word because he does not read English? I think not. I do believe that God's True Word has been translated into other languages as well.

I enclose the following, taken from the "Encyclopedia Britannica" for a possible help to you.

quote

A new era opened up with the work of Martin Luther, to whom a translation from the original languages was a necessary and logical conclusion of his doctrine of justification by faith--to which the Scriptures provided the only true key. His New Testament (Wittenberg, 1522) was made from the second edition of Erasmus' Greek Testament. The Old Testament followed in successive parts, based on the Brescia Hebrew Bible (1494). Luther's knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic was limited, but his rendering shows much influence of Rashi, the great 11th-12th-century French rabbinical scholar and commentator, through the use of the notes of Nicholas of Lyra. The complete Lutheran Bible emerged from the press in 1534. Luther was constantly revising his work with the assistance of other scholars, and between 1534 and his death in 1546, 11 editions were printed, the last posthumously. His Bible truly fulfilled Luther's objective of serving the needs of the common man, and it, in turn, formed the basis of the first translations in those lands to which Lutheranism spread. It proved to be a landmark in German prose literature and contributed greatly to the development of the modern language.

The phenomenal success of Luther's Bible and the failure of attempts to repress it led to the creation of German Catholic versions, largely adaptations of Luther. Hieronymus Emser's edition simply brought the latter into line with the Vulgate. Johann Dietenberger issued a revision of Emser (Mainz, 1534) and used Luther's Old Testament in conjunction with an Anabaptist (radical Protestant group) version and the Zürich (Switzerland) version of 1529. It became the standard Catholic version. Of the 20th-century translations, the Grünewald Bible, which reached a seventh edition in 1956, is one of the most noteworthy.

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and the following:

quote

In three respects the Reformation had a lasting effect on German literature. First, Luther's Bible translation (New Testament, 1522; Old Testament, 1534) was not only based for the first time on Hebrew and Greek text but also achieved a vigorous, popular German style.

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May God Bless You and Yours and your ministry.

Jack Barr, Evangelist