"Aiming at truth,
they achieved what later generations recognized as beauty and elegance."
Alister McGrath, In the Beginning, p. 254.
From
HolyBible.org
Winston Churchill
"The scholars who
produced this masterpiece are mostly unknown and unremembered. But they forged
an enduring link, literary and religious, between the English-speaking people
of the world." The King James Bible Translators; Olga S. Opfell;
Jefferson and London: McFarland, 1982.
"One of the
supreme achievements of the English Renaissance came at its close, in the King
James Bible...It is rightly regarded as the most influential book in the
history of English civilization...the King James Version combined homely,
dignified phrases into a style of great richness and loveliness. It has been a
model of writing for generations of English-speaking people."
Compton’s Encyclopedia,
Online Edition. Downloaded from America Online, May 26, 1995.
"The greatest English
Bible is the Authorized, or King James, Version. Based on Tyndale's translation
and original texts, it was produced in 1611 by six groups of churchmen at the
command of King James I. The King James Bible became the traditional Bible of
English-speaking Protestants. Its dignified and beautiful style strongly
influenced the development of literature in the English language. The influence
can be seen in the works of John Bunyan, John Milton, Herman Melville, and many
other writers."
Volume 3; Crowell-Collier
Educational Corporation; 1967, 1972 ed. p.p. 137, 138 Rev. Holt H. Graham; Rev.
Joseph M. Petulla; Mr. Cecil Roth.
Charlton Heston
"...the King James
translation has been described as 'the monument of English prose' as well as
'the only great work of art ever created by a committee'. Both statements are
true. Fifty four scholars worked seven years to produce the work from its
extant texts in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English. Such an undertaking
can be expected to produce great scholarship, but hardly writing as spare and
sublime as the King James....
“The authors of several
boring translations that have followed over the last fifty years mumble that
the KJV is "difficult" filled with long words. Have a look at the
difficult long words that begin the Old Testament, and end the Gospels: 'In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form,
and void; darkness was upon the face of the deep.' and 'Now, of the other
things which Jesus did, if they should be written every one, I suppose the
world itself could not contain the books that would be written.' Shakespeare
aside, there's no comparable writing in the language, as has been observed by
wiser men than I.
Over the past several
centuries it's been the single book in most households, an enormous force in
shaping the development of the English language. Carried around the world by
missionaries, it provided the base by which English is about to become the
lingua franca of the world in the next century. Exploring it during this shoot
[Ten Commandments] was one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my
life."
In the Arena: An Autobiography,
pp. 554-555.
George Bernard Shaw
"The translation
was extraordinarily well done because to the translators what they were
translating was not merely a curious collection of ancient books written by
different authors in different stages of culture, but the Word of God divinely
revealed through His chosen and expressly inspired scribes. In this conviction
they carried out their work with boundless reverence and care and achieved a
beautifully artistic result...they made a translation so magnificent that to
this day the common human Britisher or citizen of the United States of North
America accepts and worships it as a single book by a single author, the book
being the Book of Books and the author being God."
The Men Behind the King James Version, by G. S. Paine; Baker Book House; Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1959, 1977ed., pp. 182-183.
