Ecclesiastes 8:4 and KJV-Onlyism

One of the proof texts I have seen used to show that the King James Bible is God’s chosen English translation is Ecclesiastes 8:4. I cannot recall who taught me it, though you can see the verse used in this way at Jesus-Is-Lord.com.

Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? Ecclesiastes 8:4, KJV

The KJV Onlyist’s argument must be that since their preferred version is the King James Version, it must have power, having been authorized by a king.

The line of thinking that just because a king’s words have power makes their words right is a dangerous course to take. Hitler was for all intents and purposes a king, and his words certainly had power. But was he right in what he said?

The point of Ecclesiastes 8:4, in context, was that a king’s words are authoritative to those under him and therefore must be obeyed.

King James, so far as I know, did not order people to read only the translation he called for. He commissioned the translation, and those under him obeyed. That is the extent of the king’s power in regards to the King James Version, it would seem.

Another very huge gap in the KJV Onlyist’s logic would be that if it takes the order of a king to make an infallible, authoritative Bible translation, what did the English speakers use before King James was in power? What do non-English speakers read? Does every nation have a king-commissioned version in its own language to rally around?

If not, under what authority may we presume that God is biased toward the English peoples in giving us a king-commissioned, powerful Bible while leaving everyone else with imperfect versions?

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