Bible Studies · Eight Verses, Rewritten

The Queen James Bible: What It Changed And Why

In 2012 a group of anonymous editors took the King James Version, rewrote eight verses, and published it as a Bible of its own. Here is what they did, why they did it, and why we read those hard verses a different way.

By Apostle Johnny Ova · Sound of Heaven · 9 Min Read

The Short Answer

An Edited King James, Not A New Translation

Straight Answer

The Queen James Bible is the King James Version with eight verses about same-sex activity rewritten, self-published by anonymous editors in November 2012. Nobody retranslated anything from Hebrew or Greek. Eight verses were changed so they would say something different.

The editors said they wanted a Bible that “could not be used to spread hate.” Our conviction is simple: honest reading wrestles with what the text says, through Jesus and in its setting. It does not rewrite it.

That difference is the whole article. The motive behind this book deserves respect. The method does not hold up. And the good news is that nobody needs an edited Bible to find out how fully God loves gay people.

The Background

Where The Queen James Bible Came From

The book appeared on Amazon on November 7, 2012. There were no names on the cover, no translation committee, and no publisher beyond the project itself. In an academic study of the edition, R. Shannon Constantine notes that “the editors and publishers of the QJB remain anonymous”. The title is a play on the King James name.

Everything else in it is the familiar 1611 wording, kept on purpose. According to Constantine, the editors found the old English poetic and traditional, and they chose to change verses rather than cut them, because deleting verses would leave an incomplete Bible.

1611

The King James Version

A team of scholars working under King James I publishes the translation that shapes English Bible reading for centuries.

The Centuries Between

A Handful Of Verses Become Weapons

A small set of passages about same-sex activity becomes the go-to ammunition in arguments, and too often in sermons aimed at real people sitting in the pews.

November 7, 2012

The Queen James Bible

Anonymous editors self-publish the KJV with eight verses changed. Their own site says it plainly: “We edited those eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.”

Takeaway

The Queen James Bible is the King James Version word for word except in eight verses. That is the entire project, and its editors were open about it.

The Changes

The Eight Verses They Rewrote

Seven passages, eight verses. Here is what the King James says and what the Queen James edition did with each one, as laid out in Constantine's study.

Genesis 19:5

The KJV has the men of Sodom demand Lot's guests “that we may know them.” The QJB reads “that we may rape and humiliate them.”

Leviticus 18:22

The KJV forbids a man to lie with mankind as with womankind. The QJB adds four words: “in the temple of Molech.”

Leviticus 20:13

The same phrase, “in the temple of Molech,” is written into the companion law that carries the death penalty.

Romans 1:26 and 27

Paul's description of exchanged desire is rearranged and recast with words like ritual lust and pagan, tying it to idol worship.

1 Corinthians 6:9

“Nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind” becomes “nor morally weak, nor promiscuous.”

1 Timothy 1:10

“Them that defile themselves with mankind” loses its last two words and becomes simply “them that defile themselves.”

Jude 7

Sodom and Gomorrah “going after strange flesh” becomes “going after nonhuman flesh.”

Everything Else

Untouched. Every other verse in the Queen James Bible is the 1611 King James text.

Look at that list closely and something stands out. A few of these edits carry a real argument that serious readers make. The verse right before Leviticus 18:22 does mention Molech. The visitors in Sodom were angels, and plenty of careful readers take Jude's “strange flesh” in that direction. And what the mob wanted in Genesis 19 was violence, full stop.

“And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.”

Leviticus 18:21 KJV

Those are interpretations worth talking about. The trouble is where they ended up. They were not placed in a footnote or a commentary. They were placed inside the verse.

The Key Distinction

Translating, Interpreting And Editing Are Three Different Jobs

Most of the heat around this book comes from people using these three words as if they meant the same thing. They do not, and once you separate them the whole question gets clearer.

Translating

Carrying the words of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into English as faithfully as possible. Translators argue over hard words all the time, which is why translations differ. The work is done from the original languages, usually by teams, with footnotes that tell you where a word is uncertain.

Interpreting

Asking what a passage meant to the people who first heard it, and what it means for us through Jesus. That is the work of study, commentary, preaching and good conversation. It happens beside the text, out in the open, where you can see it and disagree with it.

