Incorrect Grammar in the KJV

There are lots of proofs that the KJV is not a perfect translation of the Bible. Let me give one small example of it in this short posting. In this example the error is in incorrect grammar!

Recently I made a posting on Romans 16: 7 and I cited the KJV which reads as follows:

"Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."

May I use the Socratic method here and ask - "where is the faulty grammar in this verse?" Can you spot it? Which is correct; to say "before me" or "before I"? Though most people incorrectly say "before me," the correct way is to say "before I." One way to help people to see why "before me" is incorrect is to ask them to finish the thought. In the case of Paul's words in the above verse the thought is "who were in Christ before I was in Christ." It is easy to see how the use of "me" instead of "I" is incorrect. It would be wrong to say "who was in Christ before me was in Christ."

Thankfully this incorrect grammar is not found in some other English translations. Notice these:

"...and they were in Christ before I was." (NIV)

"...and they were in Christ before I was." (Berean Study Bible)

"They belonged to the Messiah before I did." (International Standard Version)

There are other translations that also give the incorrect grammar, such as NASB, English Standard Version, Young's literal translation, etc.

Now, I realize that the Greek possessive first person singular pronoun "emou" is in the text and that this pronoun is often translated "me." But, we are not talking about how the pronoun is used in the Greek, or about the Greek grammar. Rather, we are talking about how to express the thought in English grammar. And, proper English grammar, to convey the meaning of the Greek, would be to say "before I" and not "before me."

If we wanted to simply try to keep the word "me" and use correct English grammar we would say something like this - "as it relates to me, or concerns me, they were in Christ first."

No translation is perfect. That is the point.