http://queenjamesbible.com Ok, so I thought this was hilarious, and I'm totally gonna get one. What do you think? Read what it has to say and discuss below.
I'm going to get up in arms about this for a few different reasons. Number 1: I'm not going to buy a Bible based on eight additional verses. Number 2: I have no idea what the academic credentials of these "translators" are. I would be amenable to this Bible if it was a dedicated, full translation by a team of experts. This is a person or people who have chosen to remain anonymous, and in doing so they forfeit all academic credibility. Number 3: What are they translating from?!?! I'll accept a translation from the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Torah, or ancient sources, but these people have seemingly just inserted a collection of synonyms that remove any association with homosexuality. They simply delete verses, crying "mistranslation". Number 4: Where are their academic sources? They claim numerous times that "most scholars" believe a certain interpretation of a verse, but do not expand on their claims. Number 5: Wrongful claims. They state that the Revised Standard Version was the first translation to mention homosexuality. This is because that word was only coined in the 19th century. I can't comment on the original texts, but the Latin Vulgate, translated in the THIRD CENTURY explicitly uses the term "masculorum concubitores", "men who sleep with men". This doesn't capture the nuances of romantic and sexual attraction, but it is very much an explicit condemnation of a certain act. Sorry, as a gay Christian this pisses me off. Christianity needs to work through a lot of issues, but that is not going to be achieved by just cutting and pasting part of the Bible. If that was a valid technique, then why don't we just take out everything about patriarchy, slavery, and violence. The Bible is also the translation of a historical document; it should be translated with full accuracy. Kudos on the name though; King James was a flaming homosexual.
I can understand why you feel the way you do and you do make a point. I'm not trying to defend them or say that their sources are credible, or that it's still an accurate text after it's been "edited", but I simply wanted to show how funny it was to me that this happened to exist. I do wish that they had at least a FAQ page or something to answer questions that might arise from people. It seems that what they are doing(or what they say they're doing) is taking the 1769 form of the KJV and simply altering or changing verses relating to homosexuality(this is all in the Editor's Notes section. You can look there). And if you want, I found their contact info and can ask them about this and get back to you, or you can do it yourself.
Sorry, I was by no means being critical of you! I'm just a bit defensive over this sort of thing. Yes, I did see the editors bites, and I wasn't particularly impressed. If they had groundbreaking research that altered the meaning of the original verses, I'd be very happy, but it's silly to just alter the Bible because it doesn't agree with you.
