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Another King James Bible Believer

Subtitle

Matthew 14:9 "for the oath's sake" (KJB)  or "for the oaths sake" (NKJV)

Matthew 14:9 (KJB) "for the oath's sake" or (NKJV) "for the oaths sake"?

 

Matthew 14:9 - "for the oath's sake"


Another alleged "error" bits the dust.


Gary Hudson, who is a rabid anti-KJB only critic with NO inerrant Bible to give to anybody, criticizes the KJB saying: “Matthew 14:9. “oaths” (NKJV); “oath’s sake” (KJV). Gk. has the plural as did the original 1611 KJV (“othes”). The post-1611 publishers misplaced the apostrophe, and this remains uncorrected in every printing of the KJV to this date.”

But is he right?  Not at all, as we shall soon see.


Matthew 14:9 KJB - "And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the OATH'S sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her."


The original printing of the 1611 had: "for the othes sake, and them which sate with him at meate"


Gary Hudson, along with other KJB critics, sees an "error" where none exists. If he had bothered to read the text carefully, he would have noticed that there was ONLY ONE OATH.


In Matthew 14:6-7 we read: "But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised WITH AN OATH to give her whatsoever she would ask."


The specific oath Herod swore is not mentioned in Matthew, but we do find it in Mark 6. There in verse 22-23 we read: "And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom."


Then in Mark 6:26 we read the same thing in the King James Bible, where the plural is properly rendered as a singular: "And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his OATH'S sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her."


The original 1611 printing has the same thing here as in Matthew 14:9. It says: "yet for his othes sake, and for their sakes which sate with him, hee would not reject her."


There was only ONE OATH, yet the same oath was, after a fashion, repeated, as we see in Mark 6:22-23.


It is important to note that BOTH the singular and plural POSSESSIVES LOOKED THE SAME in the first printing of the King James Bible, and in other early English Bible versions as well. The English language DID NOT USE apostrophes like we do today. The rules for spelling English words were not well established in 1611 nor even in the 1800's. Educated men like Lewis and Clark would often spell many words and names in a variety of ways.


You can find a lot of this information  in a book put out by The Bible For Today.  www.BibleForToday.org


The book is called The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1611) Its Subsequent Reprints And Modern Representatives.  It was put together by Scrivener.


As for Matthew 14:9 – “the othes sake” vs. “the oath’s sake” the KJB did not really use apostrophes until around 1762 and more were introduced in 1769 (Scrivener page 152 footnote) On page 186 he tells us that this was changed to "oath's sake" in 1762.


This information seems to be correct. I checked a few places where we now have apostrophes, and in the earlier printings they were not included. 


For example, in Matthew 8:14 we read: "he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever." But the 1611 printing has "see saw his wives mother laid, and sicke of a fever."


This seems to have been very common in all English bibles of this period. I also have a hard copy reprint of the Geneva bible 1599 edition, and in Matthew 8:14 it also has "his wives mother"


The Bishop's bible has "he sawe his wyues mother layed, and sicke of a fever"



If we look at Matthew 14:9 in earlier English bibles, we will see the same thing.


The Great Bible 1540 - Neuerthelesse, for the othes sake


Tyndale 1524 - Neverthelesse for his othes sake


The Bishops' bible 1568 - Neuerthelesse, for the othes sake, 


You can see these older English bibles at this site here. It is very helpful.


http://studybible.info/Bishops/Matthew%2014:9



 

Check out Romans 10:1 "my HEARTS desire" (singular), which now is "my heart's desire". Then compare this with the plural in the 1611 of Psalms 81:12 "He gave them up to their own HEARTS lust", which is now "he gave them up to their own hearts' lust".


Can you see that they did not use apostrophies in either the singular or the plural? The singular and the plural possessive both looked the same. This is how it was done in 17th century English. We find the same thing in the following English Bibles: Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, The Great Bible 1540, Matthew' Bible 1549, the Bishops' Bible 1568, and the Geneva Bible of 1599.


