As many of you know, I preach from the King James Version of the Bible. If any of you are interested in learning the basic reasons why, this little book should do it.
When I was working through these issues surrounding all this, lo, these many years ago, I read a boatload of material from all over—Ted Letis, John Burgon, Edward Hills, and others. I also asked a minister friend (one who was also a major Hebrew guy) for his best recommendation for a defense of the modern eclectic text, and he suggested Bruce Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, which I also read. My issues boiled down to three—the textual issues, the translation philosophy issues, and the copyright issues.
This small book addresses the first of these, the textual issues, and does so in a concise, informative, logical, and really helpful way. If anyone wants to obtain a primer on the history of the biblical text, this is the book they should start with. Not only is it a great introduction to this topic, it is an introduction that contains information I have never read anywhere else. For just one example, Watts includes some quotations from early church fathers that indicated that the autographs of New Testament books survived a lot longer than I had assumed, and were resorted to by the church.
If you care about textual issues at all (and you should), this book is a great place to start. I would suggest obtaining it now.
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