The King James Bible

Celebrating 400 Year since the Bible was translated into an accepted common English language version: the King James Bible

We live in a time of many translations of the Bible into English. Many of us have a few different versions at home such as RSV, NIV, Good News Bible, Living Bible, ESV, Philips versions, etc. But where did this drive to translate the Bible into the common language of the people come from?

Before the Reformation in the 1500’s the Bible was only available in Latin, and only the Church authorities in Rome were allowed to interpret it. Despite the “experts” doing the interpreting of the Bible for the people they still got it woefully, abysmally wrong!

So those who wanted to get the church back to Jesus’ teaching wanted to take the Bible out of Rome’s hands and put it in the hands of educated people. To do this they had to be able to read it. They needed the Bible in ordinary everyday language.

In England various attempts were made but none was as successful or as beautifully written as the one that King James commissioned in 1611. (See the story below.)

The King James Version was so successful that many phrases have entered our language and are spoken by people unaware of their biblical origin.

The KJV lasted a long time but slowly and surely the English language began to change. It was nearly 350
years till the English language had evolved so far from the English of 1611 that a Revised Version had to be made.

Today there are many versions but they all follow the same principle that drove the Reformers 400 or more years ago: to put the Bible into the hands of the ordinary person.

This great principle can only be fulfilled if people like you and I not only own a Bible in readable English but if we actually read it.

And if you read it you need to act upon it.

Graeme

Article below from the official King James website: http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/the-king-james-bible/experience-the-bible-revolution

THE KING JAMES BIBLE
THE STORY OF KING JAMES AND HIS BIBLE

In 1611, King James’ translators produced the iconic King James Version of the Bible, the most influential book in the history of the world, published in uncountable millions and still read today, 400 years later. On her deathbed, childless Queen Elizabeth I of England named her cousin, King James VI of Scotland as her successor. In the summer of 1603, when James was journeying south to become James I of England, he had no way of knowing he would be most remembered for an English Bible that would forever bear his name.

Hardly had his horses and carriage left Edinburgh when he was met by a delegation of earnest English puritans. God had appointed him their physician, they said, “to heal the diseases of the church”. James liked their suggestion of a major conference to set the church right, but what he and the Puritans thought was wrong with it were not exactly the same thing.

James was socially and physically awkward, a result of his stern and sometimes brutal upbringimg. His father , Lord Darnley, had been murdered and his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, arrested and eventually executed in England. James was an ophan by the age of one and was very largely raised by severe Prebyterian men appointed by the Privy Council of Scotland.

James nevertheless had the best mind of any English monarch before or since. He had at least been allowed books, the one solace of many lonely orphaned children, and he was extremely well read . He knew many languages including Greek and Hebrew and could translate them by the age of ten. And he knew his Bible very well.

To control the Church was to control England and James called the Hampton Court Conference of church leaders almost as soon as he reached London. The three‐way tension at the January 1604 Conference was between the Puritans, the Traditionalists and the King.

Puritan concerns were to ensure the centrality of Scripture, to enforce a stricter morality and to limit abuses of power by the Church hierarchy. The traditionalists, which was most of the Bishops, were anxious to retain their position and authority. James’ concern was to enforce what he believed to be his divine right to control the Church.

When, among many suggestions, came the idea of a new translation of the English Bible, James jumped at it. He needed to make some kind of a concession to the powerful Puritans. His bishops could also feel they had some control over the text and besides, a Bible was safe. The project would take a long time and have no immediate unintended consequences.

But in any case, the thought of a new English Bible really enthused James: accurate, less boring than the unpopular Bishop’s Bible and without the marginal invective of the Geneva Bible. Indeed, James had come to dislike the Geneva Bible immensely since as a child his guardians had tried literally to beat it into him.

Trusting no one else to get it right, he personally supervised the drawing up of precise translation guidelines. Impatient with the slowness of his bishops, he set up the project himself, choosing the translators and demanding regular reports.

What James put together was the world’s greatest translation project: 54 of England’s greatest scholars in 6 teams, reporting to an overall editorial committee (One or two may not have started but 47 wre left at the end!). A mixed group, their combined strength was immense. They cared about accuracy, they cared about readability and they cared about the English language. In 1611 they produced the iconic King James Version, the most influential book in the history of the world.

We cannot be certain that the King James Version was ever actually ‘Authorised’ as the one official Bible sanctioned by the church, as all records from 1611 to 1613 were destroyed in a fire. But it hardly matters. In retrospect the triumph of the King James Version was unstoppable. Within a generation the KJV had supplanted all other English Bibles.

Simply, in a church‐going era, time and familiarity together ensured its acceptance. The Church of England required three readings at every service, Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel. As the translators had so passionately hoped, it had become heard, read and understood by the people; a Bible which ‘openeth the window to let in the light’.

The King James Bible changed the way people understood their relationship to God. It changed the way they lived their lives and it changed the way they faced death. Because it changed people, the KJV had the power to change society. Every literate person now had access to the Bible, often the only book they owned. In the Bible, ordinary folk recorded their births, their marriages and their deaths. Children learned to read by mouthing its words. From this one family volume, they learned the potential power of books.

This inexorably led to an entirely new spirit of inquiry through reading and reflection, accelerating the growth of commercial printing and the ever‐widening circulation of books.

Free to interpret the Bible according to the light of their own understanding, people began to feel they also had the right to question the authority of both religious and secular institutions. Stimulating reformation within the Church, it led also to the reduction of the power of the monarchy and the rise of constitutional government. Carried far beyond the shores of England, oppressed peoples found in it the hope of freedom.

The King James version of the Bible underpinned great social reforms including the abolition of slavery. It was the King James Version of the Bible which finally created liberty and democracy.