The Wide Margin Bible, KJV Reference Edition: King James Version

Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Bible!
Review: This "Oxford Wide Margin Authorized Version Bible" (W1794syx) has been my working Bible for study/teaching for almost 20 years now. I originally bought it because it was the only King James Version I could find that had the generous wide margins (even in the center) to allow for writing notes all around the text. Although familiar with the various criticisms leveled against the KJV over the years (e.g., hard to understand, archaic English, inaccurate, faulty Greek textual basis, etc.), and having honestly investigated them all, I have been surprised to find that it remains the least problematic and most reliable translation for serious Bible study. Not only is the KJV to be recommended because it very accurately translates the original languages into English (note the literal Greek spelling of proper names when the N.T. quotes from an O.T. passage: Mt. 4:14: "Esaias" for Isaiah, and Rom. 9:25 "Osee" for Hosea, etc.) but also because most of the popular versions out there today, like the NIV, NASV, RSV, NRSV, ESV, NEB, REB, TM{Peterson}, LB, etc., are problematic due to the dubious Greek MSS (manuscripts) used to translate them, which, in turn, is based upon the questionable (and now largely disproved) Westcott-Hort Textual Theory. This translation theory, in a nutshell, is based upon the belief that two (that's right, just TWO) particular Greek MSS are superior to the rest of the 5,000 or so Greek MSS extant today, and which 5,000 were used to translate the KJV. These other two Greek MSS, promoted by liberal English scholars Westcott and Hort (both, incidentally, who were adherents of the so-called Graf-Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis--also known as the JEDP theory--which denies the Divine inspiration of portions of the Old Testament) are in contradistinction to the remaining 5,000 Greek MSS, which 5,000 are in basic agreement with one another and are therefore referred to as the Majority Text. It is this Majority Text, also known as the Textus Receptus, that the KJV was translated from. I could be wrong here, but if 5,002 eyewitnesses to a historical event all wrote down their testimony, and that of all these, 5,000 witnesses wrote down the same thing, and only two of them wrote something different, I would have no problem ascertaining which witnesses accurately recorded the original event, but, ya know, that's just me. You may ask, "Why all the new translations, then?" Well, again, I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that the driving force behind the flood of all these new versions constantly coming out isn't so much a desire for more accuracy or readability (since there are already enough usable translations available to the public NOW to last us till kingdom come) as it is for the much more popular reason which I refer to as the "GOG" (Good Old-fashioned Greed) factor. All of which is why I continue to stick with the King James Version. Although you can still find the KJV offered by other companies, Oxford and Cambridge remain the two publishing houses still vigorously committed to offering a variety of quality, leather-bound KJV Bibles, as they provided the majority of scholars to originally translate (and later, publish) the AV some 400 years ago. Incidentally, I have recently purchased the "Cambridge Cameo Wide Margin KJV" (KWMC257), and like it immensely. Like the Oxford, it is also Smyth-sewn, the best (and most expensive) method available. I actually find the Cambridge edition to be perhaps a tad superior, mainly due to its pronunciation markings, fine concordance, and complete original preface from the Translators to the Reader, all of which are lacking in the Oxford edition. This Oxford, however does have the useful verse outlines at the beginning of each chapter, as well as superior (in my estimation) marginal references. I have a Morocco leather and Calfskin leather in Oxford (as well as a Berkshire--pigskin--leather, and Calfskin leather in the Cambridge) either of which are essentially comparable in quality, and which also make the Oxford (and Cambridge) the nicest KJV Wide-Margin Bible(s) you can buy today, and which, with proper care, should give decades of use.