Why Do Textus Receptus Defenders Reject the NKJV? Part 1

I showed my NKJV to a KJVO guy at church one Sunday and immediately he turned to Revelation 13:18 and basically dismissed me because it said 666. I was thinking, “Well I’m sorry that it doesn’t say six hundred threescore and six.”

I grew up and still attend the Church of the Nazarene. For the longest time the KJV and NKJV were all I had around me. When I joined the teen group we used the NIV and or ESV (depending on what you liked). We loved using different translations during study because it got us to think more rather than just read. We briefly left the church and attended a small non-denominational church and it was all KJV. I even got a KJV Bible for graduation. I remember attending one of my first men’s Bible studies around the age of 17 and brought my NKJV with me and got some rather questionable looks or if I was asked to read scripture I was never met with the same energy and enthusiasm as someone who sat next to me and read from the KJV. Your videos have been something I’ve been looking for because if my desire to understand and appreciate translations and get others to know the importance of them. Thankfully today I attend my home Nazarene church and we all use a variety of Bibles. I personally use my RSV for study and KJV for when the pastor preaches. Great videos!

I really appreciate the clarity and intelligibility with which Mark teaches. God bless you! :hand-pink-waving:

Here's my question: if God separated people by language at Babel, and then gave the gift of tongues (different languages) so that the disciples could preach at Pentecost to everyone in their own language, and then sent out the apostles with the mandate to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, why would God then decide in 1611 that only English was appropriate and that it could no longer be heard in any other language? Sounds more like Islam than Christianity.

i really do love this channel and it is a blessing my brother!

I enjoy your videos. They are always so well articulated.

Over the last year I finally started studying my bible for the first time in my adult life. I can honestly say that reading multiple translations has done nothing but help me. Now I have a shelf full and I rarely study without two or three open.

I really want to thank you for your scholarship and you sensitivity to this matter.

Very useful. I have not personally looked at NKJV as I haven't had a real need for it but I think it is likely going to be an increasingly important work.

Having watched a lot of your stuff recently, I greatly appreciate your charity. You contend for an important issue, yet remain peaceable in the face of I'm certain many frustrations. I also thoroughly enjoy your humor! Often dry, subtle, it just gets me so often! I've always had an NKJV, and have regularly checked the notes included. When I started comparing other translations, I did so using Blue Letter Bible, so the text notes were always available. Then I heard about the NET with it's own translation explanations, and I started using that at times. It's only in a few of your recent videos that I learned most other translations don't have those notes! Here I am with an embarrassment of riches and did not even realize! Thanks for what you do! "Almost you persuade me to become a greek scholar."

I feel like Hembd went into his review with bad faith, specifically with the goal of tearing the NKJV down, rather than any intention of objectivity.

Sorry for my ignorance here. But I need to ask the question when trinitarian bible society are translating the KJV bible into another language. Are they translating into the modern version of another language or in ancient version of the language. If it’s the first how are they squaring that because then they are just doing a modern translation of the KJV it’s just not in English.

Would love to know the links for the two Bible publications used as props in this video. The Black cover, the White cover. :)

Thank you, Brother Mark 🌹🌹🌾🌹🌹

That was well done brother Mark !

On a different topic, what lexicon do you recommend Mark? I have been using Thayer's for 40 years, but I'm thinking there are better ones available now. Thanks!

Thank you Brother! Could you suggest a NKJV that uses the best marginal notes on variants that I could use for study?

I had no idea what the difference was between the KJV and the NKJV, and this clarified it. Thank you.

Have enjoyed your articles and commentaries over the years. Always fair, reasonable, scholarly, and judicious and never overbearing or extreme. I use NKJV primarily in my Logos studies and will probably continue to do so. Switch to the Compare Versions tool when I feel it necessary. Thanks again for helping to clarify issues on this seemingly endless controversial topic.

I, for one, treasure my old 1985 printing of my NKJV, that holds high status in my collection of many translations. I have no actual favorite, but this one is right there at the top among just a very few. Great job Mark! Glad I caught this one at the start!