The recently released Queen James Bible , according to its publishers, is a new version that is translated “in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.” Here is what they say on the Bible’s Amazon purchase page :
Homosexuality was first mentioned in the Bible in 1946, in the Revised Standard Version. There is no mention of or reference to homosexuality in any Bible prior to this—only interpretations have been made. Anti-LGBT Bible interpretations commonly cite only eight verses in the Bible that they interpret to mean homosexuality is a sin; Eight verses in a book of thousands!
“The edits,” say the Bible’s publishers, “all confirm that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, and therefore renders such interpretations impossible.”
While the King James Bible is the most popular English Bible, this new version, they argue, is truer to the man himself:
Commonly known to biographers but often surprising to most Christians, King James I was a well-known bisexual. Though he did marry a woman, his many gay relationships were so well-known that amongst some of his friends and court, he was known as “Queen James.” It is in his great debt and honor that we name The Queen James Bible so.
The publishers of this “big, fabulous Bible,” I might add, have remained anonymus, listing the author as God and the contributor as Jesus Christ.
In an interview with he Christian Post , Christopher Yuan, an adjunct instructor of the Bible at Moody Bible Institute, said that these ”revisionist interpretations which attempt to affirm homosexual sex and relationships have been around for decades. This is just another attempt to make these revisionist interpretations official or more mainline.”
Here’s are a few of examples (my emphasis):
Jude 1:7
King James Version:
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh , are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Queen James Version:
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after nonhuman flesh , are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Leviticus 18:22
KJV:
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.
QJV:
Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind in the temple of Molech : it is an abomination.
Romans 1:27
KJV:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another ; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
OJV:
Men with men working that which is pagan and unseemly. For this cause God gave the idolators up unto vile affections , receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
The Editor’s notes offer a full account of the changes made in the new translation along with the reasoning.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
