>>1505
This is one of those cases where if we let the Bible define its terms for us, we have no problem. If we attempt to impose our own definitions on words, like we want it to mean this or that, we start to have problems.
The word literally means what it means in the context of where it's given. If I say a word from the KJV, any word at all, I mean it in the way that it's used there. Hopefully that helps.
I should take a moment to note that our modern language and the original dictionaries of the English language were written on the basis that this, the King James version specifically, was the "accepted" translation. It was also the only one used until something like 1880 (the first Revised Version) at the earliest. What that basically means is that, for English, you always get the accurate translation of words just by referring back to it. It also means that you know you are referring to the same things that the Bible does in English by using its words. It's only when you start getting away from that, like the modern versions do, that you begin to get into trouble.
I would also say that any of the earlier versions that led up to the KJV, like the Geneva 1560 or Tyndale 1534 translation, are going to be fine 99% of the time. These earlier translations had less time and resources dedicated to making them perfectly reflect the received text as we know it, but they were made toward the same end. The main item of importance is that the translations were based on, and should reflect, the received Greek New Testament and the original Hebrew and Syriac Old Testament, that way you get the original books of the Bible as they were in the first century. By comparing the amount of research, energy and resources poured into each translation project leading up to the KJV, we see that nothing before 1611 compares to the minute attention to detail of every word, tense and sentence structure that the KJV translation does. This extra attention to detail has paid tremendous benefits in the long term to the English world. And until people started moving away from the Authorized version in the 20th century, we had the best understanding of the Bible because of it that it was possible to have. This is due to the overall accuracy of the 1611 translation to the received and preserved text that represents the written word of God.
You will also notice that a great moral decline is tied to the introduction of modern versions, especially moving into the mid to late 20th century. This is because people were moving away from the Bible that was accurate and trustworthy and heaping up to themselves teachers with itching ears, as it says in 2 Timothy 4:
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
These "fables" would be the modern versions, which contain thousands of deletions from passages throughout the Bible, including entire verses, especially in the New Testament. The Bible represents the one unchanging truth. It can't be changed, people. But as soon as people starting switching over to them, they started noticing all the errors and contradictions in those modern versions, and it led to a great falling away. They gradually lost interest in the Bible after finding all of the errors and inconsistencies in the modern versions. This was probably part of the great deceiver's plan all along. Going all the way back to the beginning, Satan has always tried to cause people to doubt whether God really said things, or whether it was actually something else.
But Christ assures us this is not possible. Hence He says in the Gospel of Matthew, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
And Peter says this about Scripture, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
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