Should we “revise” the King James Bible to get rid of the word “gay”?
James 2:3 “And ye have respect to him that weareth the GAY clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool.”
Bible agnostics (they don’t know for sure what or where God’s infallible words can be found) and unbelievers in the Inerrancy of Scripture are a funny and fickle bunch. Not one of them can show you a copy of God’s complete, inspired and 100% true words in ANY language, but they are all united in one thing. And that is that the King James Bible is “full of errors” and, at the very least, “needs to be updated”.
From time to time I run into guys who complain about “the old fashioned language” or the “archaic terms” we find in God’s Book and tell us how “out of date” or “misleading” certain terms or words are in that old Book.
I will readily admit that there are a few “archaic” words found in the King James Bible such as “let, conversation, leasing and prevent”, but this does not make the King James Bible inaccurate or uninspired. All a person needs to do is consult a good dictionary and learn a little more about the richness and variety of meanings found in our own English language.
See The “archaic” language of the King James Bible -
"Archaic" KJB
And “Why all those “Thee”s and “Ye”s are far more accurate -
http://brandplucked.webs.com/theeandye.htm
I also find in highly ironic that these same people who so often criticize our King James Bible will then turn around and tell us that we need to consult or learn “the” Biblical Hebrew and Greek to find out what God REALLY said. It never seems to dawn on them that there is no such animal as “the” Hebrew and much less “the” Greek that they are referring to.
There are literally thousands of variants in “the” Greek texts and the scholars are constantly changing their minds and differ among themselves as to which Greek readings may or may not be the true words of God.
As for “the” Hebrew, most modern versions like the ESV, NIV, NASB, NET, Holman etc. OFTEN reject the clear Hebrew readings and not even in the same places.
Here are some examples:
NIV, NASB reject Hebrew
Just look at the footnotes in such modern versions as the ESV or NIV and you will see such notes as “Some Hebrew manuscripts read....”, “2 Hebrew mss. read....”, “Most Hebrew mss. read....” and very often “The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.”
It should also be pointed out that “the” Biblical Hebrew and Greek are BOTH themselves “archaic languages” that are not spoken today in modern Israel or Greece. Modern Hebrew and Greek are quite different from the Hebrew and Greek texts that make up our Bible, but modern day Jews and Greeks can and do understand them, even though they don’t speak that way. This is God’s pattern for His pure words.
Is it really that difficult to learn the different meanings of a few English words? Every student in school has to learn more vocabulary as they study different subjects or learn a new sport or hobby. If you are really interested in something, then you simply learn the meaning of the terms. So it is with God’s Book.
Anyway, the subject of this article is to look at the word “gay” as found in James 2:3 and try to use some common sense. We should not let the world’s use of slang or their highjacking certain words and applying new meanings to them be used as an excuse to toss out the old Book and “revise” God’s masterpiece - the King James Holy Bible.
The world often uses the words “hell”, “damn”, “God” or “Jesus Christ” as swear words. Or kids today will say “Wicked!” or “That’s bad.” when they really mean “It’s good.” Are we also supposed to remove these words from the Bible because the world uses them in a different way than God’s word does? I don’t think so. Try using a little common sense.
The English speaking world today often uses the word “gay” to refer to homosexuals. We all know this. But it should also be obvious that the word “gay” has had and continues to have other meanings such as bright, happy, brilliant in color or merry.
A simple look at Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition shows us the definitions and uses of the English word “gay”.
Definition of GAY
1a : happily excited
: merry <in a
gay mood>
b : keenly alive and exuberant
: having or inducing high spirits <a bird's
gay spring song>
2a : bright, lively <
gay sunny meadows>
b : brilliant in color
3 given to social pleasures;
also : licentious
4 a : homosexual <
gay men>
b : of, relating to, or used by homosexuals <the
gay rights movement> <a
gay bar>
Examples of GAY
1.The band was playing a
gay tune.
2.the
gayest of the spring flowers
We also have the well know Christmas carol “Deck the Halls” which in part says: “Don we now our gay apparel", which simply means that we now put on our brightly colored clothing.
Not only does the King James Bible - the only English Bible believed by thousands of redeemed children of God today to be the complete, inspired and 100% true words of God - say “gay clothing” but so also do the following Bible translations: Tyndale 1525 - “ye have a respecte to him that weareth the GAYE clothynge”, Coverdale 1535, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew’s Bible 1549, the Bishops’ Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1587 - “him that weareth the GAIE clothing”, The Beza N.T. 1599, Whiston's N.T. 1745, The Revised Translation 1815, Webster’s Translation 1833, The Pickering N.T. 1840, Young’s literal 1898 - “him bearing the GAY raiment”, Rotherham’s Emphasized bible of 1902, The Word of Yah 1993, God's First Truth 1999, the Tomson New Testament 2002, The Evidence Bible 2003, The Revised Geneva Bible 2005 and the Bond Slave Version 2009 - "the GAY clothing".
We live in a day when every man thinks he’s an expert and sets up his own mind and understanding as his “Final Authority” (subject to change at any moment) and in fact does NOT believe that any Bible in any language is or ever was the complete, inspired and 100% true words of God.
History has a habit of repeating itself. “In those days there was no king in Israel: EVERY MAN DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES.” Judges 21:25.