hath made or made

In the midst of extremely stormy seas, the prophet Jonah awakens and declares:

Jonah 1:9 (King James) – “…I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah 1:9 (NIV) – “…I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

Being a student of the word (not an expert), I noticed a huge difference in this testimony:  the KJV uses the present perfect tense (hath made); the NIV uses a simple past tense (made).    If I were a lawyer and trying to prove a case before a jury, I’d use this point of grammar to win big-time!

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Past Perfect Tense (used in KJV) – An action started in the past and continues in the present:

The auxiliary verb hath, coupled with the past participle made, reveals the depth of Jonah’s testimony in the midst of this storm.  In other words, ‘Hey, God made the seas and he continues to be active he also made these stormy seas!’  This storm is happening because he wills it so.

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Past Tense (used in NIV) – A past only action, a fact:

Only the past participle made is used.  God made the seas in the past, over and done - a simple fact. Therefore, this present storm happened by…luck, or global warming, or whatever; no assignment is given.  The source of the storm is ambiguous.

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The Jonah of the KJV knew exactly who initiated this storm; it’s not the ‘other gods’ of the sailors (Jonah 1:5), it is the LORD – he alone is the reason.  (Jonah correctly uses which – distinguishing him from the other gods.)  The grammar confirms this testimony. However, the grammar of the NIV is not as definite, it's a bit ambiguous.

Depth, clarity, precision: the Early Modern English of the King James Bible.