Matthew 13:15 "this peoples heart is waxed gross", which is now "this people's heart is waxed gross" (singular possessive). Then compare it to the plural in Revelation 10:11 "prophesy before many peoples" - it has the same form in the 1611 printing. This is also true of Tyndale, the Bishops' Bible and the Geneva Bible.


Then we have the priest's and the priests' (singular possessive and plural possessive), but in the 1611 they look the same. In Luke 1:9 we read "according to the priest's office" - singular, but the 1611 has "according to the priests office". Likewise the same is true of Tyndale, Bishops' and the Geneva English Bibles of that era.


Then we have the plural in Joshua 4:3 "the priests' feet" - plural, but the 1611 has "the priests feet".


Secondly, there are many Greek words that are plural in form yet are correctly rendered as a singular in English. In fact, right here in Matthew 14:6 the word "birthday" is in the plural, yet all the versions render it as a singular.


Other examples of plural nouns being translated as a singular are: heaven - Mat. 6:11; Sabbath day - Mat.12:1, 11; water - Mat. 14:29; bread - Mat. 16:7; a marriage - Mat. 22:2; heart - Mat. 18:35 (NKJV, NIV, NASB); fruit - (NKJV, NIV, NASB, ESV); a fever - Acts 28:8; my will - Acts 13:22; blood - John 1:13; time - 1 Tim. 2:6; door - James 5:9; conversation (conduct); godliness - 2 Peter 3:11; and incense - Rev. 8:3, just to name a very few of the many examples that could be given.


Thirdly, the King James Bible is not the only one that correctly saw that there was ONLY ONE OATH taken by Herod on this occasion and translated it as a singular. 


The following Bible translations also translated it as a singular: Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, Bishop's Bible 1568, the Douay-Rheims 1582, the Geneva Bible 1587 - "because of THE OATH", The Beza N.T. 1599 -"because of THE OATH", Mace's New Testament 1729, Wesley's 1755 translation, Worsley N.T. 1770, Haweis N.T. 1795, Thomson Translation 1808, Webster's 1833, The Living Oracles 1835, Julia Smith Translation 1855, Sawyer N.T. 1858, Anderson N.T. 1864, The Twentieth Century N.T. 1901 - "on account of HIS OATH",  Weymouth 1902 -"because of his repeated OATH", The Moffatt N.T. 1936, Williams N.T. 1937, The New Berkeley Version 1969, the New English Bible 1970, The Living Bible 1971, New Century Version, The Revised English Bible 1989, Good News Translation 1992, God's Word Translation 1995, Contemporary English Version 1995, Today's English Version, The New Living Translation 1998, World English N.T. 1998, the KJV 21st Century Version, Green's Modern KJV 1998, Third Millennium Bible 1998, The Tomson N.T. 2002 -"because of THE OATH", New Century Version 2005, Dan Wallace's NET version 2006 "because of HIS OATH", the 2001 Easy to Read Version 2006 -"his promise", The Mebust Bible 2007 "on account of HIS OATH", The Jubilee Bible 2010 "because of THE OATH", The Common English Bible 2011 - "because of his solemn pledge", Names of God Bible 2011, The Voice 2012, Modern English Version 2014 "for the oath's sake", New International Reader's Version 2014, New Living Translation 2015 - "because of THE VOW", The International Children's bible 2015 -"his promise", The Last Days Bible 2016,  The New Matthew Bible 2016 - "because of HIS OATH", The Passion Translation 2017 - "because of HIS OATH" 


Foreign Language Bibles = KJB 


Spanish Reina Valera 1909, 1960 and 1995 “pero a causa del juramento”, the French Ostervald 1996, and the 1999 La Bible du Semeur  -”cause de son serment”; the Portuguese Almeida, and the 2000 O Livro  - “por causa do juramento”; the Italian New Diodati 1991, and the 1997 La Parola e Vita  “a causa del giuramento”,  Luther’s German bible 1545.

 

 The King James Bible is ALWAYS right. God, in His sovereign providence, has given to the English speaking people His perfect words, and they are found in all their glory only in the Authorized King James Holy Bible.

