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"The Word of God is Not Bound" by Anything, Even the Archaic Language

Published Date: 
July 7, 2006

When I saw it last year, it was blatantly displayed in a Dell Computer advertisement that appeared on CNN's homepage for a good number of days preceding Father's Day.  This year I saw it in the title of a Father's Day article in the Los Angeles Times on the 18th of June.  It was one of those "dreadfully" archaic words that the Bible scholars regularly cite as being so archaic and obsolete that few, if any, modern English speakers can understand it.  Not only did both use an archaic word, they both used it in a quote from a King James Bible--Honor thy father.

Apparently, many modern English speakers can understand the word thy and associate it with the word of God!  In the case of Dell Computers, their marketing staff wanted potential customers to associate purchasing a computer from them with obeying one of the Ten Commandments.  Therefore, they chose the words from a King James Bible.  If they had chosen the words from one of the new versions--honor your father--their customers would not have recognized or associated those words with the words of God!

Likewise, the Los Angeles Times' article used the King James Bible's words over all of the new version renderings to honor the father of one of the most respected men in all of sports, 95 year old John Wooden.  According to the article, Coach Wooden's father used to read the word of God to his children every night using an old coal lamp.   How appropriate to give the article a title connected to the scriptures and not one connected to "contemporary" English!

If these two examples prove anything, they demonstrate that the King James Bible's critics who deplore the archaic Elizabethan language such as thee , thou , thy , and thine and claim that these words hinder folks from understanding the scriptures are out of touch with reality.  In the real world, these words are associated with God, and His word and the renderings of the modern versions are simply reflections of the degeneration of the English language.

Karl Lohman

Daily Proverb

Proverbs 24:18

Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.