The failure to warn about Ruckman 1970-1990

We are not trying to prove a conspiracy of silence with this book list, as some authors warned of Ruckman in later books. What we are trying to demonstrate is that even if a majority of these authors were against Ruckman, they failed in these books to warn readers of the danger that Ruckman posed for those who were hungry for more literature on the subject of Bible versions.

In an effort to determine whether the extremes of Ruckmanism were warned against adequately, we examined a nearly exhaustive amount of books and pamphlets defending the KJV written from 1970-1990. Magazine articles were not included in this study because of the difficulty of finding old issues. Since Ruckmanism draws mostly from the ranks of those who are concerned about modern translations, the authors of pro-KJV books during this earlier stage would have been expected to warn their readers about the dangers of Ruckmanism. Although as early as 1964 Ruckman had written his first book advocating some extreme views, 1970 was chosen as the starting point because that is the year in which Ruckman published his landmark book The Christian’s Handbook of Manuscript Evidence. 1990 was chosen because it indicated the close of the first 20 years since Ruckman’s landmark book. Those 20 years were a crucial time in which Ruckmanism made inroads among the ranks of some KJV defenders. Every single book and pamphlet listed here was examined for a specific warning about Ruckman himself or Ruckmanism. Granted, some did warn to the effect that some had gone overboard on the issue, but Ruckman was not mentioned specifically in a negative manner. Some books listed here defend Ruckman, but they are included because they fall under the category of failing to warn about Ruckman. As mentioned, the fact that a given pro-KJV author listed here did not warn against Ruckmanism should not be automatically taken as a conspiracy by the author to cover up for Ruckman. In a few cases, some authors in the early 1970’s may have hardly even heard of Ruckman at the time, and in other cases authors may have simply underestimated the threat he posed. By the same token, some authors defending modern translations in this date range did not warn against Ruckmanism themselves. Some authors listed here who were silent in this period went on to warn about Ruckmanism in future writings. We are not judging motives by publishing this list, but rather demonstrating that overall most authors of the movement to defend the KJV failed miserably in warning against Ruckmanism from 1970-1990 in this crucial time in which it was making inroads. Although I believe this list of books and pamphlets defending the KJV from 1970-1990 is close to being exhaustive, there were a few items long out of print that could not be located (at least not inexpensively), and are not listed here. If you know of a book or pamphlet in this date range that is not listed, and you know how we can obtain it inexpensively, please let us know in the comments section. A few pamphlets were undated, but when dates mentioned in the text or bibliography made it clearly obvious that it fell into the 1970-1990 range, they were included with a c after the estimated approximate date of publication.

Pro-KJV books that did not warn about Ruckman 1970-1990

The list presented here demonstrates that by and large, authors of books defending the KJV did not adequately warn about Ruckmanism in the past (at least through 1990), and as a result some forms of semi-Ruckmanism have been blended into some modern pro-KJV views, with many being unaware of the true source of their origin. Also no comprehensive history of the movement to defend the KJV has been written which clearly contrasts how the KJV was defended before the Peter Ruckman era compared to today. This website is in part a long-overdue attempt to fill that void.