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I have a KJV Bible and considering to use it to improve my English vocabulary, reading and writing skills. But, I'm not a Christian and also not so familiar with Western culture. I'm afraid that there may be some issues during learning, such as the difficulty in understanding its content and the some Bible vocabulary words or sentences may be ancient English.

Any suggestions for me to take advantage of the Bible when learning English?

Nathan Tuggy
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ESL Bible Learner
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    Very interesting, but considering the King James Version is four centuries old, I'd recommend one of the newer versions. English has changed a lot since then. – Glorfindel Oct 09 '15 at 19:02
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    It is not a bad choice overall, because the Bible discusses a very wide variety of topics, so you will learn a lot of different words. Regardless of how devout of a Christian you are, however, you shouldn't make any assumptions about Western culture overall based on it -- Christianity is not as widespread as it used to be. – Crazy Eyes Oct 09 '15 at 19:17
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    I'd suggest Harry Potter, instead... very well written, but with much more modern writing. It also has a great mix of formal and informal, and is a cultural icon in most English speaking countries... – Jon Story Oct 09 '15 at 21:33
  • I have been doing the same with Spanish and the RVR version to supplement my learning. I haven't experienced real difficulty and having a parallel Bible is really handy too. In my case I went with NIV because it was the only English option. – shawnt00 Oct 10 '15 at 05:06
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    Verily, verily, I say unto thee learn not the tongue of the KJV lest ye be dismayed. – AllInOne Oct 09 '15 at 22:03
  • I wanted to write an answer here, considering I have done limited work learning a different language using a Bible myself, but it's already protected. Basically it depends greatly on the source you are using to read and the "master" in your language. Different Bible translations can be VERY different from the others in English. If your reference is say the KJV in English and you are using some other translation in Chinese or German or whatever the translation methodologies can be very different - this is going to be very confusing if you are using the Bible to learn to read! (cont) – enderland Oct 10 '15 at 21:38
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    For example, if you are reading an English Bible that is more literal or word for word and using a non-English Bible in your native language that is more thought for thought, it will be difficult to understand as your "master" reference will be different enough that it's confusing. – enderland Oct 10 '15 at 21:39

4 Answers4

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It's not a bad idea, and in fact there are some real advantages to learning from the KJV specifically, but there are some pitfalls too.

First, the advantages.

  • Bible translators (especially in English) generally are some of the most careful formal users of the language; it is very rare to find any errors or usages that could have been considered dubious at the time. So you won't be led astray by careless writers.
  • The Bible, especially the KJV, has shaped English culture and language for centuries in profound ways. Many idioms and patterns have become popular based on that, so in a real way, you'd be learning the basics of how the language developed.
  • As a Christian, I certainly can't discount the potential for spiritual learning as well.
  • Most of the specialized language in the KJV has made it out into the wider culture and kept much the same meaning, although there are exceptions, and not all of it is very widely-known these days.

Now, the problems. There's really only one big one.

  • The KJV is old. It's been four centuries since it was first written, and the revisions since then have mostly been relatively minor. (There are exceptions that have made larger changes, but those aren't called the KJV anymore.) So the language it uses has been kind of left behind. In particular, some very basic things like personal pronouns have been radically changed since it was written.

Instead, I'd suggest an alternative: the New King James Version. This version keeps nearly all of the cultural artifacts of the KJV — the turns of phrase, terminology, and rhythms — while updating the rest to fit modern English patterns better. (It's also a more accurate translation, but that's another story.)

As long as you keep two things in mind, you should be able to learn a good deal from it:

