New King James Version(NKJV)
The King James's language modernized, without changing the underlying text it's translated from.
At a Glance
- Reading Level
- 7
- NT Textual Basis
- Textus Receptus
- Quote Limit
- 1,000 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 New King James Version is published by Thomas Nelson and was commissioned in 1975 under executive editor Arthur Farstad. More than 130 scholars, editors, and church leaders worked on it over seven years — one of the largest translation committees ever assembled for an English Bible — with the New Testament published in 1979, the Psalms in 1980, and the complete Bible in 1982, followed by a minor revision in 1984.
Rather than translating from scratch, the NKJV set out to update the King James Version's language while deliberately keeping the same underlying text — the Textus Receptus for the New Testament (part of the broader Byzantine tradition) and the Masoretic Text for the Old Testament — rather than the modern Critical Text most other contemporary translations use for the NT. In practice, that means modernizing the KJV's archaic pronouns (“thee,” “thou”) and verb endings (“-eth,” “-est”) while preserving much of its sentence structure and literary rhythm — and noting in the margin, rather than silently choosing, where both the Majority Text and the modern Critical Text differ from that base.
Its gender language stays traditional, consistent with the KJV it updates: generic masculine terms are translated as they appear in the original text, without inclusive alternatives.
The NKJV remains one of the top-selling English translations, especially popular among readers who love the King James's literary tradition but want its grammar and vocabulary in contemporary English.
Distinctives
- Commissioned in 1975 and produced by more than 130 scholars, editors, and church leaders — one of the largest translation committees ever assembled for an English Bible.
- Translated from the same Textus Receptus base as the original KJV, rather than switching to the modern Critical Text; the margins note where both the Majority Text and the Critical Text diverge from it.
- Modernizes the KJV's archaic pronouns (“thee,” “thou”) and verb endings (“-eth,” “-est”) while preserving much of its sentence structure and literary rhythm.
- Notes in the margin where the Majority Text and the modern Critical Text differ, rather than silently picking one reading.
- Capitalizes pronouns referring to God (“He,” “His,” “Him”) throughout — for reverence and to keep antecedents clear — a convention the KJV itself did not follow.
Good Fit For
- Readers who love the King James's tradition and cadence but want its archaic pronouns and verb endings modernized.
- Churches moving on from the KJV that want to keep the same underlying textual tradition rather than switching to the modern Critical Text.
- Personal reading and preaching for those who want a formal, literal translation with a more traditional feel than the ESV or NASB.
Worth Knowing
The NKJV's original executive editor, Arthur Farstad, later began the translation project that eventually became the Christian Standard Bible — though after his death in 1998, that project changed direction and moved to the modern Critical Text the NKJV had deliberately kept its distance from.
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 everlasting life.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.