This article is part of a series on the changing meaning of English words and its impact on the King James Only debate. To see the introduction to this series, click The King James Version and the changing use of words.
Languages are not static things. Over time, the meaning and usage of words in any language change. This is unquestionably the case with English over the last 400 years. Indeed, some words that meant one thing even a relatively short time ago now mean something completely different in present-day English. These changes can impact how we understand older English writings without our even realizing that we are misunderstanding them. This is as true for the words used in the King James Version as it is for any other 17th-century English document. There are many words that meant one thing to readers then but mean something else to readers now. For an example of this, let’s consider the word “doctor.”
Sitting in the midst of the Doctors
If I told you that your child needed a doctor, you would assume that I meant that your child is sick. If I said I had an appointment with my son’s doctor, you would immediately understand that I was going to see a pediatrician. If I told you I was studying to become a doctor, you would assume that I was going to medical school. Even though we technically use the title “doctor” for people with PhDs in various subjects that have nothing to do with medicine, we generally only do so as a prefix to their name. I may call my math professor in college “Dr. Young,” but if anyone who met him on the street were to ask him about his profession, he would never say, “I’m a doctor.” To call someone a doctor today is to call them a physician. When we think of doctors, we think immediately of medical health professionals. So what comes to mind when we read these words from Luke’s gospel in the KJV?
“And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions,” (Luke 2:46, KJV).
Jesus is sitting in the midst of a group of “doctors.” On a first reading, we naturally imagine him surrounded by physicians, but this was hardly the case. In 1611, a “doctor” was a “teacher.” Indeed, the English word “doctor” originally derived from an old Latin word for teacher. When the KJV said Jesus was sitting in a group of “doctors,” it simply meant “teachers,” not health care professionals or even people who had attained particular university degrees. Indeed, even the 1535 Coverdale Bible, an early English translation from before the time of the KJV, rendered the term here as “teachers” rather than “doctors,” and modern translations universally read that Jesus was “sitting in the midst of the teachers,” (NASB, see also ESV, NIV, NKJV, CSB, etc.). This is not a contradiction. These translators do not disagree with the KJV on the sort of men with whom Jesus was surrounded. Doctor simply meant teacher at the time. The words were synonyms. Today, we no longer use the word “doctor” this way and instead use it for physicians. For this reason, even though “doctor” was a perfectly fine translation in 1611, “teacher” is the better translation for our day.