Editing To A Conclusion

Deciding what a verse ought to say and changing the words until it says that. The words “in the temple of Molech” are not in the Hebrew of Leviticus 18:22. An interpretation was moved inside the verse, where a reader can no longer tell that a choice was made.

That last part is the real problem. A footnote says, here is a question, think about it. An edited verse says, there is no question. It takes the wrestling away from the reader, and wrestling is where faith grows up.

To be fair, the temptation runs in every direction. Translators have also been accused of sharpening these same verses beyond what the Greek can bear, and that criticism deserves a hearing too. The cure for a slanted translation is a more careful one, checked by many people. It is never a private rewrite.

Which of these is editing rather than translating or interpreting?

Rendering a difficult Greek word differently and adding a footnote that explains why

Adding “in the temple of Molech” to Leviticus 18:22 when the Hebrew does not say it

Explaining in a sermon that Leviticus 18:22 sits right after a law about Molech

The first is translation, the third is interpretation, and both leave the reader free to check the work. The second writes a conclusion into the verse itself, so the reader never sees that a decision was made.

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Being Fair

Why Some People Wanted A Bible Like This

Before I say anything critical, I want to say this clearly. Many of the people who made the Queen James Bible, and many who reach for it, were hurt by churches. They heard these verses read at them rather than with them. Some were pushed out of their families. Some were told that God was disgusted by them.

If a Bible has been swung at you like a weapon, wanting one that cannot be used that way makes complete sense. That desire is not rebellion. It is a wound looking for a safe place to land.

If This Is Your Story

If a church used Scripture to shame you, we are sorry. That was not the heart of Jesus, and it was not the whole truth of the Bible either.

You are welcome to talk with a pastor at Sound of Heaven, with no agenda and no pressure. You can send a prayer request or plan a visit and just sit in the back for a while. You will be treated like family.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28 KJV

So what follows is not a critique of the people. It is a critique of the method, and it comes from someone who wants the same thing they want: a church where nobody gets crushed by a verse.

Where We Stand

Why Sound Of Heaven Does Not Use It

We would not use the Queen James Bible at Sound of Heaven, and the reason is not that we want those verses available as ammunition. It is that once you give yourself permission to rewrite the verses you disagree with, the Bible can only ever tell you what you already think. A Bible that cannot correct you cannot comfort you either.

Where We Stand, Plainly

Sound of Heaven believes same-sex attraction and same-sex sexual activity are sin, the same way Jesus counted lust in the heart as sin for everyone (Matthew 5:28). The apostles still name it inside the new covenant, and changing the English does not change what they wrote.

We believe just as firmly that sin does not keep anyone out of heaven. Not knowing Jesus does. Gay people can be saved, can belong to a church, and can serve in one, though not in senior or pastoral leadership. The same grace that holds every one of us holds them, and nobody here is ranked as a worse sinner than anyone else.

On Sodom we hold both halves. Ezekiel 16:49 names pride, excess, idleness and abandoning the poor and needy, and the mob at Lot's door was violent. Jude 7 also names sexual sin. You do not have to choose between those texts, and you should not rewrite either one.

So we refuse both errors: a church that turns these verses into weapons, and a Bible that deletes them to take the weapon away. The answer to bad interpretation is better interpretation, not a different text.

What The Edit Does

Removes the hard verse so nobody can misuse it, and in the same move removes your chance to wrestle with it and hear what God is saying through it.

What Honest Reading Does

Keeps the verse, reads it in its setting and through Jesus, and flatly refuses to use it as a club against anyone.

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV

That verse comes right after the list the Queen James Bible edits, and it is the point of the list. Paul is not drawing a line between clean people and dirty people. He is describing a whole church that used to be on the wrong side of that list and has been washed. Our full study of what the Bible says about homosexuality walks through each passage, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has its own page as well.

A Better Way

How To Read The Hard Passages Through Jesus

You do not need an edited Bible. You need a trustworthy translation and an honest way of reading it. Pick one made by a committee of scholars working from the original languages, such as the NIV, ESV, NASB, CSB, NLT or NRSV, and compare two when a verse matters. The King James is still a good Bible too; we have a whole page on whether the King James Version is the most accurate, another on the most accurate Bible translation, and one on why there are so many Bible translations in the first place.

Ask Who It Was Written To

Leviticus was written to Israel under the Sinai covenant. Romans was written to house churches in the capital of the empire. The first audience always comes first.