  • The formality of the Bible. This isn't exactly the sort of language used at the beach or the mall.
  • One of the hallmarks of great literature is that you gain a lot from re-reading. Don't expect to get it all on the first read through, by any means.
Nathan Tuggy
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    Great answer, going to post an answer to compliment this which I believe will address the valid "cons" you list. –  Oct 09 '15 at 19:38
  • I didn't realize there was an updated version of the KJV. I'm terribly curious: does it still use know/knew in the... "Biblical" sense? – G. Ann - SonarSource Team Oct 09 '15 at 19:43
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    @G.Ann-SonarSourceTeam: That's a pretty sketchy thing to ask about >_>. But yes, it does. – Nathan Tuggy Oct 09 '15 at 19:44
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    You're right @NathanTuggy. But it's actually usages like that that would keep me from recommending the KJV for an ELL. After all, use it in that sense in conversation, and you will likely get either very odd or very blank looks in return. – G. Ann - SonarSource Team Oct 09 '15 at 19:48
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    I can't even imagine how and why someone would use that in a conversation except discussing Adam and his wife having kids. :S –  Oct 09 '15 at 19:52
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    @G.Ann-SonarSourceTeam: Well, yes, if you're discussing whether Jeff and Sally have banged yet, no version of the Bible (or most other literature) will help much. For that, you'd turn to novels or magazines, possibly of the trashy romance variety. – Nathan Tuggy Oct 09 '15 at 19:57
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    Actually @TechnikEmpire it last came up for me when I was playing Boggle. So not conversation. But it still resulted in odd looks when I had to defend my word list. But imagine that you've correctly deduced the KJV meaning, and an acquaintance refers to someone as "a girl he knows"... Without context or a broader exposure to colloquial English, it could be... confusing. – G. Ann - SonarSource Team Oct 09 '15 at 20:00
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    @G.Ann-SonarSourceTeam okay I kind of see a bit of a point there, but I wouldn't hold your breath for a version of the bible that say "Adam got real busy with Eve in the sack and she started popping out kids like they were rabbits." A lot of what we learn and use as native speakers comes from experience, and we learn that way that words drastically change in context. –  Oct 09 '15 at 20:04
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    I guess my point is that if you're going to default to the Bible for learning English, I would pick anything other than the KJV - new or not. Good News: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+38&version=GNT vs NKJV: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+38&version=NKJV Seriously... "harlotry"? – G. Ann - SonarSource Team Oct 09 '15 at 20:21
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    For a more advanced learner I would add as a "pro" that the KJV was written about the same time as Shakespeare's plays, so learning one will help with understanding the other. – Readin Oct 10 '15 at 04:58
  • I agree with your points about the influence of the King James Bible on English-speaking cultures, but I think the primary influence has been the content rather than the phrasing. Learning the Bible, regardless of the version, will help a lot in understanding Western culture. I would recommend however the NIV (New International Version) as it uses modern language. (Actually the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, talks about people living in more primitive times with more basic ideas and thus I find it helps me understand people from all cultures.) – Readin Oct 10 '15 at 05:05
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    While I largely agree with this, I feel that there needs to be greater emphasis on the fact that the KJV is a rather poor translation of the Bible. Fantastic English prose, so like I said, I agree with this answer for this purpose, but it’s something that deserves some highlighting, particularly if it’s going to be cross-referenced with the (hopefully better) translation of the Bible in the reader’s native language for the purposes of learning. – KRyan Oct 10 '15 at 18:25
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Nathan posted a great answer, I just wanted to post a complementary answer with a photo (to illustrate) to address the valid points he's made about the possible downsides to using a KJV Bible alone. There are types of Bibles called Comparative Study Bibles which will have multiple translations side-by-side. These are great because many of the other translations are written in a modernized form, some of them are "paraphrased" translations which means they've changed the dialog to how it would be spoken today.

The paraphrased translations aren't well received by many Christians (in my experience) because as Nathan briefly touches on, we Christians are pretty serious about wanting to make sure things are translated correctly. However, to an ELL, they would be a fantastic resource for learning from old English, new English and paraphrased modern English side-by-side.

Example

Study Bible

If Finances Are A Barrier
Note that except in the U.K, the KJV Bible is public domain and you are free to download a copy of it (just google). There's also a modern version (updated version of American Standard Version I believe) called the World English Bible which was created specifically to be a free, public domain modern translation.

I would not endorse this as an "accurate" translation, but it is written in modern English. You can download it along with the KJV (wherever you find it) and compare them yourself rather than shelling out for a paperback Study Bible.

