Which Bible Do Catholics Use
Currently, there is only one lectionary reported to be in use corresponding exactly to an in-print Catholic Bible translation: the Ignatius Press lectionary based on the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition approved for liturgical use in the Antilles and by former Anglicans in the
Who Wrote The King James Bible
verifiedAdam Augustyn
Let there be light. My brothers keeper. Fight the good fight. A number of the most well-known phrases in the English language originated not in novels, plays, or poems but in a seminal translation of the Bible, the King James Version , which was published in 1611 at the behest of King James I of England. It is likely the most famous translation of the bible and was the standard English Bible for nearly three centuries. Many people think that its so named because James had a hand in writing it, but thats not the case. As king, James was also the head of the Church of England, and he had to approve of the new English translation of the Bible, which was also dedicated to him.
So if James didnt write it, who did? To begin with, theres no single author. One individualRichard Bancroft, the archbishop of Canterburywas notable for having the role of overseer of the project, something akin to a modern editor of a collection of short stories. The actual translating of the KJV was done by a committee of 47 scholars and clergymen over the course of many years. So we cannot say for certain which individual wrote a given passage.
King James Authorised The New Translation For Political Reasons
King James believed that a single, authorised version was a political and social necessity. He hoped this book would hold together the warring factions of the Church of England and the Puritans that threatened to tear apart both church and country. Most of the translators were clergymen belonging to the Church of England, but at least some had Puritan sympathies.
King James issued over a dozen rules that the translators had to follow. He disliked the Geneva Bible, the Bible used by the Puritans, because he believed that some of the comments in the margin notes were seditious and did not show enough respect for kings. James new translation was to have no commentary in the margins.
King James favoured the hierarchical structure of the Church of England and wanted the new translation to use words that supported a bishop-led hierarchy. In keeping with his preferred views on church government, he specified, The old ecclesiastical words to be kept as the word church not to be translated congregation. King James also ruled that only his new Bible could be read in Englands churches. The political motives of King James had a direct influence on the translation of the KJV.
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So Who Wrote The King James Bible
Well, the answer isnt in the question. While King James ‘authorised’ the work of the 1611 translation, he didnt write a word of it. Certainly, he wanted to see an accurate English Bible, but his chief concern was for a text that leaned neither toward the Latin Bible nor the Puritan ‘Geneva’ Bible.
So who translated dusty Greek and Hebrew texts into the vibrant, living English of the KJV? Surely not the 47 scholars and theologians, appointed by the King. Learned men, they were, but not poets, and surely incapable of the rhythm of Psalm 23, the imagery of 1 Corinthians 13, the concise Beatitudes and universally memorable words of The Lords Prayer. So who, then?
“Do you know who Bill Shakespeare was, sonny? Hes the fella that wrote the King James Bible.” – Walter ‘Monk’ McGinn .
Typeface Spelling And Format
The original printing was made before English spelling was standardized. They wrote v invariably for lower-case initial u and v, and u for u and v everywhere else. They used long ſ for non-final s. The letter j occurs only after i or as the final letter in a Roman numeral. Punctuation was used differently. The printers sometimes used ye for the, and wrote ã for an or am and so forth when space needed to be saved. Current printings remove most, but not all, of the variant spellings the punctuation has also been changed, but still varies from current usage norms.
The first printing used a black letter typeface instead of a Roman typeface. This contrasted with the Geneva Bible, which was the first English Bible printed in a Roman typeface. It also used Roman type instead of italics to indicate text that had been supplied by the translators, or thought needful for English grammar but which was not present in the Greek or Hebrew. The first printing used the device of using different type faces to show supplied words sparsely and inconsistently. This is perhaps the most significant difference between the original text and the current text.
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Secret Hallmark Of A Literary Craftsman
Jacobean conspiracy theorists point to cryptic clues that Shakespeare was involved in writing the King James Bible. Shakespeare scholars reckon the poet and playwright to be about 46 during the later stages of the translation.
In the King James Version of Psalm 46, the 46th word from the beginning is shake and the 46th word from the end is spear. Ignoring the fact that the words also appear in older English Bibles from before to 1611, what other proof would anyone need?
What Is Geneva Bible
Also known as the Breeches Bible, the Geneva Bible is an English translation of the Holy Bible published in 1560 by a group of protestants in exile from England and Scotland. They worked under the directions of scholars like Miles Coverdale, John Knox, and John Calvin.
This Bible is also one of the most important religious scripture in history to be translated into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. Great scholars like William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, and John Donne used this Bible due to its reputation as the most important bible of 16th English Protestantism.