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."


Will Kinney

Return to Articles - http://brandplucked.webs.com/kjbarticles.htm

 

 


Matthew 14:9 - for the oath's sake

Another alleged "error" bits the dust.

Gary Hudson, who is a rabid anti-KJB only critic with NO inerrant Bible to give to anybody, criticizes the KJB saying: “Matthew 14:9. “oaths” (NKJV); “oath’s sake” (KJV). Gk. has the plural as did the original 1611 KJV (“othes”). The post-1611 publishers misplaced the apostrophe, and this remains uncorrected in every printing of the KJV to this date.”

But is he right?  Not at all, as we shall soon see.


Matthew 14:9 KJB - "And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the OATH'S sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her."

The original printing of the 1611 had: "for the othes sake, and them which sate with him at meate"


Gary Hudson, along with other KJB critics, sees an "error" where none exists. If he had bothered to read the text carefully, he would have noticed that there was ONLY ONE OATH.

In Matthew 14:6-7 we read: "But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised WITH AN OATH to give her whatsoever she would ask."

The specific oath Herod swore is not mentioned in Matthew, but we do find it in Mark 6. There in verse 22-23 we read: "And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom."

Then in Mark 6:26 we read the same thing in the King James Bible, where the plural is properly rendered as a singular: "And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his OATH'S sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her."

The original 1611 printing has the same thing here as in Matthew 14:9. It says: "yet for his othes sake, and for their sakes which sate with him, hee would not reject her."

There was only ONE OATH, yet the same oath was, after a fashion, repeated, as we see in Mark 6:22-23.

It is important to note that BOTH the singular and plural POSSESSIVES LOOKED THE SAME in the first printing of the King James Bible, and in other early English Bible versions as well. The English language DID NOT USE apostrophes like we do today. The rules for spelling English words were not well established in 1611 nor even in the 1800's. Educated men like Lewis and Clark would often spell many words and names in a variety of ways.


You can find a lot of this information  in a book put out by The Bible For Today.  www.BibleForToday.org


The book is called The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1611) Its Subsequent Reprints And Modern Representatives.

It was put together by Scrivener.

As for Matthew 14:9 – “the othes sake” vs. “the oath’s sake” the KJB did not really use apostrophes until around 1762 and more were introduced in 1769 (Scrivener page 152 footnote) On page 186 he tells us that this was changed to "oath's sake" in 1762.

This information seems to be correct. I checked a few places where we now have apostrophes, and in the earlier printings they were not included. 

For example, in Matthew 8:14 we read: "he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever." But the 1611 printing has "see saw his wives mother laid, and sicke of a fever."

This seems to have been very common in all English bibles of this period. I also have a hard copy reprint of the Geneva bible 1599 edition, and in Matthew 8:14 it also has "his wives mother"

The Bishop's bible has "he sawe his wyues mother layed, and sicke of a fever"


If we look at Matthew 14:9 in earlier English bibles, we will see the same thing.

The Great Bible 1540 - Neuerthelesse, for the othes sake

Tyndale 1524 - Neverthelesse for his othes sake

The Bishops' bible 1568 - Neuerthelesse, for the othes sake, 

You can see these older English bibles at this site here. It is very helpful.

http://studybible.info/Bishops/Matthew%2014:9

 

Check out Romans 10:1 "my HEARTS desire" (singular), which now is "my heart's desire". Then compare this with the plural in the 1611 of Psalms 81:12 "He gave them up to their own HEARTS lust", which is now "he gave them up to their own hearts' lust" .

Can you see that they did not use apostrophies in either the singular or the plural? The singular and the plural possessive both looked the same. This is how it was done in 17th century English. We find the same thing in the following English Bibles: Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, The Great Bible 1540, Matthew' Bible 1549, the Bishops' Bible 1568, and the Geneva Bible of 1599.

