(Updated March 17, 2023)
Mary Baker Eddy never mandated that the King James Version of the Bible be used in services at The First Church of Christ, Scientist, or its branches. Although she named the Bible, together with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, as the Christian Science Pastor, she did not outline a particular version of the scriptures.
The King James Version was Eddy’s personal favorite, as we know from her correspondence. However, she did not hesitate to use other translations if she felt they were clearer. She chose to use the wording from a marginal note in the Revised Version for the Cross and Crown emblem, rather than the wording from the King James Version. As well, The Christian Science Monitor’s motto is from the American Standard Version of the Bible.
In her exegeses of the scriptures in Science and Health, Eddy quoted exclusively from the King James Version. When she was revising Science and Health in 1885, she was assisted by Rev. James Henry Wiggin, a former Unitarian minister turned copy editor/indexer. In a letter written during his first year assisting her, Eddy asked him to use the King James Version so that all scriptural quotations in Science and Health would conform to the same standard. “My notes on Genesis,” she emphasized, “were upon the [King James] version. It changes the uniformity to go off on another one.”1
We have been asked if this request by Eddy could also be taken as a mandate that the King James be the only version of the Bible that Christian Scientists should use. This does not appear to be the case. Again, the letter makes no mention of church services, and was written years before the Bible and Science and Health became Pastor for Christian Science services.
It’s interesting to note that the references in the Christian Science Quarterly followed the Revised Version of the Bible during that periodical’s first year, 1890. And the King James Version was not always used for the Golden Text and Responsive Reading, either—the Revised Version was used for both the Golden Text and Responsive Reading from time to time during and after Eddy’s lifetime, up until about 1914. Today, Bible citations in the Quarterly correspond to the King James Version, although other translations are sometimes used for the Golden Text and Responsive Reading.2
In addition, readers of Science and Health will notice that in some instances Eddy herself has utilized other translations, in order to ensure the clarity of the Bible message. She quoted twice from the New Testament as translated by George R. Noyes (pages 313 and 360) and once from the Icelandic translation (page 525). Also note her statement on page 16:
In the phrase, “Deliver us from evil,” the original properly reads, “Deliver us from the evil one.” This reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the petition, for Christian Science teaches us that “the evil one,” or one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.