Today is Bible Translation Day. Back in 1966, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators promoted a special day to honor the work of Bible translation. The US Congress proclaimed that Sept 30 of each year would be marked as Bible Translation Day. That special day is not marked on most calendars, but it is an officially recognized day set aside by Congress to highlight the importance of the work of Bible translation.

Today’s message will be rather different from normal. Normally, I speak from the Bible. But today, I’ll be speaking mostly about the Bible. It’s important for us to understand not only what the Bible says but also what the Bible is. And today, on Bible Translation Day, we are focusing on the value of translating the Bible.

Today we’ll be considering what we can learn from the preface to the original KJV of the Bible.

Way back in 1611, when the KJV was first printed, the translators included an 11-page preface titled “The Translators to the Reader.” You won’t find it in your edition of the KJV, but it was there originally. This preface was an explanation and a defense of their new translation. The preface also tells us some important things about the nature of Bible translation work.

This 11-page preface is rather difficult for us to wade through, and I’m not going to read it now. If you would like to read the Preface, you can easily find it on the Internet. I can send you a copy through email.

In this message, I’ll try to summarize some of the main points of the KJV Preface pertaining to Bible translations. I’m following the arguments that the translators use to explain and defend their new translation. This work gives us significant insight into the process of Bible translation. I hope we’ll get a better understanding of the purposes and goals of Bible translation.