It was certainly in the minds of the Jacobean authorities that the new text of the Bible should buttress and not erode the power of worldly authorities.
The King James Bible has been dethroned now. Since then, there have been 60 major new translations, a surge of Bible English which even the fevered years of the Reformation could not match. Nor does this flood of translations take into account the proliferating zoo of new printed and online versions. Merely, then, as an historical experience, to look into the pages of the King James Bible is to enter a world of cultural unity which to a great extent coloured the consciousness of English-speaking people from the s to the s.
Its particular combination of majesty and freedom, of clarity and richness, was for centuries held, particularly by the Victorians, to be the defining terms of our national identity. Here English-speakers found a Hebrew-derived sense of obedience allied to a Greek-derived sense of virtue, knowledge and beauty. Page after page reads like organ music. The word presbyterie was like waving a red flag before a bull. The king exploded in reply: "If you aim at a Scots Presbyterie, it agreeth as well with monarchy as God and the devil!
Then Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick shall meet and censure me and my council. At this point, he warned Reynolds: "If this be all your party hath to say, I will make them conform themselves, or else I will harrie them out of the land, or else do worse!
While Reynolds' unfortunate use of the term presbyterie damaged the Puritan case, he does get credit for proposing the most significant achievement of the conference. Reynolds "moved his majesty that there might be a new translation of the Bible because those which were allowed in the reign of King Henry VIII and King Edward VI were corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the original.
He was bothered more by its sometimes borderline revolutionary marginal notes than by the actual quality of the translation. So James ordered a new translation. It was to be accurate and true to the originals. He appointed fifty of the nation's finest language scholars and approved rules for carefully checking the results. James also wanted a popular translation. He insisted that the translation use old familiar terms and names and be readable in the idiom of the day. It was made clear that James wanted no biased notes affixed to the translation, as in the Geneva Bible.
He decreed that special pains be "taken for a uniform translation, which should be done by the best learned men in both Universities, then reviewed by the Bishops, presented to the Privy Council, lastly ratified by the Royal authority Consider how preposterous it was to have a team of elite scholars writing for a largely illiterate public. We can only stand back in amazement at their achievement.
Think how ludicrous the translation mandate was. It called for a product commissioned to reinforce a clear-cut royal political agenda, to be done by elite scholarly committees, reviewed by a self-serving bureaucracy, with ultimate approval reserved to an absolutist monarch.
The final product was intended primarily for public and popular consumption. It was to be read orally -- intended more to be heard in public than to be read in private. How many works of literary genius do you recall that were done by committee? How many premier scholars are you aware of who can write for the ear? Not to mention in a context intended to evoke a spirit of worship! How optimistic would you have been that a team of about 50 could handle the technical and linguistic challenges while at the same time producing a work with a cadence, rhythm, imagery, and structure that would resonate so deeply with the popular consciousness that it shaped a civilization and culture in a unique way?
However, history shows that they were successful in creating a translation that not only met the needs of their generation but also succeeded in influencing the lives of generations to come.
Share this. Timeline BC AD Now. Ken Curtis, Ph. How important was the King James Bible? The Puritans Miscalculate Consider the mood that must have prevailed at the time of Queen Elizabeth's death. Today on Christianity. Is Thanksgiving Truly a Christian Holiday?
Some portions of this site are copyrighted by others and reproduced by permission, as indicated by copyright notices on individual pages. Privacy International Resellers. Toggle navigation Toggle navigation. Vacation Daily Witnessing Plan. View Cart. One by one each request was rejected, until the Puritan group's leader, John Rainolds said these famous words: "May your Majesty be pleased to direct that the Bible be now translated, [since] such versions as are extant [are] not answering to the original.
Not too long later Bancroft wrote this to a friend: I move you in his majesty's name that, … no time may be overstepped by you for the better furtherance of this holy work…. You will scarcely conceive how earnest his majesty is to have this work begun! Daniels answers difficult questions about the KJV. Learn how to defend the KJV and why you can trust it. Look What's Missing!
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