KJV Only ?

KJV Only adherents maintain that the King James Version is divinely inspired, error-free, and the sole legitimate English Bible translation, with all others being inferior.[1] This position rests on several foundational claims:

The Preservation Argument: KJV Only believers argue that God must have both inspired the original biblical texts and preserved them through careful copying across the centuries, ensuring trustworthy copies remain available.[2] They typically cite Psalm 12 as scriptural proof that God preserves His words.[2] The false claim here is that God’s preservation necessarily guarantees a single, perfect English translation rather than the original languages.

Rejection of Textual Criticism: KJV Only followers charge modern textual scholars with misplaced faith, arguing they rely on subjective human reasoning rather than trusting God’s preservation of Scripture.[2] They contend that decisions about which manuscript readings are authentic involve significant guesswork shaped by scholars’ training and theological bias.[2] This conflates legitimate scholarly methodology with unfounded skepticism.

Manuscript Claims: Scholars have pointed out that the King James Version contains errors and inaccuracies, and rests on outdated biblical manuscripts.[1] The KJV’s reliance on the Textus Receptus—a Greek text based on limited, late medieval manuscripts—represents a weaker textual foundation than earlier sources available today.

KJV Onlyism remains a minority position unsupported by mainstream biblical scholarship, which affirms the KJV’s value while recognizing other translations as legitimate.[1]

[1] Edward Andrews, How We Got the Bible (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2023). [See here, here, here.]
[2] Jason A. Hentschel, “The King James Only Movement,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America, ed. Paul C. Gutjahr, Oxford Handbooks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 233–234.