King James despised the revolutionary Geneva Bible because he thought it was anarchical. He thought the Bibles notes threatened his authority and kingship. He described it as the antichrist. Paranoid, he outlawed the Geneva bible and ordered a new translation. This translation came to be known as the King James Bible.
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Bbc History Revealed Shares A Brief Explainer To The King James Bible
Q: What was the significance of the King James Bible?
The Christian Bible is a carefully selected and compiled collection of religious texts dating back, in some cases, thousands of years. It took several centuries of debate by theologians and church elders before the New Testament was set in stone in the fourth century.
Many early worshippers, though, couldnt read the Bible as it was predominantly written in Latin. This meant only those trained to understand scripture held the key to salvation, giving them immense power. It played a central part in Christianitys spread as faith, not knowledge, was the key. A translated Bible meant Christians could read the lessons of God for themselves for the first time.
Q: Was the King James Bible the first Bible written in English?
With the hubbub surrounding the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version in 2011, it could be understood why people may think it was the first, but the history isnt that simple. There were already English Bibles when work began on the translation, but it aimed to make up for the variable existing texts with a new and, the clues in the name, statesponsored effort.
It was during the English Reformation in the 16th century that changes took hold, as English translations became not just legal, but widely desired. Besides Wycliffes translation, popular versions included the scholar William Tyndales Bible, and the Geneva Bible, created in exile during the reign of Mary I.
Difference In The Contents
The original printing of the King James Version included the Apocrypha, so named in the text. It contained all the books and sections of books present in the Latin Vulgate’s Old Testament but missing in the Hebrew. Under the Thirty-Nine Articles, the doctrinal confession of the Church of England established in 1563, these books were considered non-canonical but were to be “read for example of life and instruction of manners”. This section also includes apocrypha from the Vulgate’s appendix. These texts are printed separately, between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. Verses unique to the ‘s version of the Book of Esther and the Book of Daniel were placed here, rather than included in the texts of those books. From approximately 1827, many editions have omitted this section, and the most common contemporary editions rarely include them. A list of these apocrypha can be found here.
The original printing also included a number of variant readings and alternative translations of some passages most current printings omit these. The original printing also included some marginal references to indicate where one passage of Scripture quoted or directly related to another. Most current printings omit these.
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King James Bible: Not
Many Bible readers who prefer modern English translations consider the King James language old-fashioned, even archaic. But like Shakespeare, the KJV translators were not afraid to use and even invent completely new words, such as ‘contentment’. The KJV is the first recorded appearance in print of the word ‘amazement’ .
To discover more about the history of the King James Bible, check out The People’s Bible by Derek Wilson. Available to order today.
The Age Of The Masoretes
The current received text finally achieved predominance through the reputation of the , schools of scribes and Torah scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in the cities of , , and in under the , , and . According to Menachem Cohen, these schools developed such prestige for the accuracy and error-control of their copying techniques that their texts established an authority beyond all others. Differences remained, sometimes bolstered by systematic local differences in pronunciation and . Every locality, following the tradition of its school, had a standard codex embodying its readings. In Babylonia, the school of differed from that of and similar differences existed in the schools of the Land of Israel as against that at Tiberias, which in later times increasingly became the chief seat of learning. In this period living tradition ceased, and the Masoretes in preparing their codices usually followed the one school or the other, examining, however, standard codices of other schools and noting their differences.
Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali
The Masorah was, for the most part, brought to a close in the 10th century with and who were the leading Masoretes of the time. Ben Asher wrote a standard codex embodying his opinions. Ben Naphtali likely did as well, though it has not survived. However, the differences between the two are found in more or less complete Masoretic lists and in quotations in David imi, Norzi, and other medieval writers.
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Considerations For A New Version
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. Here are three examples of problems the Puritans perceived with the Bishops and Great Bibles:
First, Galatians iv. 25 . The Greek word susoichei is not well translated as now it is, bordereth neither expressing the force of the word, nor the apostle’s sense, nor the situation of the place. Secondly, psalm cv. 28 , ‘They were not obedient ‘ the original being, ‘They were not disobedient.’ Thirdly, psalm cvi. 30 , ‘Then stood up Phinees and prayed,’ the Hebrew hath, ‘executed judgment.’
The committees started work towards the end of 1604. King James VI and I, on 22 July 1604, sent a letter to Archbishop Bancroft asking him to contact all English churchmen requesting that they make donations to his project.
Walking The Factional Balance
James would need to walk a delicate balance in trying to keep the various factions in peaceful accord. The Roman Catholics, called Papists by Protestants, longed for the English church to return to the Roman fold. The main body of Puritans were loyal to the crown but wanted further distance from Rome. Orbiting beyond these two groups were a number of others, all with their needs and demands to be navigated by the new king.
The Presbyterians were Puritans who were ready to do away with the hierarchical structure of powerful bishops. They advanced what they identified as the New Testament model of local and collegial church administration under elders or presbyters, and they sought every opportunity to remake the Church of England in that image. It would never happen, but that didnt stop them from trying.
There was also Parliament, eager to expand its power base beyond the perfunctory role it had been allowed thus far. And, not incidentally, there was a significant Puritan influence and representation in Parliament. Then there were the bishops of the Church of England. Their role was different from that of their successors today. They were a genuine elite, with exceptional power, privilege, and wealth to protect. To them, Puritan agitation was far more than an intellectual abstraction to be debated at Oxford and Cambridge. If the Puritans were to prevail, this hierarchy had much to lose.
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King James Only Movement
The King James Only movement advocates the belief that the King James Version is superior to all other English translations of the Bible. Most adherents of the movement believe that the Textus Receptus is very close, if not identical, to the original autographs, thereby making it the ideal Greek source for the translation. They argue that manuscripts such as the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, on which most modern English translations are based, are corrupted New Testament texts. One of them, Perry Demopoulos, was a director of the translation of the King James Bible into Russian. In 2010 the Russian translation of the KJV of the New Testament was released in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2017, the first complete edition of a Russian King James Bible was released. In 2017, a Faroese translation of the King James Bible was released as well.
The English Bibles Real Secret Author
There is, however, someone who deserves more credit than anyone for the actual words and phrases of the KJV. Hes the pioneer English translator who died for his commitment to translating Gods written words and wisdom into the English language. That man is William Tyndale.Tyndale’s 1524 translation was the first English Bible of the Reformation, the first to draw directly on Hebrew and Greek rather than Latin and the first to fully exploit the advantages of printing. His Bible defied the Latin Church and his opposition to Henry VIIIs divorce challenged the new English Church.
In 1536 he was betrayed, sentenced and executed. Tyndales reported dying prayer: Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes, wouldnt be answered until 1611.In creating the King James Bible the college of scholars and theologians draw heavily on Tyndales original. Somewhere between 80 and 90% of the King James Version is from Tyndales work. Among the well known King James phrases and verses quoted today many, including Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers…, are among the one-third of the text taken word-for-word from William Tyndales Bible. So who wrote the King James Bible? William Tyndale wrote it or a very good part of it.
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The Bible Was Authorized By The King
This myth was created due largely to the title used today for the KJV. The King James Bible or the . Either name is not bad, but it often convinces people that the Bible was somehow the product of the kings command.
In fact, the king never formally authorized or endorsed the Bible directly. The last Bible in English to receive royal sanction was the Great Bible during the reign of Henry VIII.
Ultimately, James was embarrassed to inherit a divided Anglican churchand he wanted neither side to win at his first meeting with church leaders at Hampton Court. He upbraided both, though he backed the established church. In this, we glimpse some of Jamess policy on Puritanism: he decided to hold two apparent contradictions in tension.
Like Elizabeth, he continued to stress the need for conformity to the pattern of Anglicanism, and yet, when reasonable, he would allow more breathing room for those Puritans who felt the established church wounded their conscience.
One may find this a bad gamble on peace, but it is also likely James was exercising good leadershipbending for the sake of those who needed it, not breaking for those who demanded it. At some point, the Puritan John Reynolds, a scholar from Oxford, suggested the idea of approving a new English translation of the Bible. James loved the idea. On the Bible, there was no division: both sides hewed to the Protestant understanding of the Word of God.
A Brief History Of The Kings James Bible
Prior to the discovery of the most complete, ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament the Codices Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus and Vaticanus we possessed only much later copies in Greek. One of the most important translations of the Bible, the King James Version, was based not on these earliest manuscripts but on the later Greek texts, as well as on the preceding English editions such as the Tyndale, Great, Geneva and Catholic Bibles, the latter of which was in turn founded upon Jeromes Latin Vulgate.
Claimed by many Christian fundamentalists to be the only inspired and inerrant translation of the Bible into English, the King James Version, also called the Authorized Version, possesses an interesting history, in that it was composed over several years from 1604 to 1609 by six groups comprising upwards of 40 translators. Each translators section was edited by the other members of the group, then passed around to the other groups, and so on, until a finalized version was accepted and was subsequently published in 1611.
This complex history provokes several questions, including why the Holy Spirit needed so many minds and hands to work on Gods Word.
Concerning the KJV, New Testament scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman remarks:
The King James was not given by God but was a translation by a group of scholars in the early seventeenth century who based their rendition on a faulty Greek text.
The Tyndale Translation
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