James White & Thomas Ross Debate Review #2: "King James Version Translators Prefer LSB to KJV / TR"?

James White's first argument in his King James Only debate with Thomas Ross was that (if they were alive today) the King James Version translators would prefer the Legacy Standard Bible to the King James Bible.

James White & Thomas Ross debated the topic: “The Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), as a representative of modern English translations based upon the UBS/NA text (the Greek New Testament printed by the United Bible Society, which is also the text of the Nestle-Aland), is superior to the KJV (King James Version), as a representative of TR-based (Textus Receptus or Received Text based) Bible translations.” This King James Only or King James Version Only (KJVO) or Confessional Bibliology debate took place on February 18, 2023.

This video is part two of a series of debate review videos by Thomas Ross of the arguments made by both sides of the debate. Dr. Thomas Ross provides debate background and then beings to examine Dr. James White's introductory 25 minute speech.

James White did not present an exegetical case for the type of textual criticism performed by the Nestle - Aland / United Bible Society Greek Text and adopted by the Legacy Standard Bible. In White's opening presentation he did not present an exegetical case. In fact, in James R. White, The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust Modern Translations? (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2009), the teaching on preservation of passages such as: Deuteronomy 4:2; 8:3; 12:32; 29:29; Psalm 119:89; Proverbs 30:5-6; Isaiah 59:21; Matthew 4:4; 5:18-19; Luke 16:17; John 10:35; 12:48; 17:8 & Revelation 22:18-19 is completely ignored. James White does not obtain his textual critical position and conclusions from Scriptural exegesis.
In response to James White's claim that the King James Version translators would support the LSB over the KJB, Thomas Ross demonstrates:

1.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators would want to remove the canonical ending and all resurrection appearances from Mark’s Gospel, so that the Good News according to Mark ends with the women, continually afraid, running away and saying nothing, based on the slimmest MS evidence.

2.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators would want to introduce many readings that deny the inerrancy of Scripture into their translation (Matthew 1:7; 10; Mark 1:2; 5:1; 6:22; Luke 3:33; 8:26 23:45; 1 Corinthians 5:1).

3.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators preferred a Textus Rejectus that was not used by God’s people and churches to the Textus Receptus received by the churches that they actually used.

4.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators would want to reject the reading in all Hebrew MSS and erase God’s covenant Name, “Jehovah,” from Scripture and replace it with something else.

5.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators would have been fine radically altering the model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 & Luke 11:2-4 or that they would have rejected their knowledge of the Greek NT and LXX to mistranslate “deliver us from evil” as “deliver us from the evil one.”

6.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators would want to eliminate “hell” from the Old Testament, eliminate the distinction between singular and plural pronouns (thee/ye), etc.

7.) James provides zero evidence that the KJV translators would have accepted a Hebrew and Greek text made by people who universally rejected the inerrancy of Scripture and included high Roman Catholic figures who submitted to the Council of Trent and whom the translators would have viewed as in league with the Papal Antichrist.

8.) James's claim about what the KJV translators would have done (were they alive today) is actually an example of what David Hackett Fisher’s Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York: Harper & Row, 1970) calls the “fallacy of fictional questions” (pgs. 15ff.). However, if we must indulge in historical fallacies, it is much more probable that they would all have rejected the LSB, the more high Anglican KJV translators embracing a position like that of Burgon and Scrivener and the more Puritan KJV translators embracing a position like that of Edward F. Hills.

Dr. Ross then points out from the writings of the head King James Version translator, Lancelot Andrewes, that James White's claims about the translators are specious. Lancelot Andrewes embraced Textus Receptus readings such as 1 Timothy 3:16; John 5:3-4 & 1 John 5:7, and the model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 & Luke 11:2-4, without any doubt about them whatsoever. Andrewes believed in the preservation of Scripture, writing: "Heaven and earth shall pass, but not one jot of this … law of God.” Dr. Andrewes denied that the LXX was the authority over the Hebrew Scriptures for New Testament Apostles like Matthew. As a strong Protestant, he believed that the Pope was the Antichrist and would not have rejected the Protestant Bible.

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