Bryan C. Ross wrote to settle a pastoral concern: are certain modern spellings in King James printings substantive corruptions, or simply orthographic variants? As he states in the Introduction, the purpose of his small book is to investigate whether words such as “thoroughly,” “always,” “example,” and “establish” are “wholly different words” or merely differently spelled variants of the same word. That investigation is humble in aim and practical in consequence for those of us who hold to the KJB as the preserved English text.
Ross is clear about his convictions and context. “I am unequivocally a King James Bible Believer,” he writes; he believes “the KJB is God’s word for English speaking people,” that it is a formal equivalent translation, and that the KJB and its underlying texts are inerrant in what they report. That confessional posture frames his study: he seeks clarity within a conviction that the KJB is God’s preserved word for English readers, not to unsettle believers but to sharpen a defensible position.
The heart of Ross’s historical claim is straightforward and repeated in the book: between 1611 and 1769 English orthography was unsettled, and many differences among early editions are best explained as spelling, punctuation, or printer corrections rather than changes in doctrine. He summarizes the traditional categories of change—correction of printer errors, orthographic updates, and punctuation shifts—and, while candidly conceding that the history is more complex than a neat list, he rightly puts orthography at the center of this particular inquiry.
Ross also confronts the dangerous standard of verbatim identicality. He shows that demanding exact word-for-word uniformity across all KJV printings forces an impossible choice—one would have to name a single inerrant printing and reject the rest. Drawing on the textual work recounted in his book, he explains that the crucial issue is the nature of differences: is a variant merely another way of saying the same thing, or does it change substantive meaning? He warns that insisting on verbatim sameness creates an inconsistent and incoherent position that outstrips the historical facts.
To decide meaning, Ross turns to English dictionaries and historical usage. After an extensive review he concludes the oft‑debated pairs (throughly/thoroughly, alway/always, ensample/example, stablish/establish) are orthographic or lexical variants, not discriminated words of wholly different sense. He documents surveying early and later dictionaries and notes, for example, how reference works treat “throughly” as an archaic spelling of “thoroughly.” He also signals that American printings long made these orthographic shifts—so these forms appeared in U.S. editions well before 1881—demonstrating the phenomenon is not a recent novelty.
The pastoral application is plain and necessary for Mid‑Acts believers who stand for the final authority of the KJV: defend the King James Bible boldly, but honestly. Ross writes that his motive is not to “take ‘the penknife of Jehudi’” at fellow KJV believers nor to sow division, but to articulate “a clear and consistent position” that does not outstrip the textual and historical facts. Wise confidence holds to the KJB as God’s preserved English Word while refusing to make claims the book’s own investigation shows we cannot sustain.