Differences between KJV and NIV…

Ephesians 3:14-20

Below are the notes that I made. Some verses have not comments. In my original, I use different color fonts so that my comments are standing out from the two different color fonts for the bible verses, but here in this format, I do not yet know how to do that. It is a bit cumbersome to read, but my comments follow each NIV verse, if there are any…

Eph 3:14

¶KJV: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

NIV: For this reason I kneel before the Father,

Eph 3:15

KJV: Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

NIV: from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

Here, the NIV separates God’s people into separate families. We are one family in Christ, we are one Body of Christ, we are not separate families in Christ…

Eph 3:16

KJV: That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

NIV: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

“According to the riches of His Glory…” means a total different thing as opposed to: “…out of his glorious riches”. The latter uses glorious as an adjective modifying “Him”, while the former attributes the Glory to Him, as being a part of Him.

Eph 3:17

KJV: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

NIV: so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Eph 3:18

KJV: May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

NIV: may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Eph 3:19

KJV: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

NIV: and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The NIV eliminates the person of Christ here once again. Is this by plan? “The Love of Christ” is much more specific than “…to know this love..”.

KJV: Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

NIV: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

Personally, even though my old dictionary says there is no difference, for me the work “unto” carries more respect. “To Him I give my gift…” or “Unto Him, I give my gift…”, the latter carries more depth of meaning, especially regarding respect, authority, and the like.

The words “…exceeding abundantly..” carry such an enormous amount of quantity, that the word “immeasurably more” do not come close to carrying the full impact of the sentence.

These are all English words. Is it assumed that most people might know more easily what immeasurably more means than that of exceeding abundantly? I have always believed that the NIV is a dumbed down version. It limits the scope of God in so many ways, like the simple example above, by using a similar word as a different part of speech than the part of speech that the original uses.