Did King James Get What He Wanted
James was looking for a single translation that the whole nation could rely on. To be read in the whole Church, and none other, as he phrased it. In his original statement calling for a translation, the king insisted that he wanted a translation with scholarly and royal authority, observing: I wish some special pains were taken for an uniform translation, which should be done by the best learned men in both Universities, then reviewed by the Bishops, presented to the Privy Council, lastly ratified by the Royal authority.
How can we assess these mens work? Did they serve their king well in this matter of a Bible translation? The easiest answer to this is that the KJV achieved an un- rivaled accuracy For Protestants only generations removed from the ReformationJames among themthis was certainly its highest value. By this measure, the KJV is a tremendous success.
Then there are the qualities of the language itself. It is surely these qualities that make the KJV still today, by most measures, the most beloved Bible translation in the English language. Adam Nicolson celebrates the KJVs sense of clarity and directness combined with majestic substance . . . the great ceremonial atmosphere of its long, carefully organized, musical rhythms. This is surely just what James must have wanted: a Bible that breathed an atmosphere both godly and kingly.
Why Is The Kjv Still Popular Today
For a book that was published in 1611, itâs amazing how influential and widely read the KJV still is today. Though there are hundreds of versions and translations of the Bible, the KJV is the most popular. According to market research firm Statistica, as of 2017, more than 31% of Americans read the KJV, with the New International Version coming in second place, at 13%. Five large denominations of Christianity Baptist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Latter-day Saints and Pentecostal use the KJV today.
The KJV âworks as both a word-for-word and sense-for-sense translation,â meaning it acts as both a literal translation of many of the words believed to have been used by Jesus Christ and his Apostles and accurately conveys the meaning behind those words and events, Gordon said. One line of manuscripts used in the KJV the Textus Receptus of Erasmus, translated from Greek to Latin by the 16th-century Dutch scholar and philosopher Desiderius Erasmus is thought by some to be a particularly important inclusion in the KJV, especially for those who see it as the purest line of the New Testament going back to the Apostolic Age , Gordon said.
Despite the KJVâs popularity throughout the centuries, Gordon said some scholars now view parts of it as outdated. He cautioned that there have been other ancient manuscripts discovered since the KJV was commissioned that enhance scholarsâ understanding of some biblical events and possibly even change the meaning of certain words.
The Language Of The King James Bible
The KJV uses many archaic words no longer in use: words such as , subtil, privily, sunder, and holpen, etc. And it uses archaic expressions and phrases that are unfamiliar to modern readers. For instance, how many people readily understand Charity vaunteth not itself ? Or these verses in Job?:
He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers: Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks .
Earlier editions of the KJV also used outdated spelling which can be confusing for some readers . The current edition that is still commonly used has an hungred for hungry in nine verses and terribleness for awesome or terrifying deeds in three.
Furthermore, the current edition of the KJV contains several words that have changed in meaning over time. Words such as flowers, suffer, vile, quit, conversation, draught, anon, and bowels convey different meanings to modern readers than was intended by both the KJV translators and the original authors of the biblical texts.
The fact that the KJV uses the word unicorn nine times and satyr twice is also problematic, as unicorns and satyrs are regarded as mythological creatures rather than real animalswild oxen and goatsthat are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and in many contemporary translations.
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History Of The King James Bible
Churches around the world celebrated a quadricentennial, plus 10:
410 years ago marked the publishing, at the request of the Anglican clergy, of what would become the Authorized Version of the Bible, to wide acclaim.
But there are 3 problems with that statement.
While it is true that the King James Bible was published in 1611 and eventually became the most influential Bible in the English-speaking world if not the most printed book of all time:
The details of how the King James Bible came to be are a bit different. And while May 2 is the date that the publication is celebrated, the actual printing date is not known with certainty.
How The King James Bible Came To Be
When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, he was well aware that he was entering a sticky situation.
For one thing, his immediate predecessor on the throne, Queen Elizabeth I, had ordered the execution of his mother, , who had represented a Catholic threat to Elizabeths Protestant reign. And even though Elizabeth had established the supremacy of the Anglican Church , its bishops now had to contend with rebellious Protestant groups like the Puritans and Calvinists, who questioned their absolute power.
For the new king, the Geneva Bible posed a political problem, since it contained certain annotations questioning not only the bishops power, but his own. So in 1604, when a Puritan scholar proposed the creation of a new translation of the Bible at a meeting at a religious conference at Hampton Court, James surprised him by agreeing.
Over the next seven years, 47 scholars and theologians worked to translate the different books of the Bible: the Old Testament from Hebrew, the New Testament from Greek and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. Much of the resulting translation drew on the work of the Protestant reformer William Tyndale, who had produced the first New Testament translation from Greek into English in 1525, but was executed for heresy less than a decade later.
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Purpose Of The King James Version
King James intended for the Authorized Version to replace the popular Geneva translation, but it took time for its influence to spread.
In the preface of the first edition, the translators stated that it was not their purpose to make a new translation but to make a good one better. They wanted to make the Word of God more and more known to the people. Before the KJV, Bibles were not readily available in churches. Printed Bibles were large and expensive, and many among the higher social classes wanted the language to remain complex and only available to the educated people of society.
What Is Catholic Bible
Catholic Bible is the Holy book of the Christians that contains 73 books of the Canon Scripture. The Canon Scriptures are the Christianity recognized Holy scriptures as authoritative. The Catholic Bible was made by referring the Canon Scriptures. The scriptures were in Hebrew and Greek.
At this juncture, it is better to understand a Jargon used in Christianity
Deuterocanonical Books: These are scriptures written in Greek which is translated from the original Hebrew Structure. They belong to the Old Testament. These are recognized and approved only by Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian Church.
The Catholic Bible not only has the 73 books but also includes the Deuterocanonical books. These were extant of the Old Testament in ancient times.
Catholic Bible can also be considered as the version built based on Catholic Canon Law. These laws were made the authorities of the Catholic Church then. The rules and regulations direct Christians to follow the activities of the Church. The Latin version of the Catholic Bible is considered to be the direct translation of the canon scriptures.
It is called the Vulgate and was observed to be translated in 4th Century AD. Any translation of the Catholic Bible after that happened from Vulgate. However, it is still considered that the Catholic Bible was written by the author himself and the Church believes it strongly.
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Who Translated The King James Bible
We now have a better Idea of the kind of English used in the King James Bible, and how it isnt so different from what we speak today. Yet, how was the Bible translated into English in the first place? Who even translated the King James Bible?
The man who did the most in translating the King James Bible is William Tyndale, whose work was predominately used after his execution to make the King James translation. With his work and at the behest of King James I, committees were formed to undergo making the translation.
William Tyndale was the man who did the most in translating the King James Bible, without ever directly working on it. Nearly all early English translations used William Tyndales work, with the King James version thought to have used almost 90% of his work word for word.
The astonishing numbers calculated in a study published in the journal Reformation, are that after his execution, the state supported committees translating the Bible into English in England used 84% of the New Testament and 76% of the Old Testament word for word, directly from Tyndales work.
The Great Bible, the work of Tyndale before he died, was used by King Henry VIII as the first authorized Anglican Bible. Later the King James Bible used most of this English translation work, with some small editing, and became hugely popular with protestants across the board.
William Tyndale
The Players The Stage And The Action
As the participants in the conference gathered in the palace, there would have been a special feeling of substance, significance, and permanence. They met in the kings sanctumhis Privy Chamber or private apartment. The participants were the king, his Privy Council of advisors, and nine bishops and deans. The bishops included John Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard Bancroft, the bishop of London.
Also present were four representatives of the Puritan cause, known to be mature, experienced, and moderate men: Dr. John Reynolds , head of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Laurence Chaderton, a noted preacher and Master of Emmanuel College in the Puritan stronghold of Cambridge John Knewstubs, Rector of Cockfield in Suffolk and Thomas Sparks, a relatively unknown preacher. But, although the Puritans were given a voice, it was clear the deck was stacked against them.
The Conference met on Saturday, January 14, 1604, and then also on the 16th and 18th. No official transcripts of the conference proceedings were permitted, so results have to be pieced together from various reports. The two main sources are Thomas Barlows official report The Summe and Substance of the Conference at Hampton Court and An Anonymous Account. Like Constantine at the Council of Nicea, James delivered the opening address. His opening words set the tone. The doctrine and polity of the state church was not up for evaluation or reconsideration:
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Shakespeare & The King James Bible
Anyone even vaguely familiar with the Christian Bible knows that there has never been a translation yet that surpassed the King James.
What nobody ever mentions and something I had never before considered is that the KJV Bible was created and produced at the very pinnacle of Shakespeares career. Not him, of course. Though there are legends about his alleged involvement.
But how many people, when they praise the unmatched linguistic beauty of that bible, know it sprang from the very same time and place as Shakespeare?
