Appreciating the King James Version
The most read English Bible is the King James Version, with
55% of the readers, compared to 19% for the latest New International Version,
the English Standard Version, and the New Revised Standard Version.[1]
The numbers are surprising, given the strong sales of NIV translations in
bookstores. The NIV has topped the CBA's
bestselling Bible translation list for decades, and continued
to sell robustly in
2013.
The high numbers of KJV readers confirm the findings of last
year's American Bible Society (ABS) State
of the Bible report. On behalf of ABS, Barna Group
found that 52 percent of Americans read the King James or the New King James
Version, compared with 11 percent who read the NIV.
The KJV also received almost 45 percent of the Bible translation-related searches on Google,
compared with almost 24 percent for the NIV, according to Bible Gateway's
Stephen Smith.
In fact, searches for the KJV seem to be rising distinctly since 2005,
while most other English translations are staying flat or are declining,
according to Smith's Google research.
The percentages dwindle after the first three modern wannabees,
and there are so many more versions, scaled down to insipid and verbose. The
KJV has much to commend it, not only for its use of the Majority Text but also
for its deliberately grand, formal, and eloquent style. If some complain that
the KJV reads too much like Shakespeare, others respond that the modern
versions sound too much like television cartoons. Even worse, all the modern
“scientific” texts are at war against the Majority Text and against each other
too, because they remove and corrupt so many passages, diluting and changing
the actual message of God’s Word. Nevertheless, the Lutheran synods (ELCA,
LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC, ELDONA) and all other mainline denominations reject the
KJV for their worship, colleges and seminaries, printed readings, and official
proclamations. Beyond that opposition, agreement is absent about which bad
translation or paraphrase they think is best.
Details about the development of the KJV and the crimes of
the modern text and translation experts will follow. First, let us cite the
reasons why the KJV is favored above the rest and destined to outlast the newest,
ever-changing, increasingly vapid Bibles. The greatest statement is simple and
profound –
Gustavus Swift Paine
“May your Majesty be pleased,” said Dr. John Rainolds in his
address to the king, “to direct that the Bible be now translated, such versions
as are extant not answering to the original.”
Rainolds was a Puritan, and the Bishop of London felt it his
duty to disagree. “If every man’s humor might be followed,” snorted His Grace,
“there would be no end to translating.”
King James was quick to put both factions down. “I profess,”
he said, “I could never yet see a Bible well translated in English, but I think
that of Geneva is the worst.” The Learned Men, p. 1, 1834. Forgotten
Books.
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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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Harvard University Press
“We have as a rule used the King James Version in
translations, and our reasons for doing so must be obvious: it is the version
most English readers associated with the literary qualities of the Bible, and
it is still arguably the version that best preserves the literary effects of the
original languages.”
The Literary Guide to the Bible, edited by Robert
Alter and Frank Kermod, Harvard University Press, 1987, p. 7.
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Victor Hugo, from Christian History Institute[2]
“ENGLAND HAS TWO BOOKS: the Bible and Shakespeare. England
made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.” — Victor
Hugo (1802–1885)
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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
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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 Authorised 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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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. From HolyBible.org
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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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From America Online, May 26, 1995
"The greatest English Bible is the Authorised, 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 everyone, 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 longer 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.
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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.
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Public Reading- Trinitarian Bible Society
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 marvelous
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[3]
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Preface to the Original King James Version
• 22 It is not only an armour, but also a whole armoury of
weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save ourselves and put
the enemy to flight.
• 23 It is not an herb, but a tree, or rather a whole
paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every month, and the fruit
thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine.
• 24 It is not a pot of Manna, or a cruse of oil, which were
for memory only, or for a meal's meat or two, but as it were a shower of
heavenly bread sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great; and as it
were a whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be
provided for and our debts discharged.
• 25 In a word, it is a panary ((bread Pantry)) of wholesome
food, against fenowed [mouldy.] traditions; a physician's shop [κοινον
ιατρειον. S.Basil. in Psal.primum.] (Saint Basil calleth it) of preservatives
against poisoned heresies; a pandect ((a complete body)) of profitable laws
against rebellious spirits; a treasury of most costly jewels against beggarly
rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water springing up unto everlasting
life.
