If not one “jot” or “tittle” could be changed, which KJV?

VPP advocates face a devastating logical problem when confronted with the KJV’s textual history: they cannot coherently identify which edition is “preserved” without abandoning their core doctrine.

The KJV that most modern advocates use looks dramatically different from the 1611 original, with changes affecting both wording and form over time.[1] Between the 1762 Cambridge and 1769 Oxford editions, nearly 24,000 alterations were introduced, including around 1,500 significant textual changes beyond mere spelling and punctuation.[2] These weren’t trivial cosmetic updates—they include substantive shifts like “Thou art Christ” becoming “Thou art the Christ” (Matthew 16:16), “seek good” becoming “seek God” (Psalm 69:32), and “approved unto death” becoming “appointed unto death” (1 Corinthians 4:9).[1]

The trap closes on VPP doctrine here: advocates claim verbal, plenary preservation of the Bible’s words, yet they don’t actually take their own standard literally—if not one “jot” or “tittle” could be changed, they should insist on the 1611 edition alone, since spelling changes certainly involve jots and tittles.[3] Moreover, if preservation is absolute, they should also accept the Apocrypha, which was part of the original 1611 printing.[3]

For those asserting the KJV’s absolute inerrancy, the question becomes acute: which KJV? These textual changes present a sticky problem for radical KJV-Only proponents, who cannot determine the “right” reading when the English translation is made the absolute standard—a route that forecloses recourse to the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.[1] VPP collapses under its own weight: preservation cannot simultaneously apply to an unstable, repeatedly revised English translation while maintaining the doctrine’s theological coherence.

[1] James R. White, The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust Modern Translations? (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2009), 124–125.
[2] Ray E. Clendenen and David K. Stabnow, HCSB - Bible Translation: Navigating the Horizons in Bible Translations (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2013). [See here, here.]
[3] William W. Combs, “The Preservation of Scripture,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 5 (2000), 5:21–22.