Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The King James Bible is a treasure. It is the absolute infallible Word of God, preserved for our time and forever. If any person saved or unsaved wanted to read God’s perfect, unerrant, complete and faithful finished translation of the Bible in English, I’d sincerely and joyfully give them a copy of the KJ Bible.
Are you still with me? Good, because there are some that will roll their eyes and depart rather than read on to find out how profitable this Book really is.
Recently, I bought a nice sign for my bathroom that stated, “Create in me a pure heart, O God”. For some reason, it needled me. And then I looked up the verse:
Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God…
Clean! Not “pure”.
Are you still with me? Good, because there are some that will roll their eyes a second time and depart.
I have been studying the difference between “clean” and “pure” via 28 pages of printed out scripture and pages of chicken scratch that I better translate soon before I forget my train of thought. Anyone can do this with a King James Bible; simply look up every time any word appears and read ALL of the verses (and yes, don’t forget context!). The King James has a wonderful built-in dictionary that defines ITSELF, so there is no need for Bible dictionaries and lexicons and whatever else man has put together to “help” God’s servants understand His Word. And shouldn’t we be thankful for that?! Can you imagine our brethren in restricted nations burying and hiding their precious Bibles, *knowing* (falsely!) that they need collegiate material to *really* understand what God is saying to them? It’s just the same-old age-old “Yea, hath God said…” (Gen 3:1) pricking of the devil who tempts us with a tree of knowledge that we believe we need more than (in addition to) what God has given in His Book.
And the division! What a sorrow! Not only can the body no longer rise to repeat in one voice the Lord’s prayer or any other Scripture (because we are too busy finding versions that we personally “like”), but the infighting regarding Bible versions is crazy! Yes, there are “KJV-only” people who will verbally slay their Christian siblings (and God forbid, let me never be nor become that!), but there are equally “everything-else” people who will not even give the time of day to consider their concerns or will arrogantly puff up what they believe is academically superior knowledge regarding what God “really” said or “really” meant. The belittling on both sides is, well….unChristian! Come on, now, can we not reason together?
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
In studying the difference between “clean” and “pure”, there are definitely some similarities as well, and sometimes are used synonymously. But in just this instance, let us look at it phonetically:
Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart…
The word “create” and “clean” both start with a hard /c/ sound. And both have the /ea/ sound as well.
Visually, “create”, “clean” AND “heart” have EA in them.
With your mouth, just say the words: CREATE CLEAN, paying attention to where your lips are. Now say CREATE PURE. Which set creates more work? The second one, of course, with pursing the lips to say “pure”.
Why does this matter? Because in terms of Bible memorizing, the King James version is just plain easier! So, even if the two words were completely synonymous, choosing the word “clean” was and is the better choice. Furthermore, if the two choices really WERE synonymous (as in, “what does it really matter?”), then does not that make us wonder all the more why a change was necessary at all? How does this *new* word make it “easier” for us to understand?
Well, I set out this morning to type out my study and to share it and instead spent it explaining why one silly little sign with a different translation on it makes any difference at all. If you’re still with me, maybe now’s a good time to close up the computer and pick up the Word. Every word is precious. Savor them all.
Blessings,
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