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| Clever marketing - the last "discovered" codex was designated Aleph to make it appear ancient, but it was written on beautiful white leather - like new. Fraud? Forgery? Sigh-Nigh-Tea-Us. |
After giving up on the Egyptian pyramids - too many, too old, too mysterious - I moved into the history of the British Empire. The BBC has many great narratives about kings, queens, and William Tyndale.
King James I is remarkable because he apprenticed as King of Scotland. Queen Elizabeth refused to designate a successor, so the crown fell upon James when she died. He had years of serving up north. That gave him a perspective and reputation that was much better for Britain than dragging in someone from Europe.
King James united England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, a remarkable accomplishment. This also meant that the official Bible for reading in church services was the one ordered by King James for that purpose. The English call it the Authorized Version while we normally call it the King James Version.
Earlier the Pope commented on Queen Elizabeth, "She only rules an island, and just a part of it, but all of Europe is afraid of her." That was the beginning of the British Empire - the spread of English and the KJV all over the world. Apart from some minor editing, the KJV remained the same for 400 years, establishing the norms for English speaking people (with help from the Earl of Oxford aka Shakespeare).
The Bad-Bible-Boosters have mined the Scripture industry for all the loot they could grab for themselves. They brag about how good their Bibles are. Each modernist version changes the wording every few months and each has many versions of their own versions, making it impossible to know the original text. Thus we have the ever-shifting Evil Four plus One - NIV, RSV, ESV, NRSV plus the Beck.
More importantly - the Greek text of the New Testament is a hack job by the biggest liars and phonies of all time. Setting aside the 5,000 examples from the Byzantine tradition (Greek language empire, Christian), they promoted the laughable Codex Vaticanus and the inventive "discovery" of Codex Sinaiticus. Neither codex is old or reliable or genuine. Given that ever-shifting fraudulent text, no modern translation has any merit.
On the cheerful side, the KJV reigns supreme among the discerning. The Bad-Bible-Boosters may use the Word of God as a printing press for money, but they own mere slivers of a divided market.
The Lutheran synods, sects, and cell groups have more Bible versions than ever before.
