The King James Bible Companion

The King James Bible Companion by David W. Daniels is a small booklet with a single purpose: to define the words in the King James Bible that a modern reader is most likely to stumble over. In print it is meant to slip into the back of a Bible. The SwordSearcher edition, included by permission of the author, carries a copyright of 1999 and 2010 and defines 614 words.

Each entry is a word, a short definition, and a verse where the word is used in that sense. For example:

Careful. Full of care; full of worry, anxiety. Jer 17:8

Charity. Godly love in action. 1Co 8:1; 1Co 13-14

Conversation. Behavior; way of life; community. Ps 37:14

Prevent. Come before, go before; anticipate. 2Sa 22:6

Quick. Alive; living. Le 13:10

Wist, wot. Knew; thought; supposed. Ex 16:15

Where a word has more than one meaning, the entry gives the one that fits its use in Scripture rather than every sense the word can bear. The booklet also explains why the King James Bible keeps "thee" and "thou":

In almost every language but Modern English, people knew whether the speaker was addressing one person or many. In Classical English, this is preserved. If the speaker is talking to one person, he uses "thee" or "thou". If he is talking to many people, he says "you" or "your." The King James Bible preserves this distinction. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, He said, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again" (Joh 3:7). What He said in effect was, "Marvel not that I said unto thee (Nicodemus), ye (all of you people) must be born again."

The author's own summary of his position is on the title page: "It takes a single generation to make a word archaic... and a single generation of Bible readers can bring it back into use."

The Companion is deliberately brief. When a word needs more than a line, the library has two larger tools made for the same job: Wright's Bible Word-Book, which traces the older meanings of King James words through the literature of the period, and Webster's 1828 Dictionary, which defines English as it was still used two centuries after the translation. Together the three answer nearly any question a reader will have about the English of the Authorized Version.

Every verse reference in the Companion is linked, and since the entries are indexed by the verses they cite, the Verse Guide shows the entries that cite the passage you are reading. The whole list can also be searched by word.