KJV-ENG: The King James Version in English 

The Back Story

The King James Version has been our primary bible for over thirty years, but when my husband and I discovered the English Standard Version (ESV) in 2015, we were amazed at how easy it was to read! Eventually however we became disappointed with the many changes ESV made. For example, KJV's “in the Father’s bosom” and “the children of the bride-chamber” are rendered by ESV as “by the Father’s side” and “wedding guests”, losing a sense of special comradery. Even the recognition of Christ’s Lordship by the thief on the cross is lost: in the KJV, the thief says to Jesus, “Lord, Remember me when you come into your kingdom;”; in the ESV, he simply calls Jesus by his first name and says, “Jesus, Remember me when …”.

So we decided to search for an easier to read King James Bible. We did discover the KJVER, the King James Version Easy Read, but it was not available online. Then by God's grace it occurred to us: since King James is in the public domain (anywhere except Great Britain and its territories), why not make our own KJV rendition by simply updating the spelling of its archaic words? However, unlike other KJV derivatives, this would not be an attempt to modernize KJV; instead, it would simply be a properly spelled KJV, with "abhorreth" corrected to "abhors" and "spued" to "spewed". Admittedly, it did seem unlikely that editing the spelling would make much of a difference, but it has! What a relief to read ceiling and carcasses rather than "cieling" and “carcases", and in the New Testament Noah, Jonah and Nineveh instead of "Noe", "Jonas" and "Nineve".

Unexpectedly it was also discovered that the original text at times employs the historical present tense, mixing past and present tenses just like an oral storyteller. For example, the narrator could say, “He sprinted after the robber and yells, ‘Stop, thief!” In this story, “sprinted” is in the past tense, but  “yells” is in the present tense. This helps draw the audience into the story, even though the situation happened in the past. An example of this mixture of tenses in scripture is Mark 9:35:  “And he sat down, and called (past tense) the twelve, and says (present tense) unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” 

KJV-ENG is the same trusted King James Version but without the clutter of old-fashioned spelling and pronunciation. Perhaps, someday, Textus Receptus scholars will create an entirely new Bible in modern English, but until then, here is an authentic King James Bible that is easier to read!