"Longprimer vs Italic type & why!"

A review of R L Allan & Son by Pastor Robert written on Monday 6th of August 2012

The Oxford "Longprimer" King James Bible/Authorized Version now published by R.L. Allan & Son is a beautiful Bible. The font or text type is set in a longprimer format. The italic typed words are slanted in most other King James Bibles. What makes the longprimer the best in my opinion are as follows:

First, since all the words are the same font or type set in the longprimer (italics being the same font and not slanted); it is not distracting and flows better. Second, since all the words in the Bible are God's Word; there's no confusion or misunderstanding with all the words flowing the same font rather then being distracted by slanted font. Third, the original purpose of italics or italic type is no longer consistent or needed. The thought was to show what words didn't have a direct English to Greek or Hebrew word translation; thereby showing what words might have been added to complete the sense. This has been lost with the production of newer hand print medal plates for printing when updating an edition to the printers. Many of the words shown in italics have a direct Greek or Hebrew word. Eventually all the words in italics & brackets will be shown to be represented and required to complete the Bible. The 54 translater's used the Masoretic Hebrew Text & Recieved Koine Greek Text and they also compared with earlier Recieved Text translations in various languages like Latin, German, French; just to name a few; this was done and complete in 7 years. Also the purpose for italics was to show what words that might of not had as many extant, available copies during that time. Italics or brackets represented the words used where there was some copies available; while many copies available were representive by the words in plain font. While words in the Bible that were in italics or in brackets represented this; as time progressed with updated editions being printed; more copies of Scriptures were being discovered were being available to compare; thereby showing the italics not consistent at times thereby being updated. As time went on some printers did this while many did not. Today we have over 5,500 extant copies of Scripture known as the Recieved Text; at times known as the Majority Text or Traditional Text because the Recieved Text (from which the King James Bible was translated from) agreed with the extant copies up to 99%; thereby being known as the Majority text and these Recieved Texts were the Traditional Texts of the Protestant churches. All the words in the King James Bible have many extant copies of over 5,500 that agree many times over and over again. We know we have a preserved copy of the Scriptures in the English language in the King James Bible; as the early believer's loved, used and died to share the Recieved Text. The Recieved Text has been the standard Bible in various languages for over 1900 years; the King James Bible has been the standard Bible for English speaking believer's & churches for over 300 years (1611 to early 1900's) in the Protestant churches; and now still loved, used and shared for over 400 years later now..

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