"Charity" in the KJV

[matthew11v25]

Curious, about the reason for using "Charity" in the KJV? From what I have heard the word "charity" was not even in use as a synonym for love when the KJV was first translated...is this true? and is it a better word than "love" as seen in most modern translations?

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

I think Tyndale uses love in 1 Cor. 13.

 

[etexas]

I read somewhere that this was chosen based on one translators use of a French edition. Or maybe I just dreamed that!

 

[Galatians220]

Yep, the 1599 Geneva uses "love" in 1 Cor. 13. (Several months ago, I bought the hard-copy, Tolle Lege Press edition that's pictured on another thread here. To my surprise, I've found it to be more than a little addicting - .)

 

[larryjf]

From Wikipedia

The use of the English word "charity" in this passage in the Authorized Version reflects the royal injunction to continue with the old "ecclesiastical" terminology; and derives from a change introduced in the 1572 edition of the Bishops' Bible. The first verse is nearly identical in all the versions, although the Authorized Version text is closest here to the Rheims New Testament; while the third verse preserves the wording of the Bishops' Bible almost unchanged. The second verse has been more thoroughly recomposed by the 1611 translators, but the vocabulary and the verbal tenses owe more to Rheims than either of the other two versions. Note too the deliberate stylistic alternation, where the same Greek expression is rendered "no charitie" in the second verse; compared to "not charitie" in the first and third verses.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Is the word "Charity" an error in the King James Bible?

Not only does the King James Bible use the word Charity, but so also do the following Bible versions:

The Wycliffe Bible translation of 1395. In fact Wycliffe used the word "charite" in place of "love" some 93 times throughout both Testaments.

Tyndale 1525 - "If thy brother be greved with thy meate now walkest thou not charitablye. Destroye not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed." Romans 14:15.

Bishop's Bible 1568 - "Charitie worketh no yll to his neyghbour, therfore the fulfyllyng of the lawe is charitie." Romans 13:10

"These are spottes in your feastes of charitie, whe they feast with you, without al feare feedyng the selues: cloudes they are without water..." Jude 1:12

"But if thy brother be greeued with thy meat, nowe walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not hym with thy meat, for whom Christe dyed." Romans 14:15

Coverdale's Bible 1535 and the Geneva Bible 1599, 1602 - Romans 14:15 "walkest thou not after charite"; Jude 12 "feasts of charite"

Mace's New Testament 1729 uses the word "charity" some 15 times, as in 1 Timothy 1:5 " such a charge will produce that charity, which arises from purity, from a good conscience, and a sincere belief."

Wesley's translation 1755 - "salute ye one another with a kiss of charity" 1 Peter 5:14.

Webster's 1833 translation used the word "charity" in place of "love" 24 times in his New Testament. "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

In addition to these earlier English Bibles that use the word "charity" to signify Christian brotherly love, we also have the Douay version of 1950, the KJV 21st Century, Green's Modern KJV 1998, the KJV 21st Century Version, and the Third millennium Bible.

J. P. Green's 1998 Modern King James Version often uses the word "charity" to describe Christian love for other believers. In the MKJV 1 Corinthians 13 reads:

1. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have prophecies, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and do not have charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I give out all my goods to feed the poor, and though I deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am profited nothing."

http://www.puritanboard.com/f63/KJV-translation-rules-20107/

 

[KMK]

Is the word "Charity" an error in the King James Bible?

Not only does the King James Bible use the word Charity, but so also do the following Bible versions:

The Wycliffe Bible translation of 1395. In fact Wycliffe used the word "charite" in place of "love" some 93 times throughout both Testaments.

Tyndale 1525 - "If thy brother be greved with thy meate now walkest thou not charitablye. Destroye not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed." Romans 14:15.

Bishop's Bible 1568 - "Charitie worketh no yll to his neyghbour, therfore the fulfyllyng of the lawe is charitie." Romans 13:10

"These are spottes in your feastes of charitie, whe they feast with you, without al feare feedyng the selues: cloudes they are without water..." Jude 1:12

"But if thy brother be greeued with thy meat, nowe walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not hym with thy meat, for whom Christe dyed." Romans 14:15

Coverdale's Bible 1535 and the Geneva Bible 1599, 1602 - Romans 14:15 "walkest thou not after charite"; Jude 12 "feasts of charite"

Mace's New Testament 1729 uses the word "charity" some 15 times, as in 1 Timothy 1:5 " such a charge will produce that charity, which arises from purity, from a good conscience, and a sincere belief."

Wesley's translation 1755 - "salute ye one another with a kiss of charity" 1 Peter 5:14.

Webster's 1833 translation used the word "charity" in place of "love" 24 times in his New Testament. "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

In addition to these earlier English Bibles that use the word "charity" to signify Christian brotherly love, we also have the Douay version of 1950, the KJV 21st Century, Green's Modern KJV 1998, the KJV 21st Century Version, and the Third millennium Bible.

J. P. Green's 1998 Modern King James Version often uses the word "charity" to describe Christian love for other believers. In the MKJV 1 Corinthians 13 reads:

1. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have prophecies, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and do not have charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I give out all my goods to feed the poor, and though I deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am profited nothing."

http://www.puritanboard.com/f63/KJV-translation-rules-20107/

Since Andrew did not post this quote from the KJV Translation Rules, I will:

Seventeen of the translators were to work at Westminster, fifteen at Cambridge, and as many at Oxford. Those who met at each place were divided into two companies; so that there were, in all, six distinct companies of translators. They received a set of rules for their direction.

The first instructed them to make the "Bishop's Bible," so called, the basis of their work, altering it no further than fidelity to the originals required…

Thanks, Andrew!

 

[matthew11v25]

Thanks...this is helpful.

 

[KMK]

From the OED:

The 16th century English versions from Tyndale to 1611, while rendering agape sometimes 'love', sometimes 'charity', did not follow the dilectio and caritas of the Vulgate, but used 'love' more often (about 86 times), confining 'charity' to 26 passages in the Pauline and certain Catholic epistles (not in 1 John), and the Apocalypse, where the sense is specifically...the Christian love of our fellow men; Christian benignity of disposition expressing itself in Christ-like conduct...In the Revised Version of 1881, 'love' has been substituted in all of these instances, so that it now stands as the uniform rendering of agape, to the eliminatioin of the distinction of dilectio and caritas introduced by the Vulgate, and of 'love' and 'charity' of the 16th c. versions.

It seems the AV translators had a method to their madness.

 

[Pilgrim]

From the OED:

The 16th century English versions from Tyndale to 1611, while rendering agape sometimes 'love', sometimes 'charity', did not follow the dilectio and caritas of the Vulgate, but used 'love' more often (about 86 times), confining 'charity' to 26 passages in the Pauline and certain Catholic epistles (not in 1 John), and the Apocalypse, where the sense is specifically...the Christian love of our fellow men; Christian benignity of disposition expressing itself in Christ-like conduct...In the Revised Version of 1881, 'love' has been substituted in all of these instances, so that it now stands as the uniform rendering of agape, to the eliminatioin of the distinction of dilectio and caritas introduced by the Vulgate, and of 'love' and 'charity' of the 16th c. versions.

It seems the AV translators had a method to their madness.

Indeed. But it is too often dismissed out of hand by those who claim the KJV is unusable today and those who want to counter the influence of misleading and irresponsible defenders of the KJV like Riplinger and Ruckman.