Prepare for your first meeting
Bring a KJB, a notebook and access to the linked sources. One person can open the sources for the group. No Greek, Hebrew or previous course is required.
This course presents the KJB-preservation position openly. It also teaches you to answer the strongest objections accurately. The goal is understanding and a checkable answer, not a score.
Print all four lessons and leader notes, or save them as a PDF. The ruled answer spaces appear in print. Browser notes below save only on this device; they do not sync to other phones or computers.
A simple meeting rhythm
- 5 minutes · Opening question
- 10 minutes · Read the passages aloud
- 10 minutes · Work through the teaching and sources
- 15 minutes · Pair activity and discussion
- 5–20 minutes · Record your answer and next step
Has God preserved His Word?
By the end: Explain the Bible’s promise of preservation, then identify the historical questions involved in the KJB claim.
1. Begin with a question
Ask each person: when two Bibles differ, what would help you trust the words you are reading? Write the answers before discussing them.
2. Read the Bible together
Psalm 12:6–7; Isaiah 40:6–8; Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23–25 · KJB ↗
Read the surrounding passage, not only the disputed words. Let each person name one observation before offering an interpretation.
3. Work through the teaching
The Perfect Bible’s position is that God has preserved His Word and that the King James Bible faithfully gives that Word to English readers. Start with what Scripture says about God’s enduring Word. Then distinguish that promise from the historical work of tracing Hebrew and Greek texts and the English translation. A promise is the foundation of the case; naming a particular English edition also calls for evidence.
Open this lesson’s evidence and source links →4. Put it into practice
Work in pairs. Make two columns: “The passage says” and “The historical case must show.” Put the enduring Word in the first column. Put the received texts, translation work and the transmission of readings in the second. Open the preservation study and find a source relevant to the second column.
5. Discuss and explain
- In Isaiah 40, what fades and what stands? How does Peter apply that contrast?
- What do these passages say about God’s Word that they do not say about the date 1611?
- How would you explain the difference between inspiration, preservation and translation in ordinary language?
- What evidence connects the KJB to the preserved Hebrew and Greek texts? Which part of that chain should we examine next?
Leader’s guide: observations and cautions
Expected observations: people and grass are temporary; God’s Word endures; Jesus gives His words lasting authority. None of these passages names an English translation. Do not pretend that they do. Explain the KJB position clearly, then let the historical studies supply its further reasons. Read Psalm 12:5–8 together and acknowledge that the referent of “them” in verse 7 is debated.
Before the next meeting
Read the preservation study. Bring one source supporting the KJB case and one question you cannot yet answer. Learn Matthew 24:35 and explain its promise in your own words.
Memory passage: Matthew 24:35 · KJB ↗
Your session notes
Our answer and supporting source:
The strongest challenge:
Our next step:
What kind of Bible difference are we looking at?
By the end: Distinguish English translation choices from differences in the underlying text, and document an edition accurately.
1. Begin with a question
Ask: is changing an English word the same as removing a whole sentence? Collect examples without guessing a translator’s motive.
2. Read the Bible together
John 1:1–18; Acts 8:26–40 · KJB ↗
Read the surrounding passage, not only the disputed words. Let each person name one observation before offering an interpretation.
3. Work through the teaching
Two versions may use different English words for a similar source reading. They may also translate different underlying readings. Those are different questions. Acts 8:37 gives a concrete example: the KJB prints the confession in the passage while the NIV 2011 records it in a footnote. A footnoted verse has not vanished from every part of the edition. It has lost its place in that edition’s main text, which is itself worth examining.
Open this lesson’s evidence and source links →4. Put it into practice
Give each pair Acts 8:36–38 in the KJB and the linked NIV edition. Record the reference, version, edition/year, main text and footnote separately. Read the KJB verse aloud in the scene. Then describe the modern edition’s treatment without using the words “all modern Bibles.”
5. Discuss and explain
- What does the Ethiopian ask, what answer does the KJB print, and what happens next?
- Is this difference only a change in English vocabulary? Explain why.
- What does a footnote preserve, and what does it change about normal reading of the passage?
- What would we need to know before making a claim about why a translator chose a reading?
Leader’s guide: observations and cautions
Keep the exercise on observable words first. A correct record names the edition, identifies the main-text omission and acknowledges the note. Do not treat the NIV as a stand-in for every modern version. The translators’ preface is a primary source for their aims; it is not a substitute for examining a particular disputed verse.