Read The Verses Around It

Leviticus 18:21 sits right beside 18:22. 1 Corinthians 6:11 sits right after 6:9. Context is often printed on the same page, waiting to be read.

Read It Through Jesus

Jesus is the final and complete revelation of the Father. Every passage gets read in His light, and where people spoke for God imperfectly, He clarifies.

Read Toward People

If your reading of a verse makes you colder toward the person in front of you, stop and read it again. Truth in Jesus always comes full of grace.

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Luke 24:27 KJV

Notice what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. He did not hand those two disciples a corrected scroll. He opened the Scriptures they already had and showed them Himself in it. That is the model for every hard passage: keep the text, and let Jesus explain it.

Takeaway

A good translation keeps the words. Good interpretation explains them in context and through Jesus. Neither one needs the verse to be changed.

Where This Lands

Jesus Never Needed The Text Changed

Someone will push back here, and it is a fair question. Sound of Heaven teaches that Jesus corrects and reframes earlier Scripture. So why can't someone else?

Because of how Jesus did it. When He reframed the Law in Matthew 5, He did it out loud: you have heard it said, but I say to you. He never pretended the scroll said something it did not say. He stood in His own authority, in plain view, and let everyone see the difference. That is Jesus fulfilling Scripture. Quietly changing the words of a verse is something else.

And look at what He did with people. He ate with the ones the religious world kept at a distance. He never pretended sin was not sin, and He never made anyone earn a seat at the table first. That is the posture we want at Sound of Heaven toward every person, gay or straight, churched or burned by church.

For more on reading Scripture honestly, see how to read the Bible, whether everything in the Bible is really God, the book of Romans, whether all sins are equal, how Jesus saves us and what we believe.

The Whole Thing In One Line

The Queen James Bible is the King James with eight verses rewritten by people who were tired of seeing them used as weapons, and we understand the hurt, but we keep the verses, read them honestly through Jesus, and hold out the same grace to everyone who comes to Him.

If These Verses Were Used Against You

Tell us what happened or what you are wrestling with. A pastor at Sound of Heaven will pray with you and talk it through, gently and honestly.

Questions People Ask

Questions About The Queen James Bible

What is the Queen James Bible?

The Queen James Bible is an edition of the King James Version published in November 2012 by anonymous editors. It keeps the 1611 wording everywhere except eight verses that mention same-sex activity, which were rewritten so they cannot be read as condemning gay people. The editors said they wanted a Bible that could not be used to spread hate. It is not a new translation from Hebrew and Greek. It is the King James with an interpretation written into eight verses, which is why we do not treat it as a reliable Bible.

Which verses does the Queen James Bible change?

Eight verses across seven passages: Genesis 19:5, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26 and 27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10 and Jude 7. Genesis 19:5 has the men of Sodom ask to rape and humiliate Lot's guests. Both Leviticus verses add the words in the temple of Molech. In 1 Corinthians 6:9, effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind become morally weak and promiscuous, and Jude 7 changes strange flesh to nonhuman flesh.

Who wrote the Queen James Bible?

No one publicly knows. The editors and publishers never put their names on it, and an academic study of the project notes that they remain anonymous. The text itself is the King James Version, translated by a team of scholars under King James I and published in 1611. The anonymous editors changed only eight verses. That matters, because a normal translation is done by named scholars working from the original languages, and readers can check their work, their footnotes and their reasons.

Is the Queen James Bible an accurate translation?

No, and to be fair, it never claims to be a fresh translation. Some of its edits echo real interpretive arguments, such as the Molech law sitting right beside Leviticus 18:22 or the angelic visitors behind Jude 7. But the words it adds, like in the temple of Molech, are not in the Hebrew or Greek. When an interpretation is written into the verse itself, the reader can no longer see that a choice was made. For study, use a committee translation such as the NIV, ESV, NASB, CSB or NRSV and compare them.

Can gay people be saved and go to heaven?

Yes. At Sound of Heaven we believe same-sex sexual activity is sin, and we also believe sin is not what keeps anyone out of heaven. Not knowing Jesus does. Every one of us comes to God the same way, by grace through faith in Christ, and none of us arrive with a clean record. A gay person who knows Jesus is saved on the same terms as anyone else, belongs in a church family, and can serve in it, though not in senior or pastoral leadership. You do not need an edited Bible to find that grace.