• 26 And what marvel? the original thereof being from
heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the inditer, the Holy
Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the penmen, such as were
sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal portion of God's Spirit;
the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness; the form, God's word, God's
testimony, God's oracles, the word of truth, the word of salvation, etc.; the
effects, light of understanding, stableness of persuasion, repentance from dead
works, newness of life, holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end
and reward of the study thereof, fellowship with the Saints, participation of
the heavenly nature, fruition of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that
never shall fade away.
• 27 Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and
thrice happy that meditateth in it day and night.
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Alexander McClure
“The first decided steps, however, toward giving to the
English nation a Bible printed in their own tongue, were the translations of
the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, made by William Tyndale, and by him printed at
Hamburg, in the year 1524; -- and a translation of the whole of the New
Testament, printed by him partly at Cologne, and partly at Worms, in 1525.”
Alexander McClure, The Translators Revived, Lutheran
Library Publishing Ministry, p. 6.
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Robert Martin
“Why is accuracy of translation so important? Because the
Bible is the Word of the living God. It is an utterly unique book. It is the
inscripturated revelation to mankind of God’s mind and will and the inspired
record of His redemptive work. And this being so, there is no more important
piece of literature in the world. Thus, the accuracy of the Bible’s translation
is of the utmost importance.”
Robert Martin, Accuracy of Translation, The Banner of
Truth Trust, 1989, p. 2.
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David Blunt
“Omission of material found in the Authorised Version (AV)
is the main type of alteration found in the modern versions. The New Testament
of one popular modern version, the New International Version (NIV), first
published in 1973, omits seventeen complete verses found in the AV—a figure
found applicable to most modern versions.”
David Blunt, Which Bible Version: Does It Really Matter?
Trinitarian Bible Society, 2007, p. 3.
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Dr. Aland’s Influence on the New International
Version
“Dr. Aland’s pernicious views of the unreliability of our
Bibles in the original manuscripts is profoundly seen in the NIV Bible. The
same hand that would excise whole books of the Bible from our Canon would also
excise many, many texts.”
Hembd, What Today’s Christian Needs to Know about Dr. Kurt
Aland, Trinitarian Bible Society, 2007, p. 11f.
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Jim Mitchell
“Dear Pastor Greg,
I just wanted to take the time to congratulate you on
informing the world of the outstanding accuracy/dependability of the KJV
translation. You have done what this journalist used to dream of. I know I'm
not telling you anything, but you really have the story of all time since it is
important to the salvation journey of all. What a wondrous work the Lord has
done through you. You’ve investigated and specified credible reasons for the
total lack of credibility of certain “biblical experts” and the obvious harm
they have done. I would be glad for any recommendations you may have on
studying Greek and Hebrew.”
[1]
Christianity Today, March, 2014, quoted a survey giving 55% to the KJV,
only 19% to the NIV, single digits for the New RSV, etc. Single digits still
add up to a lot of Bibles in the wrong hands. The Most Popular and Fastest
Growing Bible Translation Isn't What You Think It Is.
[3]
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.tbsbibles.org/resource/collection/D1B0BDBE-CD9E-4D12-BBDD-138677F98835/The-Excellence-of-the-Authorised-Version.pdf
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New Additions for This KJV List
What happened to supporters of English-language Bibles?
Although Wycliffe had died in 1384, he did not escape Papal retribution. In 1415 he was declared a heretic, his bones were exhumed and burned along with his books, and the ashes cast into the River Swift at Lutterworth. By then the Lollard movement was in decline and it would be a hundred years before further attempts were made for an English Bible.
How did the Tyndale Bible come about?
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How did the King James version come about?
But by Shakespeare's time, England had split with Rome, and the political scenery had changed markedly. Bibles in English were now available, such as Henry VIII's authorised 'Great Bible'; the 'Geneva Bible', copiously furnished with Protestant footnotes.
King James I (r. 1603–25; he was also James VI of Scotland) abolished the death penalty attached to English Bible translation, and commissioned a new version that would use the best available translations and sources, and importantly, be free of biased footnotes and commentaries.
The translation committee of 50 scholars drew on many sources, especially Tyndale's New Testament (as much as 80% of Tyndale's translation is reused in the King James version). The result was first printed in 1611, and was 'appointed to be read in churches'. For this purpose, it was published in a large format, suitable for public use, and without illustrations. The use of the antiquated 'black letter' font was intended to add status and authority to the new version.