Before the next meeting
Choose one other passage from the comparison page. Complete the same five-part record and read the surrounding paragraph. Bring a question about the underlying text.
Memory passage: 2 Timothy 2:15 · KJB ↗
Your session notes
Our answer and supporting source:
The strongest challenge:
Our next step:
How do we test a historical witness?
By the end: Use a manuscript and an early Christian quotation without claiming more than either can prove.
1. Begin with a question
Ask: does the oldest surviving copy necessarily contain the oldest reading? Does a later copy necessarily preserve a late reading? Explain why neither shortcut is enough.
2. Read the Bible together
Read the surrounding passage, not only the disputed words. Let each person name one observation before offering an interpretation.
3. Work through the teaching
The KJB includes Mark 16:9–20. Irenaeus quotes material from the longer ending in a work from the second century. That is significant evidence that the ending was known early. The study also sets out the serious challenge from Greek witnesses that end at 16:8. We must account for both. The date a writer composed a work and the dates of the copies through which that work survives are distinct facts.
Open this lesson’s evidence and source links →4. Put it into practice
Form two teams for a fair evidence exercise. One presents the reason for retaining the ending using Irenaeus; the other presents the manuscript challenge using the linked study. Each team must restate the other’s evidence accurately before giving its response. Write a source card: author/object, date, exact claim, link and limitation.
5. Discuss and explain
- Which words from Mark’s longer ending does Irenaeus use? Open the source and locate them.
- What does that quotation establish about the ending’s early circulation? What does it not establish by itself?
- Why must a KJB defence address the Greek witnesses that end at verse 8?
- What additional evidence would help distinguish an early ending from an early expansion?
Leader’s guide: observations and cautions
The aim is an argument that survives checking, not a contest won by confidence. The early quotation challenges the claim that the ending is a very late invention. It does not make the manuscript difficulty disappear. Use the study’s linked records for dates, and avoid inventing a complete chain of lost copies.
Before the next meeting
Write a 100-word defence of retaining the ending. Include one checkable source and the strongest challenge. Ask another person to check whether you represented the challenge fairly.
Memory passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 · KJB ↗
Your session notes
Our answer and supporting source:
The strongest challenge:
Our next step:
Give a clear answer about a disputed verse
By the end: Present a short, sourced KJB answer and identify what remains to investigate.
1. Begin with a question
Ask: what makes an answer trustworthy when the listener does not already agree? Discuss clarity, a checkable source and a fair statement of the difficulty.
2. Read the Bible together
1 John 5:6–12; Acts 17:10–12; 1 Peter 3:15 · KJB ↗
Read the surrounding passage, not only the disputed words. Let each person name one observation before offering an interpretation.
3. Work through the teaching
The KJB names the heavenly witnesses in 1 John 5:7–8. Older Latin use shows that the wording was not invented by the KJB translators. The scarcity of support in early Greek copies is a separate, serious objection. The full case lets you trace those records. Defend the reading with its actual evidence; do not claim that the shorter edition has no verses 7 and 8, or that this one difference proves every question about a translation.
Open this lesson’s evidence and source links →4. Put it into practice
Write a four-part answer: the exact difference; the strongest evidence for the KJB reading; the strongest challenge; the next source to check. Give the answer in 60 seconds to a partner. The partner opens one cited source and identifies whether it supports the claim. Revise the answer if it does not.
5. Discuss and explain
- What is the difference between showing that the longer wording is old and showing that John originally wrote it?
- Can you state the Greek-manuscript challenge in words an informed opponent would recognize?
- Which primary record or published study best supports the particular claim you are making?
- What can we explain confidently now, and what further work belongs in our notes?
Leader’s guide: observations and cautions
A strong answer is specific and sourced. For this passage, distinguish the Latin record, the disputed interpretation of Cyprian and the surviving Greek record. Keep the discussion on the words and their transmission. No participant’s faith is scored by whether they can resolve a difficult historical question.
Before the next meeting
Finish your revised answer, share its source link with someone who asks, and choose the next guided study. Keep your unresolved question visible rather than filling the gap with an unsupported claim.
Memory passage: 1 Peter 3:15 · KJB ↗
Your session notes
Our answer and supporting source:
The strongest challenge:
Our next step: