Alister
McGrath
"Aiming at truth,
they achieved what later generations recognized as beauty and elegance."
Alister McGrath, In the Beginning, p. 254.
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From
Christian History Institute
“ENGLAND HAS
TWO BOOKS: the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible
made England.” — Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
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 indifferent 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.”
— George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Quoted in G. S. Paine, The
Men Behind the King James Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1959,
1977), pp. 182–183
H.
L. Menken, Famous Journalist and Agnostic
“It is the most
beautiful of all the translations of the Bible; indeed, it is probably the most
beautiful piece of writing in all the literature of the world. Many attempts
have been made to purge it of its errors and obscurities. An English Revised
Version was published in 1885 and an American Revised Version in 1901, and
since then many learned but misguided men have sought to produce translations
that should be mathematically accurate, and in the plain speech of everyday.
But the Authorized Version has never yielded to any of them, for it is palpably
and overwhelmingly better than they are, just as it is better than the Greek
New Testament, or the Vulgate, or the Septuagint. Its English is
extraordinarily simple, pure, eloquent, lovely. It is a mine of lordly and
incomparable poetry, at once the most stirring and the most touching ever heard
of.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956).
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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.
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Compton’s
Encyclopedia, Online Edition.
"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."
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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.
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Charlton
Heston
In
the Arena: An Autobiography, pp. 554-555.
"...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."
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Theodore
P. Letis
“Moreover, those clergy
who have obediently fallen in line with the New Tradition have sent a
clear signal to their parishioners and colleagues that, unlike William Tyndale,
they no long find the verbal view of inspiration compelling.”
The Ecclesiastical Text:
Text Criticism, Biblical Authority, and
the Popular Mind, 1997.
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Trinitarian Bible Society
“The Authorised Version
translators continued in the textual tradition which the church had used and
accepted for hundreds of years. In doing so, they continued the solidarity of
both original language texts and also of Earlier English translations upon
which they based their work.”
The Authorised Version:
What Today’s Christian Needs To Know about the Authorised (King James) Version, 2012, p. 2.
TBS
– The Excellence of the Authorised Version
"The conspicuous merits
of the ‘new version’ of 1611 gradually gained recognition. It was not only pronounced
more scholarly, but it was found to be more readable than any other English
translation of the Scriptures. Many of the changes incorporated in the Authorised
Version were not designed to give a new meaning to the Scriptures, but to
express the old meaning in another way, for the sake of literary improvement.
Changes were made to make the English agree better
with the truth of the original, but far more were made for the sake of good,
plain English and pleasant cadence in reading. The translators introduced a
sweeter, smoother and more stately diction into our English Bible, and this was
a great gain.
Public
reading
The English Bible is
designed for public reading, and whatever makes it read more smoothly, and in a
style of pathos or majesty more accordant with its subject matter, is a help to
the reader and a benefit to the hearer. The statements of the Bible that bear on
our conduct and comfort, on our salvation and sanctification, are meant to be
remembered, so as to be present in our minds whenever temptations or
afflictions come our way. Whatever choice or arrangement of words makes these
statements of the Bible more striking or more impressive, more pleasant to the ear,
or more fascinating to the imagination, makes them also more easily remembered,
and more potent for good.
It is not enough that
our English Bible be a mathematically correct translation from the original Scriptures,
word for word, point for point. It should, both in its literary grace and in
its Divine revelations, be a well-spring of spiritual life in the broadest and
highest sense of the terms. We cannot be too grateful, therefore, that the
framers of our Authorised Version were not only skilled in ‘the discernment of tongues’,
but were gifted with an ear for melody. This particular excellence of the AV
was recognized even by Roman Catholic scholars who feared that it would make a deep
impression upon the minds of many readers. Archbishop Faber declared,
Who
will not say that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the Protestant
Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country? It lives on
the ear, like a music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church
bells, which the convert hardly knows how he can forgo. Its felicities often
seem to be almost things rather than mere words. It is part of the national
mind, and the anchor of national seriousness.
At the present time one
might well inquire whether any such testimony could be borne in praise of any
of the numerous modern versions that are offered in its place.”
Trinitarian Bible Society
Booklet
