The Comparative Readability of the Authorized Version

People who complain about the King James Bible, often mention that they think it is not as easy to read as some of the modern versions. This book destroys the idea that the reading level of the King James Bible is difficult or grade 12 at least. One article claimed it was grade level 14, or in other words, you had to be a sophomore in college in order to understand it.

The oldest of five children, Donald A. Waite, Jr. was born in Dallas, Texas. As the son of a long-time graduate student/itinerant Naval Chaplain/ordained Baptist minister, he and his family re-located frequently. When they moved to Collingswood, NJ, to live in his ninth house, he never dreamed that they would establish such deep roots there. In 1967, he graduated from Collingswood High School (his 10th school).

School number eleven was Bob Jones University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities (1971) and a Master of Arts in Theology (1973) with an emphasis in New Testament Greek. While at Bob Jones University, he met his wife-to-be, Jeanette Ann Lazar. They were married in Cleveland, Ohio in 1971.

Although he didn't realize it at the time, his life-long teaching ministry began while he was in BJU's graduate school. For two semesters, he taught basic English grammar and composition to tutorial classes of about twenty college freshmen. After graduating in 1973, he taught various junior high and high school subjects in a Christian school in northern New Jersey.

Then in 1975, he began his long tenure at a Christian school in the Washington, D.C. area. In 1979, he earned his Master of Liberal Arts from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. After teaching high school and junior high English, History, and Bible at this school for fifteen years, he shifted to the fifth grade in the fall of 1990. In 1999 he began to work full-time for the Bible For Today.

He has served as deacon, long-time Sunday school teacher, pulpit supply, camp counselor, and in various other church ministries. He currently serves as the treasurer of the Dean Burgon Society and as trustee and treasurer of the Bible for Today. Although he has written various other pamphlets and articles, his longest work is his 1994 Reading Ease of the King James Bible (277 pages). In 1996, he wrote a summary of that work entitled The Comparative Readability of the Authorized Version (84 pages).

He lives in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland with his wife Jeanette and their two children--Elizabeth and Rebecca.