Matthew 13:15 "this peoples heart is waxed gross", which is now "this people's heart is waxed gross" (singular possessive). Then compare it to the plural in Revelation 10:11 "prophesy before many peoples" - it has the same form in the 1611 printing. This is also true of Tyndale, the Bishops' Bible and the Geneva Bible.

Then we have the priest's and the priests' (singular possessive and plural possessive), but in the 1611 they look the same. In Luke 1:9 we read "according to the priest's office" - singular, but the 1611 has "according to the priests office". Likewise the same is true of Tyndale, Bishops' and the Geneva English Bibles of that era.

Then we have the plural in Joshua 4:3 "the priests' feet" - plural, but the 1611 has "the priests feet".

Secondly, there are many Greek words that are plural in form yet are correctly rendered as a singular in English. In fact, right here in Matthew 14:6 the word "birthday" is in the plural, yet all the versions render it as a singular.

Other examples of plural nouns being translated as a singular are: heaven - Mat. 6:11; Sabbath day - Mat.12:1, 11; water - Mat. 14:29; bread - Mat. 16:7; a marriage - Mat. 22:2; heart - Mat. 18:35 (NKJV, NIV, NASB); fruit - (NKJV, NIV, NASB, ESV); a fever - Acts 28:8; my will - Acts 13:22; blood - John 1:13; time - 1 Tim. 2:6; door - James 5:9; conversation (conduct); godliness - 2 Peter 3:11; and incense - Rev. 8:3, just to name a very few of the many examples that could be given.

Thirdly, the King James Bible is not the only one that correctly saw that there was ONLY ONE OATH taken by Herod on this occasion and translated it as a singular. 


The following Bible translations also translated it as a singular: Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, Bishop's Bible 1568, the Douay-Rheims 1582, the Geneva Bible 1587 - "because of THE OATH", The Beza N.T. 1599 -"because of THE OATH", Mace's New Testament 1729, Wesley's 1755 translation, Worsley N.T. 1770, Haweis N.T. 1795, Thomson Translation 1808, Webster's 1833, The Living Oracles 1835, Julia Smith Translation 1855, Sawyer N.T. 1858, Anderson N.T. 1864, The Twentieth Century N.T. 1901 - "on account of HIS OATH",  Weymouth 1902 -"because of his repeated OATH", The Moffatt N.T. 1936, Williams N.T. 1937, the New English Bible 1970, The Living Bible 1971, New Century Version, Good News Translation 1992, God's Word Translation 1995, Contemporary English Version 1995, Today's English Version, The New Living Translation 1998, World English N.T. 1998, the KJV 21st Century Version, Green's Modern KJV 1998, Third Millennium Bible 1998, The Tomson N.T. 2002 -"because of THE OATH", New Century Version 2005, Dan Wallace's NET version 2006 "because of HIS OATH", the 2001 Easy to Read Version 2006 -"his promise", The Mebust Bible 2007 "on account of HIS OATH", The Jubilee Bible 2010 "because of THE OATH", The Common English Bible 2011 - "because of his solemn pledge", Names of God Bible 2011, The Voice 2012, Modern English Version 2014 "for the oath's sake", New International Reader's Version 2014, New Living Translation 2015 - "because of THE VOW", The International Children's bible 2015 -"his promise", The Last Days Bible 2016,  The New Matthew Bible 2016 - "because of HIS OATH", The Passion Translation 2017 - "because of HIS OATH" 


Foreign Language Bibles = KJB 


Spanish Reina Valera 1909, 1960 and 1995 “pero a causa del juramento”, the French Ostervald 1996, and the 1999 La Bible du Semeur  -”cause de son serment”; the Portuguese Almeida, and the 2000 O Livro  - “por causa do juramento”; the Italian New Diodati 1991, and the 1997 La Parola e Vita  “a causa del giuramento”,  Luther’s German bible 1545.

 

 The King James Bible is ALWAYS right. God, in His sovereign providence, has given to the English speaking people His perfect words, and they are found in all their glory only in the Authorized King James Holy Bible.

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Will Kinney

Return to Articles - http://brandplucked.webs.com/kjbarticles.htm