“Ancient Words, Ever True” – 11

 

 

                    THE LANDMARK IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE

 

 

1.                  The appearance of the King James Bible in 1611 was a landmark development in the history of the English Bible.

 

a.                   Of the series of translations which had been produced, this one was to become the most popular and influential English translation of the scriptures ever.

 

b.                  It became the standard English Bible for all of all of the non-Catholic world for more than the next 300 years.

 

2.                  The production of it began as a program for peacemaking between hostile religious factions in England.

 

a.                   Since the influence of the Great Bible was felt in the churches and the Geneva Bible was read in homes, and since one the Bishop’s Bible of the Anglicans had not displaced the popularity of the Puritans’ reliance on the Geneva Bible, there was an atmosphere of turmoil.

 

b.                  When King James I came to the throne in 1604, he convened a meeting of religious leaders at Hampton Court.  The participants resolved that “a new translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek....without any marginal notes, and only to be used in all Churches of England in time of divine service,” and the king agreed.

 

c.                   The King James Bible was first published in 1611 and revised in 1615, 1629, 1638 and 1762.

 

3.                  The manner in which this English version was produced was unique until that time.

 

a.                   King James himself organized the work of translation, appointing fifty-four scholars to six panels who were to translate various sections of the scriptures.  Two men from each panel were then to serve on a final review board.

 

b.                  Guide rules were set up the men almost immediately set about their task.

i.                    The rules made it clear that this translation was to be a revision, and that the revision was to be minimal.  The Bishop’s Bible was to “be followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit.”

ii.                  The rules called for each member of the company to go through the portions worked on by his company.  Each was to make any alterations necessary.  Then the whole company was to go over these.  From the decisions made at this point, the other companies would reconsider these points.  Finally, the original company was to reconsider the results of the five companies’ decisions.  This would make four screenings.  Then, if an agreement could not be reached, a final decision was to be made by the representatives appointed by each of the companies.

iii.                The old ecclesiastical words were to be retained.

iv.                There would be no marginal notes except the citation of parallel passages, different wordings, and so forth.  (In other words, there would be no explanatory comments from Anglican, Puritan or Catholic viewpoints.)

v.                  Whenever Tyndale’s, Matthew’s, Coverdale’s, the Great Bible, or the Geneva translation agreed better with the original than the Bishop’s Bible, they were to be used.  (It turned out that an estimated ninety per cent of the King James Bible retained the wording of William Tyndale’s translation.)

vi.                The title page in the original version recognized the process which had been followed: “The Holy Bible, Contayning the Old Testament and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues; & with the former Translations diligently compared and revised by his Maiesties speciall Commandment.  Appointed to be read in Churches.”

 

4.                  One of the fascinating aspects of the King James Bible is the preface which was composed by Miles Smith and titled “The Translators to the Reader.”

 

a.                   Smith said on behalf of the group, “...we never thought from the beginning, that we should make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one,...but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not to be justly excepted against; that has been our endeavor, that our mark.”

 

b.                  The translators believed it was the responsibility of all people to read the Bible for themselves and saw their task as making that possible: “The Scriptures, then, being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them?...But how shall men meditate in that which they cannot understand?...Indeed without hesitation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacob’s well...without a bucket or something to draw with....Now what can be more available thereto, than to deliver God’s book unto God’s people in a tongue they can understand?”

 

c.                   They did not claim to have done work that would not need to be corrected or improved.  Smith wrote that there was “no cause therefore why the word translated should be denied to be the word,...notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be noted in the setting forth of it.”

 

d.                  The translators believed that the English Bible should be kept current with the language and scholarship of the day.

 

e.                   The translators said, “A blessed thing it is, and will bring us to everlasting blessedness in the end, when God speaks unto us, to hearken; when he sets his word before us, to read it.”

 

5.                  The fruit of their labors, the King James Bible, had several impressive strengths.

 

a.                   Its style has a simplicity and a majesty which makes it one of the greatest literary works ever produced.

 

b.                  When read out loud, it has rhythms which are matchless and memorable.

 

c.                   Many of its picturesque statements served so well that they have shown up in common English usage.

 

6.                  The King James Bible was heavily criticized when it appeared.

 

a.                   Thomas Fuller said, “Some of the brethren were not well pleased with this translation.”

 

b.                  Hugh Broughton said it was so poorly done that it would grieve him as long as he lived.  He insisted that he would rather be tied between wild horses and torn apart than to let it go forth to the people.

 

c.                   The Catholics asked if the Anglicans’ translation was not good before, and if it was why had they now amended it?

 

d.                  John Lightfoot and others objected to the Apocrypha being included.

 

e.                   Only the passing of time brought privileged status to the it.  It became the first English Bible to be printed in America (1782).

 

7.                  The King James Bible did have some legitimate weaknesses.

 

a.                   Various editions of it, of course, had printer’s errors that needed to be corrected.  These were not translation problems, but they did result in repeated editions of the version.

 

b.                  It is a freer translation than many realize. The translators did not uniformly use certain English words to translate the original terms.  This does not mean the words chosen were erroneous, but it does mean the student may not recognize that a term is being repeated.

 

c.                   In some cases the fact that terms were not actually translated, or the nature of the terms which were used, may have reflected a doctrinal bias.

 

d.                  The English language continued to change to the point that the wording of the King James Bible may not be “open to the very vulgar” (common) as they translators intended.

 

e.                   The underlying texts were the Greek and Hebrew texts of the sixteenth century which we have mentioned, along with the Latin.  Much evidence became available after this translation was produced.  These latter two factors eventually led to the next point.

 

8.                  As the King James Bible was a revision of English versions which preceded it, in subsequent years translations have appeared which are revisions of it.

 

a.                   The English Revised Version appeared in 1881 and 1885.

i.                    These translators said of the KJV in their preface: “We have had to study this great Version carefully and minutely, line by line; and the longer we have been engaged upon it the more we have learned to admire its simplicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression, its general accuracy, and, we must not fail to add, the music of its cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm.”

ii.                  They were to introduce as few alterations in the translation as possible consistent with faithfulness to the evidence.

iii.                The result was called “very literalistic” and it met with very mixed reviews.

 

b.                  The American Standard Version was published in 1901.

i.                    The committee aimed at word-for-word translation of the Greek and Hebrew whenever possible, and this made the version more awkward to read out loud.

ii.                  It made parallel passages read the same when the Greek text was identical; the KJV had not consistently done this.

iii.                It used paragraph form, and translated “Jehovah” instead of “the LORD.”

 

c.                   The Revised Standard Version (1946 and 1952), the New American Standard Version (1971, updated in 1995), the New King James Version (1979), and the English Standard Version (2001), all imply that while they are new translations, they are in the line of revisions of the King James Bible. The preface to the ESV, for example, has this statement: “The English Standard Version stands in the classic mainstream of English Bible translations over the past half-millennium.  The fountainhead of that stream was William Tyndale’s New Testament of 1526; marking its course were the King James Version of 1611, the English Revised Version of 1885, the American Standard Version of 1901, and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971.  In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression.  Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.”  Each student must judge whether that goal has been reached, but the implication regarding what a landmark the KJV was should not be missed.