It appears that many seem to think so. In a report, of the top ten study Bibles purchased, the King James Version did not even place. [The NKJV was sixth]. The versions which occupied the other nine positions were unreliable “thought translations.”
Of the general translations, KJV was second and NKJV was third. However, that version which was the best seller was the “thought translation,” NIV.
A reliable version is a version that is a “word for word” translation. Such a version strives to give us the English equivalent to the original Greek words which God selected (1Cor. 2:13). However, “thought translations” merely give us that which the translating committee THINK God means. But, if the translating committee “thinks wrong,” then we do not have God’s Word—we have man’s! And when one follows man’s teachings, he follows in vain, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mat. 15:9).
The warning to refrain from adding to and taking away applies to Bible translators too (Rev. 22:18-19)!! God said, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2). When a translator “mis-thinks” what God means, then, as he writes his translation, he will either be adding to or taking away from what God is commanding, and the reader is not able to “keep the commandment of Jehovah.”
May we as members of the Lord’s church be aware of this trend and infiltration of non-word-for-word translations (Deut. 4:2; Mat. 5:18; 1 Cor. 2:13; Rev. 22:18,19). It is sadly getting (rather, has gotten) to the point that, not only do we have to help people who are mislead to see what the Word of God says, we also have to help people see what the Word of God is.
Gary Henson