My authority, first, is the Greek and Hebrew, which God actually inspired. It is esp. valuable for grammar, particularly participles, which Greek uses in abundance, but don’t translate well into English. KJV is pretty bad with participles, I could give you 50 examples off the top of my head.
Word for word is a lie, of course. Because word order in Greek is so radically different than English. KJV doesn’t come close to it, although my Martin Luther Bible in German is able to be much closer to the original word order, not that it matters.
So, here’s the thing for you English-only speakers. There are many possible definitions of a word, when going from one language to another. For instance, think about how many definitions of the word “run” there are in English. Well, Greek and Hebrew are the same. There is no straight word for word possible. Because there are numerous possibilities. Some translations get it right, some don’t. That is why revisions are necessary, and the KJV certainly went through a lot of those, in the first couple of centuries, didn’t it?
As for all the added spurious texts in the KJV, that is what you really are trusting? Words added centuries after the originals? By what authority, do you trust a text which was not in the original? Textus Receptus is the most corrupted of all the texts, because of that telephone game, played by Greek scribes, handed down over generations, mistakes made, recopied, till the manuscripts the KJV was translated from, were just a corrupted mess. Even Erasmus vouched for that.
So, back to the question? My authority is the Bible! Any version communicates the gospel. If it doesn’t, like the New World Translation, well, then those are the ones I don’t rely upon. I will say, I knew a woman who was a JW for 15 years, and when she got saved, and left, she could still prove that Christ was God, and what the gospel was from that Bible. Which, she used with other JWs.
I’ve read almost every modern translation, differences are mostly style, and too much tendency to either fall on the side of too rigid, losing the meanings of the text, because the receiving language is ignored, KJV (ESV, NASB) or go to the other extreme, and paraphrase, which includes too much of the author’s own theology. NASB is good, but stilted, ESV the same, although a bit more modern, NIV is a bit too fluid. I”m on my third read through of HCSB, and it is so readable, it is delightful. But, sometimes they change a beautiful metaphor into crass prose. That happened a couple of days ago.
I’m soon onto my new NET, but already, some issues I question. And of course, a certain theology comes through. I just trust God he will not lead me astray, as I read his word. Oh, and the Martin Luther Neues Bibel is really good. I accidently took it to German class last week, instead of my dictionary, and we got into a very interesting discussion. God has a way of using pretty much anything to open doors, doesn’t he?
And no one should ever make up doctrines unless they know the original languages. I guess for some people, KJV English is so weird, they think they are reading the original languages?? LOL It seems like about 100% of the time someone comes into this forum and posts some off base theological discovery, it comes out of a wrong reading of the KJV, because they don’t understand it. OK, I exaggerate! 99% of the time.