The 1611 KJV vs. Thompson Chain: What’s the Difference?
If you’re a Bible scholar, then you’ll know the differences between the King James Version and the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible. People utilize both for biblical study, but each book follows different structures. Each also has different followings, as people often see the 1611 King James Version as the standard and the Thompson as just another reference Bible. So between the 1611 KJV versus the Thompson Chain, what’s the difference? There has to be reasonable, definitive support as to why people study the two so closely.
The 1611 as English Rhetoric
Before King James VI came to the throne, there was a huge uproar in England about the national religion. The predominant Bible to have survived from this era was the Geneva Bible, which Martin Luther had worked hard to establish all throughout Europe after the Reformation. He had succeeded in challenging the Holy Roman Empire, starting early Protestantism.
Fast forward to half a century later, and Catholicism was still making efforts to take back England and the British Isles—with little success. The former Mary, Queen of Scots had made an attempt to restore Catholicism in the state, but Queen Elizabeth I then overruled the law. By the time James ascended to the throne, the many forms of the English Bible were antiquated—they simply were not accurate to the original biblical narrative.
Once James realized this, he had a crew of 47 biblical scholars rewrite the Bible as accurately as possible to the original Hebrew text, using Hebrew references in modern English prose. This book would go on to become one of England’s finest literary works of all time and throughout the world. It served as a means to spread not only the Anglican religion but also the English language.
The original 1611 King James Version didn’t contain any references or indexes that people could follow, making it somewhat impractical among people looking for Bible study, but you can still find 1611 Bibles for sale in the right markets if you’re a Bible connoisseur. Another huge flaw in the text was that it had been reformatted in a completely different language from the original Hebrew, yet it used Hebrew concepts to piece together the true meaning. Languages have different parallelisms and analogies that make them uniquely their own, and the concepts in the KJV can therefore be understood only through Hebrew interpretation.
The Thompson Chain-Reference System
This particular study Bible was one of the first reference Bibles in which the reader could search for verses through an index and find similar wording that could help them gain a greater understanding of the text. The Thompson Bible focuses on “chain links,” which link together verses that are all essentially saying the same thing or referencing specific people, places, and events that all correspond to one another within the text.
In the left-hand margin of a Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, there are what are called pilot numbers referencing words or phrases, followed by any other Bible verses where you can find the same pilot number. These pilot numbers are all compiled with the intention that the reader can seamlessly jump from one verse to the next and still be on the same topic without having to extensively study all the Bible’s verses and books.
The Thompson method also uses a system in which it equates one phrase with another. A singular verse or phrase may have several different connotations, which the book indexes together for a clearer understanding of what the verse or phrase is trying to convey.
The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible also utilizes a system that it calls the “Forward Reference,” wherein the pilot number will take the reader to a corresponding verse of the same topic throughout the Bible. This is an alternate way of Bible study. Then, there’s what’s called the “reverse method.” Provided that you already have a topic in mind to study, you’ll use the pilot number through the index, where you’ll find the keyword or phrase and a verse that correlates with that number.
How and Why They Differ
When we look at the major differences between these two works, we first have to consider that they’re each a huge literary piece that deserves its own credit. Some things between them are incomparable, but in an effort to make a comparison, these are the major differences.
The first difference deals with the 1611 King James Version Bible. This is one of the most widely accepted Bibles in existence, and it’s partially responsible for the spread of Christianity and the English language throughout the world. Most of the Bibles that have been rewritten to date have been widely based off this version. The one downfall of the 1611 edition of the KJV is that it lacks any kind of reference material, which wouldn’t come until much later, when more modernized editions came out.
By contrast, the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible makes referencing and indexing the heart of what it does best. This just goes to show how much modern Christians read and study the Bible. With the earlier KJV editions, scholars would have to go off memory and accept what they read as the truth. With no ability for the reader to reference—unless they were well-versed with a clear memory of the scripture—studying the Bible was much more difficult.
Another stark difference between the two books is the prose. The 1611 King James Version was written in the Middle Ages, whereas the other has more modern prose that one can easily dissect and study as needed. Earlier editions of the KJV are beautiful to recite but hard to understand, even by English-speaking people—people have not spoken the form of English in which it was written for several hundred years.
When you take all of these things into consideration, it’s clear to see the differences between the 1611 KJV versus the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible. So whether you prefer the older text for study or something more modern, you might find yourself cross-referencing to cover more ground and to potentially learn something more.
