The History of the King James Bible and the People Called Baptist by William R. Byers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I could only give this book four generous stars. It well written and is more like reading the text of five sermons on the KJV and Independent Baptists than a literal history book. Throughout the book Byers continually refers to the KJV and the Textus Receptus as the perfect preserved Word of God: one in 17th century English and one in Greek. Byers is most definitely a King James Onlyist and brings that out on practically every page of the book. Some of his reasons for being such I can understand, but many of his reasons could just as easily be applied to the reader’s favorite Bible translation. Also, Byers views on the history he presents are most definitely slanted by his views on the TR vs all other Greek manuscripts. He has absolutely nothing good to say about these other manuscripts or the Bible translations based on them. In his reckoning they are ALL corrupt as are those who worked on those translations.
Over all it’s not a bad book and is easy to read, hence the four stars. However, it is heavily colored and slanted by the author’s own personal obsessions. Not a bad book if you’re just looking for a quick read, but if you are looking for an objective view of the subject matter you won’t find it here.
This book is $6.00 from Church Bible Publishers. I didn’t see it listed on Amazon.com.
J Barron Owens 