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.

Over time, the meaning and usage of words change. Not only do some words drop out of use and new words come into being, but perhaps more importantly, words change in their very definitions while remaining in use. Words that meant one thing even a few generations ago may now mean something completely different in present-day English. These changes can impact how we read, understand, and apply older English writings without our even realizing that we are misunderstanding what the author or translator meant. There are, for example, many such passages in the KJV, where words are used that carried one sense in 1611 but carry a quite different sense today. For an example of this, let’s consider the word “overcharge.”

That I may not overcharge you all

“But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all,” (2 Corinthians 2:5, KJV).

To 21st-century English-speakers, Paul’s point here seems a little obscure. For what is he charging them? Nothing here seems to be about paying for anything. And is Paul’s clarification that he wasn’t the one grieved somehow prevent him from overcharging them for something? It’s not like only grieving people can overcharge others. The problem lies, of course, in the changing use of the term “overcharge.” Today, if you overcharge someone, you make them pay too much for a good or service. But in Elizabethan English, to “charge” someone was not to make them pay money for something, but rather to place a burden on them. Many of the English translations before the KJV rendered this phrase:

“…lest I should grieve you all,” (Tyndale, see also Coverdale, Matthew Bible, Great Bible, Bishops Bible)

In many modern translations, Paul’s concern is to “…not to be too severe.” (NKJV, see also ESV, NIV, MEV). The “KJV 21st-century,” a contemporary update of the King James Version, rewords it as “…that I may not overburden you all.” So, to overcharge was to place too great a weight or burden on someone. Figuratively, it meant to come down hard on or overwhelm them. As one can see, the use of multiple translations can help to clarify these ambiguities. When one doesn’t make sense, another which says the same thing in different words can help the reader sort it out. Sometimes a passage that we assumed we already understood can suddenly become clear to us in a new and more accurate way when we see it in different words, especially when the words to which we are accustomed have come to carry different meanings than they did when the translation was made.

Lest your hearts be what?

To take another example, Luke writes:

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares,” (Luke 21:34, KJV).

Again, we find the term “overcharged.” If we are reading casually, we are likely to bring our modern definitions to the text and read into it the idea of making someone overpay. We also find the archaic word “surfeiting.” Unlike “overcharge,” this is not a word that has taken on a new meaning, but rather one that has pretty much fallen out of use entirely. This leaves us with a phrase ripe for misunderstanding. Yet, long before the time of the KJV, the Wycliffe Bible rendered this verse in another way:

“…lest peradventure your hearts be grieved with gluttony…” (Wycliffe).

Instead of “overcharged,” the word “grieved” is used. Likewise, instead of “surfeiting,” we find “gluttony.” This simple comparison with another translation helps bring clarity to the passage. Note a few other early, pre-KJV English translations of the passage:

“…lest your hearts be overcome with surfeiting…” (Tyndale, see also Matthew Bible, Great Bible, Bishops Bible).

“…lest at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfeiting…” (Geneva Bible).

Both used “surfeiting,” just as the KJV did, but we are given some more synonyms to “overcharged,” i.e. “overcome” and “oppressed.” Again, we see through comparison what the earlier sense of “overcharged” was. Now note how modern translators have handled the phrase:

“…lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation…” (NASB, see also ESV).

“…lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing…” (NKJV, see also NIV, CSB).

“…lest your hearts become burdened by excessiveness…” (MEV).

As we saw in our last passage, “weighed down” or “burdened” are quite literal and accurate renderings of what “overcharged” once meant. Likewise, further synonyms for surfeiting give us a clearer sense of the meaning there too. Without even having to look it up, one might guess that surfeiting means doing something to immoral excess, particularly eating or drinking too much. This is, indeed, exactly what the word means. Thus, a phrase that is today obscured by the changing use of words and by archaic terms in one translation is made clear in another translation that uses terms we know and uses them the same way that we use them. A verse that is difficult in one translation may be clarified by comparison to others. Through such considerations, we can see the value both in having up-to-date translations and in having multiple translations to compare.