Linguistic Characteristics of the King James Version Bible

(Original Greek): "Now in those days comes John the Baptist proclaiming in the wilderness in Judea and saying, Repent, for has drawn near the kingdoms of the heavens." (Matthew 3:1-2)(KJV). "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:1-2).(3) Words are arranged so that they have more importance at the beginning of the sentence. This allows the reader or listener to immediately pay attention from the beginning of the sentence: "Truly this was the Son of God." (Matt. 27:54). "He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar." (Rev. 3:12).ARCHAIC WORDS: The most widely used words in the KJV's early modern English are the pronouns "you" and ""your." Each is divided into plural and singular categories: THOU (you, plural-subject), THEE (d.o., plural, singular, object of a preposition), THY (your, plural, possessive adjective), THINE (yours, plural, possessive pronoun). YE (you, singular-subject), YOU (d.o. singular, object of preposition), YOUR (your, singular, possessive adjective, pronoun).TWO IMPORTANT WORDS: There are two important words that dominate both testaments of the KJV: "Unto" and "Upon." "... Upon this rock I will build my church... " (Matthew16:18), " But Peter... said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words." (Acts 2:14), Throughout the Book of Mathew, when Jesus is preaching, he states repeatedly, "I say unto you,... ".new king james bible extra large print MISSING LETTERS AND WORDS: Printing errors were fairly common in the 17th century: "(t) he Seas:"(Genesis 1:10), "made a" to "made thee a" (Isaiah 57:8), "... It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Genesis 2:18), "An help meet": "A helper?" or "a help mate"?NO QUOTATION MARKS: When a person talking, the word "said", "saith", or "saying", usually comes before the spoken word which is capitalized. EXs: "Thus saith the LORD, Behold,... ", "He said unto him, Look.." (No specific Bible verses).COMMANDS: Commanding someone is accompanied with a form of "you." For example: "Bless THOU the LORD, O my soul. Praise YE the LORD." (Psalm 104:35), "Repent YE:... " (Mathew 3:2).VERB FORMS: Not only are there words for "You" or "Your" in early modern English, verbs in the present and past tenses, end in "th," "st," "t" (hath, hast, saith, cometh, cameth, doest, seeth, goeth, wilt, shalt). Most of the time, you can tell what the verb is by hiding the endings "th" and "st". The future tense is recognized by "will" and "shall."

LEGAL WORDS: Did you ever wonder why we use the word "testament" for the two in the Bible? A testament in legal terms is a "legally" binding document, contract, or covenant. The Bible can be viewed as a covenant between God and His people. In the KJV, there are words that reflect that we are reading such a contract: thereof, thereby, therein, hereby, herein, whereof, whereby, wherein, wherefore.THE KING JAMES BIBLE TODAY:In 1975, the New King James Version (NKJV) was commissioned. It was finally published seven years later. In this version a few changes were made to the original: 1. Verbs have been modernized from the early modern English forms.