Yes, all the main versions dovetail together.
No, they don't; each of their respective copyrights are owned by
different men, proving, BY LAW, they are
different works.
It is a blessing to have them all. I am sad you do not see that. Your fear is almost palpable in your words, lawrenceb,
Ignorance of the facts is bliss, but only for a season...
There is no spiritual danger in reading any of them.
...then by your reasoning, it's ok to keep on reading that pornography under the mattress, eh?
What is dangerous is to spread the lie that the KJV is the only version anyone should use---as well as the poisonous lie that it is the only word of God!
Your blinded condition is treatable, but you'd have to WANT to know the truth to be truly set free. Some people can have all the truth in the world shown to them, but they still love their falsehoods more. The power of the lie is that strong.
When I post here, I don't preach to the crowd; I preach to the cloud, of witnesses. I pray that the scales will be removed from your and their eyes, that the truth would move them to repentance. Folks no longer know or understand what inspiration or preservation is.
People who do not speak English use versions translated in their own tongue, and where there are words foreign to their culture or experience, other words have been substituted---carefully and with guidance by Holy Spirit, such as a different word for snow for people to whom snow is a foreign thing...
The unbelieving pornographer and billionaire Rupert Murdoch did not invent his copyrighted NIV "carefully and with guidance by Holy Spirit."
If I can simplify this for the moment, it goes like this: God told us his word is pure, inspired and preserved, so the relevant question is this: Is what you have in your hands now the genuine article (i.e. do you have the scriptures)?
Regarding the "dialects" question, Spanish folks, for example, have the inspired word of God in their vernacular ("common") Bibles. Likewise, the Portuguese, German, French, etc. This has always been God's pattern: give the COMMON MAN the COMMON BIBLE in the COMMON LANGUAGE of the day to do one thing -- evangelize the world.
God has preserved His words through the broad flow of history. People today say, "How dare you King James-only people! You just want to force people to translate the KJV into other languages!" But look at the NIV: That perversion is being translated all over the world, and it is STILL the NIV! The NV in Spanish, for example, is not very different at all from the NIV. The Dutch, French and other versions are still NIVs! And the NIV is most definitely an English Bible.
So the question is not "Shall we translate the Bible from English into other languages?" The question is "Which Bible shall we use to translate God's words into the various languages of the world?" I know the King James Bible is God's preserved words in English. So my choice is made. May God help the translators of the world to use God's words, and not a perversion that will only bring them into judgment before our Almighty God.
Also, give one Bible verse that states that man-made lexicons and critical editions are an authority equal with or above the Holy Bible. One will be sufficient. There are no totally reliable Greek and Hebrew lexicons or dictionaries. Those who bind themselves to
any one printed, digital, or antiquarian edition are working in chains of their own forging. Why struggle? All lexicons and grammars which might interpret these editions are corrupt; the Holy Bible (KJB) is God's chosen words for the English speaker.
Again, God's pattern has always been the same. He has always given the COMMON MAN the COMMON BIBLE written in the COMMON LANGUAGE of the day to do one thing: evangelize the world. Today, that vernacular Bible is the
uncopyrighted, free discourse
King James Bible.