This is from Wikipedia:
The King James Version , commonly known as the Authorized Version or King James Bible , is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611.
Now that I know this, it makes me wonder how much of Shakespeares eloquence was in the air during that momentous decade of literary achievement not to take anything away from him, but rather to better understand the context of early 17th century England.
UPDATE: Thanks to Karla Tipton for alerting me to a documentary called The Story of English. The following is an excerpt from episode 3 titled Muse of Fire dealing specifically with the English language around Shakespeares time:
The documentary in its entirety may be viewed HERE.
From Wikipedia:
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The Kjv Translation Of The Nt Is Based On Relatively Recent Greek Manuscripts
As well as relying on previous English translations, the 1611 edition of the KJV relied on critically edited Greek texts that were for the most part based on about half a dozen very late manuscripts . These Greek texts included five printed editions of the Greek New Testament by Erasmus, as well as Robert Estiennes edition and Theodore Bezas edition . Michael Holmes writes more about the Greek texts behind English Bibles here.
Unfortunately, one of the manuscripts Estienne and Beza used for their Greek editions contained a few corrections that downplayed the importance of women in the church.
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What Is The Historical Reason The King James Version Was Created
Many years ago, I heard someone say that the KJV came about because King James I wanted a version of the Bible that supported him getting a divorce. Nowadays, I canât help but wonder how true this is. Thus, Iâm asking for the historical reasons the KJV came about.
- Check out the forward/dedication of the original KJV . Remember that it is always best to listen to the creators of the work when trying to guess their purpose instead of listening to contemporary âscholarsâ who like to lace every historical figure with dark motives.
Since one of the reasons for the English Reformation by King Henry VIII which lead to the creation of the Church of England was divorce, I doubt King James I would have needed a new translation.
From Wikipedia, it sounds like the main reasons for the commissioning of the KJV 70 years after the reformation were around translation errors believed to be in the existing English translations.
The newly crowned King James convened the Hampton Court Conference in 1604. That gathering proposed a new English version in response to the perceived problems of earlier translations as detected by the Puritan faction of the Church of England.
It sounds to me like what you had heard may have just been history getting crossed.
To begin with, that statement is logically flawed as the Bible does not condone divorce KJV or not.
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Did King James Write The King James Bible
Now lets get to the story of who wrote the King James Bible and why. With the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, peoples appetite for translation of ancient texts grew. This included ancient classical pieces as well as the Biblical texts which were written in Classical Greek and Hebrew. This desire led to the creation of the Tyndale Bible â translated in 1526 â and is credited as being the first English Bible translated from the original Greek and Hebrew texts.
In 1604 King James sought to address many of the religious differences by creating one universally accepted translation of the scriptures. This undertaking was begun by a committee of scholars led by John Rainolds. This was no small undertaking as the process literally took seven years it was a very meticulous undertaking. Rainolds never saw his work completed because he died four years before the King James Version of the Bible was published, which happened in 1611.
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The Bible In The Middle Ages
On the left is a prologue by St. Jerome: a letter to a bishop named Paulinus on the study of scripture. The Old Testament begins on the right, with an illuminated letter I decorating the opening words of Genesis: âIn principioâ .
Before the text of the Bible was translated into English, Christians used the Latin Bible known as the Vulgate. The Vulgate Bible was itself a translation, undertaken just decades after the Roman Empire legalized Christianity. Several different Latin versions of biblical texts had been produced during the early Christian period, but they were inconsistent in quality and accuracy. In 382, Pope Damasus asked Eusebius Hieronymusbetter known as Saint Jerometo revise the biblical text into a standard version using the everyday language of the Roman Empire: Latin. Jerome spent 23 years translating the text of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew. Jeromeâs translation gradually was adopted by all of Western Christianity. During the Middle Ages, the Vulgate was the Bible used throughout all of Western Europe, including England.
Is The King James The Original Bible
Many might wonder if the King James is the original Bible due to its popularity, and the fact that it was written in Early Modern English. This also begs the question: is the original Bible in English? Is King James the original Bible?
The King James is not the original Bible, but instead one of the first English translations of it. As a whole, the work is based largely upon the work of William Tyndale. All of the books in the Bible were written in ancient Hebrew and Greek, but the first full Bible was in Latin, not English.
This might be a shock for some, but the first complete Old and New Testament Bible was in Latin and certainly wasnt in English. What was the original Bible then, and why isnt it in English?
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