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Impact of the KJV
Today, when Americans reach for their Bibles, more than half (55%) of them still reach for the King James Version. Many Christians were brought up with the King James Version and appreciate the familiarity of it. Its language is a part of their spiritual vocabulary.
In Psalm 119:1, David says, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.” The cadence, rhythm, and flow of the King James Version has helped facilitate that “hiding” process in countless hearts. Its memorable phrasing has a timeless appeal.
Alexander Geddes, a Roman Catholic priest and translation scholar, summarized it best in 1792 when he wrote of the King James Bible:
“If accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions, must, in general, be accounted the most excellent. Every sentence, every word, every syllable, and every letter and point, seems to have been weighed with the nicest exactitude; and expressed, either in the text, or margin, with the greatest precision.”
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King James Bible: How it changed the way we speak
- BBC
The impact of the King James Bible, which was published 400 years ago, is still being felt in the way we speak and write, says Stephen Tomkins.
No other book, or indeed any piece of culture, seems to have influenced the English language as much as the King James Bible. Its turns of phrase have permeated the everyday language of English speakers, whether or not they've ever opened a copy.
The Sun says Aston Villa "refused to give up the ghost". Wendy Richard calls her EastEnders character Pauline Fowler "the salt of the earth". The England cricket coach tells reporters, "You can't put words in my mouth." Daily Mirror fashion pages call Tilda Swinton "a law unto herself".
Though each of those phrases was begotten of the loins of the English Bible, it's safe to say that none of those speakers was deliberately quoting the Bible to people they expected to be familiar with its contents.
And while a 2009 survey by Durham University found that only 38% of us know the parable of prodigal son, a recent book by the linguist David Crystal, appropriately called Begat: The King James Bible and the English language, counts 257 phrases from the King James Bible in contemporary English idiom.
Such statistics take us back to days of old when this Bible was the daily reading of millions of people throughout the English speaking world, from Northamptonshire cobblers to US presidents - though not perhaps so far distant in the latter case.
Readers absorbed its language both directly and through other reading. Tennyson considered Bible reading "an education in itself", while Dickens called the New Testament "the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world."
The US statesman Daniel Webster said: "If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures." Equally celebrated as a British orator, TB Macaulay said that the translation demonstrated "the whole extent of [the] beauty and power" of the English language.
Why has its influence been so marked? Alister McGrath, professor of theology, ministry and education at King's College, London, is the author of In the Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and how it changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture.
He points to several reasons. The Bible was "a very public text", he says. "It would have been read aloud in churches very, very extensively, which would have imprinted it on people's minds."
Then, going back to the likes of Dickens and Webster, there's the way influential people mediated and amplified the effect.
"The King James Bible" says McGrath, "had a very significant influence on the movers and shakers, particularly in London, who had a huge influence on what ordinary people took to be good English."
Another reason was that the time was ripe. "English was in a particularly fluid state. Both the works of Shakespeare and the King James Bible appeared around this formative time and stamped their imprint on the newer forms of the language."
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Baylor Baptist University
How the King James Bible changed the world
The year 2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James translation of the Bible, one of the landmark events in the history of Christianity -- in the history of the faith in England, in Europe, and ultimately on a global scale. To commemorate the event, Baylor University recently played host to a remarkable international conference on "The King James Bible and the World it Made, 1611-2011." The need for such a celebration seemed obvious enough, given the translation's vast importance in shaping Anglo-American culture and literature, language and politics; but it was of course the book's central religious element that made it such a natural fit for Baylor. It is scarcely too much to say that the King James Bible represents a critical foundation of Protestant Christianity in the English-speaking world, and the book's influence ranges deep into other traditions. How could we let such an epochal moment pass without proper notice?
In 1611, the new British state headed by King James I issued its translation of the complete Bible, "newly translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. By His Majesty's special command. Appointed to be read in churches." The book gave English-speaking Christians a common standard through which they could express their faith. Soon, the spread of printing technology meant that this translation above all became the definitive Bible that believers kept in their houses, and before too long, carried in their pockets. Although originally intended for Anglicans, the new translation soon spread its influence across the spectrum of emerging denominations and sects, as it gave voice to Presbyterians and Congregationalists, Quakers and Baptists. After all, King James's reign coincided with an astonishingly spiritual ferment, as Protestants debated furiously their relationship with the state and whether it was even possible for faithful Christians to accept the decisions of secular power. The year 1609, for instance, marked the beginning of the Baptist churches in the English-speaking world.