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    I don't believe the WEB is related to the NIV. I did check that out for my answer, although I'm not entirely convinced it's all that great in general; it combines contractions (good) with some odd sentence structures in e.g. John 1 (not so good). – Nathan Tuggy Oct 09 '15 at 20:03
  • @NathanTuggy Yeah I've never read it myself, except the odd passage where a post about it was tearing it up for removing things, which I didn't disagree with on a spiritual level. I was just posting about free copies of the Bible someone could legally get their hands on if finances were an issue. –  Oct 09 '15 at 20:06
  • @NathanTuggy you're right, it's based on ASV, not NIV. –  Oct 09 '15 at 20:07
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    While this is an interesting answer, I really feel that the mix of old and new English would be adding un-necessary complexity: English is tricky enough to learn as it is without trying to learn un-used language constructs etc – Jon Story Oct 09 '15 at 21:34
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    @Jon - I believe T.E. is saying that, if someone really wanted to study the KJV for some reason, the parallel translation would help the reader to decipher some of the harder-to-understand text. – J.R. Oct 10 '15 at 09:01
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The answers from Technik and Nathan are great covering most issues to consider, so I will not repeat what they have said.

The EasyEnglish Bible, is a translation created for people that are leaning English, it uses a very limited number of words, so someone can quickly learn enough English to understand it.

As a way of learning everyday English it is limited, but could be a great start along with a formal translation like the NIV or New King James and a paraphrase like the "Street Bible" (sometimes sold as “The Word on the Street” or The Message.

Studying the same passage from 3 such different versions will expose you to different ways of saying the same thing.

Luke’s Gospel along with the Book of Acts (also written by Luke, and often thought of as the 2nd part of his Gospel) would be a good place to start. Then look as some of the Psalms for a contrast.

The Bible Gateway is a website that allows you to look the same passage in lots of different versions.

Jasper
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Ian Ringrose
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No, I don't think that an English language learner would benefit from reading the KJV version of the Bible any more than he or she would from reading any other 400 year old work.

Without a strong personal reason for reading the book, the combination of antiquated writing, a lack of a coherent story line from book to book, and sections that can be extremely tedious (ex: the begats) could make wanting to read it more difficult. I personally find it boring and disjointed at best. You definitely don't want educational reading to feel like punishment.

If you're interested in reading something in general to improve your English, then I would strongly suggest finding something that fits your interests. If you're interested in world religions or have always wanted to read the book for some reason, then the Bible might be a reasonable choice, and there are numerous freely available modern translations that would be more appropriate for learning English. If you're not determined to read the Bible specifically though, there are any number of other books that are written in modern English and that are much more enjoyable to read.

If cost is an issue, you might try visiting Project Gutenberg, which offers a huge range of public domain books as free downloads. Most are roughly 100 years old, but the language of 100 years ago is far closer to today's language than the KJV, and people had figured out how to write quality novels by that point as well, so the reading is very enjoyable. Have a look at their most common downloads for suggestions.

Jason Patterson
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    Good answer, except the implication that it is generally disjointed and boring is purely subjective, personal opinion. You later sort of imply that this is subjective (based on your personal interest) but fall short of making that clear, and your personal opinion on how exciting the content is is the basis of your previously stated conclusion. –  Oct 11 '15 at 16:07
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    @TechnikEmpire Fair enough, edited to indicate that that is my opinion. Honestly, it's difficult to argue that the Bible has anything like a coherent narrative overall though. – Jason Patterson Oct 11 '15 at 16:18
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    Well the thing to remember is that it's a collection of dozens of books, not one, spanning thousands of years of history. It's certainly not arranged in a way where it's like following a novel cover to cover, but it is possible to connect most of it together. –  Oct 11 '15 at 16:40
  • @TechnikEmpire Indeed, and the person asking the question is not a Christian, so unless he or she is otherwise personally motivated to read the book for some purpose beyond ELL, that lack of a continuous story (beyond the OT being a history of the Jewish people and the NT being the history of Jesus and the foundation of the early church) might well prove a substantial barrier. This is in contrast to something like the Bhagavad Gita, which would also probably be terrible for learning English, but which has a narrative path that can be followed fairly easily. – Jason Patterson Oct 11 '15 at 17:01