Book Review: A Survey of the Authorized Version by Peter Ruckman

A Survey of the Authorized Version by Peter S. Ruckman
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I had the unfortunate experience of reading this book. For some background, I went to a KJV-Only Christian high school. I was required to memorize Scriptures from the KJV each week, often multiple Scriptures for multiple classes. I have a great respect for the KJV, and think that it is a good translation, all things considered.

As I was doing some research on the nature of Scripture, I decided to read other books that held perspectives that may be disregarded easily in discussion. The KJV-Only movement is one of those perspectives, and Peter Ruckman was one of the leading figures in promoting the KJV-Only perspective in the last several decades before his death in 2016. I expected that I would find some defense of the KJV-Only perspective that could be easily formed into a logical syllogism and analyzed for its logical soundness. I was wrong.

Rather than defending his position using some kind of logical argument, where evidence was presented to support his view, most of this book came across as an angry rant. Rather than dealing with some of the objections to his view that he raised in his book, he immediately brands those who object to his view as liars and, without providing much reason for this claim, quickly moves onto his next point, which was usually poorly defended. On at least two different occasions, he built a straw man out of his opponent's arguments rather than dealing with the objections themselves. On another occasion, he critiqued someone who objected to his view for not citing the original Greek and Hebrew (and, instead, citing the KJV) in a book that was written in English and was intended for an English-speaking audience. He then went on to cite this as evidence that his view was correct, because, to paraphrase Ruckman, if that man cited the KJV for a work in English rather than the original Greek and Hebrew, it must, of necessity, prove that the KJV is the only inspired translation. Not only is this a terrible argument logically, but it does an unspeakable amount of violence to the context of the person he is critiquing. After all, if I were writing this review for English speakers, how many of you would expect me to break out into Mandarin every time I made a reference to something Ruckman said? The logic doesn't follow, just as Ruckman's logic doesn't follow.

There were also some concerning statements made by Ruckman, particularly in regards to just how high he exalts the KJV. Near the end of the book, Ruckman argues that God has exalted the Scriptures (by which he means the KJV) even above Jesus, His Son. He cites a passage out of context to prove his point. He also makes the claim, near the end, that, while there is a difference between Jesus and Scripture (by which, again, he means the KJV), both Jesus and the Scriptures can save. At several points he offers personal attacks against those who would wonder if he is turning Scripture itself into an idol, despite the fact that he has made several claims like this, not only in this book, but in others, as well.

Overall, this book has provided more reason to avoid becoming KJV-Only than it has reason to believe in the KJV-Only position.

Tl;dr: Dr. Ruckman basically offers an angry rant without any logical substance, misuses Scripture in multiple places, offers personal attacks where a defense of his position was warranted, accuses those who disagree with him of purposely lying to people, and states in at least two places that the Scriptures (by which he means the KJV) is either on par with or greater than Jesus. And that is just the beginning. For more, see the full review.

View all my reviews