Our Authorized Bible Vindicated

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Our Authorized Bible Vindicated – simplified summary

Our Authorized Bible Vindicated is a 1930 book by Benjamin G. Wilkinson, a Seventh-day Adventist scholar. It argues in favor of the King James Version (KJV) and supports the King James Only (KJO) position, claiming that many newer Bible translations come from corrupted or altered manuscripts.

What Wilkinson argues
- He says some modern Bible versions come from manuscripts with mistakes, deletions, or additions that affected the Septuagint and Greek New Testament texts.
- He blames editors like Origen in the Septuagint and later scholars such as Westcott and Hort for introducing corruptions.
- He favors the Textus Receptus as the basis for the New Testament and the Masoretic Text for the Old Testament, seeing these as more reliable than the Alexandrian sources.
- He asserts that the Old Latin version, not the Vulgate, was the medieval Bible used by Waldensians and that it aligns textually with the Textus Receptus.

Key ideas the book popularized
- The existence of two main textual streams: a “pure” Byzantine/Antiochian text and a corrupt Alexandrian text.
- The superiority of the Textus Receptus for the New Testament and the Masoretic Text for the Old Testament, which underlie the King James Version.
- The Old Latin as a historical link to the Greek Textus Receptus and to early Bible translations, including the paths that led to the KJV.

Influence and reception
- The book helped spread King James Only ideas in Protestant circles. Its arguments were later taken up by other writers, notably David Otis Fuller, and influenced discussions around which Bible translations to trust.
- It is often cited in debates about Bible versions, with both critics and supporters referencing its claims.

In short, Wilkinson’s Our Authorized Bible Vindicated argues that the King James Bible is preferable because it follows a more trustworthy set of manuscript sources, while many newer translations are the result of corrupted or altered texts.