Modern English Version(MEV)
An explicit update of the King James Version, re-translated directly from its Hebrew and Greek source texts rather than modernized word by word.
At a Glance
- Reading Level
- 11
- NT Textual Basis
- Textus Receptus
- Quote Limit
- 500 verses
- Red Letter Edition
- Red letter edition available: Yes
- Marks OT Quotations in NT
- Marks OT quotations in NT: No
- Italicizes Translator Words
- Italicizes translator-supplied words: Yes
- Capitalizes Deity Pronouns
- Capitalizes deity pronouns: Yes
- Quotation Marks for Dialogue
- Uses quotation marks for dialogue: Yes
Overview
The Modern English Version is an update of the King James Version, begun in 2005 under executive director James F. Linzey and drawing on translators from a range of Christian traditions. The New Testament was completed in 2011 and the Old Testament in 2014, when the complete Bible was published by Passio, an imprint of Charisma House.
The MEV's own FAQ describes it in direct terms as "an accurate and responsible update of the King James Version," using the KJV as its base manuscript — the same kind of project as the NKJV, in the same lineage. Where it differs is process: rather than modernizing the KJV's existing wording word by word, the committee re-translated the Masoretic Text and the Textus Receptus directly, using the KJV as the base and reference throughout — the MEV's own materials illustrate this with a sample verse run across Tyndale, the 1611 and 1769 KJV, the NKJV, and the MEV as one continuous chain of updates to the same text.
On gender language, the MEV keeps the KJV tradition's generic masculine wording, and, like the NKJV, capitalizes pronouns referring to God (He, His, Him) and italicizes words the translators added for clarity that have no direct equivalent in the underlying Hebrew or Greek — both classic King James-family conventions.
The MEV's own FAQ makes its place in the King James line explicit: it was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II specifically because, in the FAQ's own words, "it is an update of the Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, which was dedicated to His Royal Highness James I." Where it departs from a translation like the NKJV is in degree, not in lineage — retranslating the underlying Greek and Hebrew more freely (its FAQ walks through specific spots where it declines to translate a word the KJV did) rather than modernizing the KJV's own phrasing word by word.
Distinctives
- An explicit update of the King James Version — its own FAQ calls the KJV its "base manuscript" — arrived at by re-translating the Masoretic Text and Textus Receptus directly, rather than modernizing the KJV's existing wording word by word the way the NKJV does.
- Keeps classic King James-family conventions: capitalized pronouns for God and italicized translator-supplied words.
- Completed relatively recently (2014), making it one of the newest translations still working from the Textus Receptus rather than the modern Critical Text.
- Drew translators from a deliberately broad range of Christian traditions rather than a single denomination or seminary.
Good Fit For
- Readers who want the Textus Receptus and a formal, word-for-word style, but in fully contemporary English rather than the KJV's or NKJV's more archaic-adjacent phrasing.
- Congregations and readers with a KJV-tradition background who want a modern-language option that keeps the same underlying text.
- A second translation to compare against the NKJV, since both descend from the same textual tradition by different routes.
Sample Verse — John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Scripture quotations marked “MEV” are taken from the Modern English Version, copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.