- Victor Hugo
And of course, there was a vast global dimension. When we recall how English colonies were beginning to spread around the world in 1611 -- how a settlement was already developing tentatively in Virginia (from 1607), with Massachusetts only a few years away -- we realize how wonderfully the translators timed their work, how providentially. Over the coming centuries, the Christianity of the British Isles would become a driving force in Christian expansion worldwide -- in North America, in Africa, in the Caribbean, in South Asia -- and wherever those believers went, they brought with them the structures and cadences of the King James Bible. Whenever and wherever English-speaking Christians debated their faith, when they debated the nuances of words and phrases, the words over which they battled were those of a common Bible translation, the one that appeared in 1611.
The King James Bible formed the emerging Protestant Christianity of the Anglo-American world, and that claim is stunning in its own right. But the text had an impact even beyond that, shaping the whole culture of the English-speaking world. As even its bitterest detractors concede, the 1611 Bible is a literary masterpiece of the first order, a triumph of both prose and verse. If the year 1611 coincided with the beginnings of the British Empire, it also marked the high point of the English Renaissance. The new Bible translation appeared within a couple of years of the first performance of some of the greatest plays in English -- William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and "The Winter's Tale," John Webster's "The White Devil" and "The Duchess of Malfi," Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist" -- and at the time of John Donne's poetry, and the philosophy and science of Sir Francis Bacon. (Even this list does not begin to mention the contemporary achievements in music, architecture and the visual arts.)
The Bible translators were working in an era of staggering literary accomplishment, but moreover at a time when writers felt no inhibitions about restructuring the language and its literary forms, or of coining hundreds of new words as it fitted their moods and met their purposes. Nor did they have the slightest hesitation about borrowing freely from foreign cultures, or about drawing from the humble plebeian forms they saw all around them; all was grist. In the hands of these linguistic entrepreneurs, the English language was passing through an intoxicating period of transformation and re-creation.
What a moment in history! Rudyard Kipling celebrated the making of England in a once-famous poem, which appeared in the tercentennial year of the King James Version, in 1911: "England's on the anvil! Heavy are the blows! (But the work will be a marvel when it's done.) ... England's being hammered, hammered, hammered into shape!"
To adapt his words slightly, around 1611 the English language likewise was being hammered into shape, and the Bible translators were both the beneficiaries of this process and its craftsmen. The King James Bible survives as a definitive monument of the process of invention -- and the work was, indeed, a marvel when it was done. This was the work that would soon find itself on the shelves of millions of ordinary, faithful believers, and even for those who could not read, these were the words they would hear in the church and marketplace. French writer Victor Hugo thought that "England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England."
The new Bible indeed shaped the emerging English language, and spread those patterns of speech, thought and meter throughout the world. And the fact that this Bible, of course, proclaimed the core Judeo-Christian message and worldview meant that those were the irreducible, foundational ideas of the English-speaking world. Noting the power that speech and language possess in shaping thought and behavior, linguistic scholars declare not that we speak language, but rather that "language speaks us." After the King James Bible, English speakers had no option but to declare that Scripture speaks us. The quirks of the King James translators became a basic part of our everyday speech and thought.
Most observers would say that this heritage has been vastly beneficial in linking religious truth so closely with linguistic majesty, aesthetic splendor and verbal precision. Among other things, the King James Bible established a universally familiar pattern of what "religious speech" should sound like in English. The model would be followed by virtually every alternative gospel and new prophetic revelation over the centuries to come, although the results would often represent a pastiche. Of course, it is implied, God must be speaking in this bold new text: Does He not sound like He did in 1611?
Just how fundamental a part of our language the Bible's words have become is hard to exaggerate. In a recent piece in the British newspaper The Independent, journalist Boyd Tonkin illustrates the point:
"In a secular age where ignorance of religion goes from strength to strength (Psalms 84:7) among lovers of filthy lucre (1 Timothy 3:8) who only want to eat, drink and be merry (Luke 12:19), we know for a certainty (Joshua 23:13) that these resonant words endure as a fly in the ointment (Ecclesiastes 10:1) and a thorn in the flesh
(2 Corinthians 12:7) of the powers that be (Romans 13:1). They can still set the teeth on edge (Jeremiah 31:29) of those who try to worship God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24). But does this ancient book, proof that there is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), now cast its pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6), and act as a voice crying in the wilderness (Luke 3:4) -- a drop in a bucket (Isaiah 40:15) of unbelief, no longer a sign of the times (Matthew 16:3) but a verbal stumbling-block (Leviticus 19:14)?"
Even thinkers not sympathetic to the Bible's message still praise its language. Famous skeptic H. L. Mencken found in the King James "a mine of lordly and incomparable poetry, at once the most stirring and the most touching ever heard of." Another remarkable testimonial to the influence of the KJV comes from New Atheist thinker Richard Dawkins, who normally has nothing good to say about any aspect of religion. On the King James, however, he becomes lyrical, so much so that he prays, apologetically, "Forgive me, spirit of science!" But as he asks, how on earth can anyone who cares about language be so ignorant and insensitive as not to appreciate the magnificent tones of the KJV? He continues, again freely quoting King James-isms, "If my words fall on stony ground -- if you pass me by as a voice crying in the wilderness -- be sure your sin will find you out. Between us there is a great gulf fixed and you are a thorn in my flesh. We have come to the parting of the ways. I fear it is a sign of the times." And those are the words of a declared mortal enemy of the Bible!
No serious study of literature in English can neglect the impact of the 1611 Bible, and that is equally true for any century from the 17th through the 20th. All the great canonical authors are immersed in that Bible, even (or especially) those who reject its fundamental religious message. To put it ironically, the Bible they reject is the 1611 version, which created the literary air we breathe. The King James language informs and inspires American literature, from Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne through Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. It has its special power in African American tradition, from Frederick Douglass through Alice Walker.
Scientists too, as well as literary giants, found their awestruck vision of the universe in this Bible. When Samuel Morse sent his first revolutionary telegraph message in 1844, it quoted the Book of Numbers in -- what else? -- King James English: "What hath God wrought!" Historians sometimes use that phrase to encapsulate the ecstatic spirit of joy in discovery that characterized 19th-century America, but the innovation was rooted in that ancient English-speaking past.
Politically, too, the language of the 1611 Bible is inextricably bound up with the evolving discourse in freedom, in Britain and its Commonwealth, but above all in the American colonies and the later United States. John Winthrop famously envisaged a "city upon a hill." As the Liberty Bell proclaims -- quoting the King James translation of Leviticus -- "Proclaim freedom throughout the land!" And the prophetic visions of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and other radical reformers were, almost infallibly, framed in the language of King James. The dreams they had owed their shape to the visionary translators of 1611. If, generally, Scripture speaks us, then specifically, the King James Bible spoke America.
Given the central role of the 1611 translation, its quadricentennial naturally demands celebration, with an added sense of rededication. But beyond commemoration, the anniversary also calls for a rethinking of the text and its importance in the 21st century, and these themes have stimulated much recent writing and research. For example, the original King James Bible owed its success to the development of new media forms that massively democratized access to knowledge in the form of cheap printing. That era began the great era of printed text, an epoch that may be drawing to its end in our day. We must think just how the Bible adapts to new forms of media technology.
In wider terms, we look at the Christian world which relies on the Bible, whether the King James or some later version. For centuries, the King James stood at the heart of Christian culture in the Anglosphere, the English-speaking world. But what is the role of Christian culture in much of that world today, in the face of widespread secularization? Countries like Great Britain and Australia are today among the most secular on the planet. We must ask what relevance that history has in these post-Christian cultures: At what point does the Bible cease to be the anchor of a Christian culture?
Yet while Christianity might be on the defensive in some parts of the world, it is clearly thriving and expanding elsewhere. Indeed, we live at an astonishing time in the expansion of Christianity beyond its historic heartlands, as the church grows with astonishing rapidity in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Many of these, particularly in Africa, have tremendous devotion to the King James tradition, in a world in which English is becoming a lingua franca. As scholars, we must explore how the experiences of these newer churches compare with the historical record of the English-speaking world. What can we in the global North learn from them -- or they from us?
Four hundred years after the King James Bible, it would be tempting to consign its story to the past, to see it as fading into antiquity. Yet the more we consider the King James phenomenon, the truer we may find the words of William Faulkner: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." If we do not understand where our Christian tradition comes from, we cannot begin to understand our future.
