Article July 2, 1938 Issue

From the Directors

The Christian Science Board Of Directors

The King James Version continues to be the best-liked rendering of the Bible into English. This translation continues to hold first place among English-reading students by reason of its diction, its fidelity to the original text, and its spirituality. While its wording has become archaic, its text has become sacred.

"For almost three centuries the Authorized, or King James, Version has been the Bible of the English-speaking world" (The Ancestry of Our English Bible, by Professor Ira Maurice Price, ninth edition, 1934, p. 282).

Mary Baker Eddy consistently maintained her preference for the King James Version. In all her writings there are only six or seven quotations from other translations, and some of them are only incidental. (See Science and Health 313:19, 360:22, 525:12; Miscellaneous Writings 97:22, 373:7; Unity of Good 31:1; Message for 1902 16:1.) Once when she received a copy of a recent translation, her acknowledgment of the gift included the following comments: "I am not fond of new things unless they are more spiritual than the old. ... In some instances the text seems clearer, e.g., where 'deadly thing' is changed to the word 'poison.' Yet this lucid word may be objectionable."

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