The 21st Century King James Version is a minor update of the King James Version. However, unlike the New King James Version, it does not alter the language significantly from the 1611 version, retaining Jacobean grammar (including "thee" and "thou"), but it does attempt to replace some of the vocabulary which no longer would make sense to a modern reader.
An example from Ezra 9:3
|
King James Version |
...and sat down astonied. |
|
21st Century King James Version |
....and sat down stunned. |
Another example from the Gospel of Luke 11:27
|
King James Version |
...the paps which thou hast sucked". |
|
21st Century King James Version |
....the breasts which thou hast sucked". |
The 21st Century King James Version is also known for its formatting. Passages considered "more familiar" are in bold print, while "less familiar" passages are placed in a sans-serif print. Passages from the Revised Common Lectionary are marked with diamonds, and the translations of names are sometimes included with brackets.
The 21st Century King James Version has also been released in an edition with the Apocrypha and without the unusual formatting; this is known as the Third Millennium Bible.
Famous quotes containing the words century, king, james and/or version:
“And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men too, when they, at their birth, have grey hair on their temples.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)
“This was the merriest old man that we had ever seen, and one of the best preserved. His style of conversation was coarse and plain enough to have suited Rabelais. He would have made a good Panurge. Or rather he was a sober Silenus, and we were the boys Chromis and Mnasilus, who listened to his story.... There was a strange mingling of past and present in his conversation, for he had lived under King George, and might have remembered when Napoleon and the moderns generally were born.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act as we should if we did believe it to be true.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I should think that an ordinary copy of the King James version would have been good enough for those Congressmen.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)