KJV 400th Sept. 11, 2011
"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." Winston Churchill
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” “A House divided against itself cannot stand.” “A leopard can not change its spots.” “A voice crying in the wilderness.”
These expressions and many others that are part of the English language have a common origin in the King James, or authorized version of the Bible.
This year 2011, we mark four hundred years since the landmark publication of this translation of the Bible. And while the King James translation is longer used as much it was, it remains the basis for other more contemporary translations.
And when we come to the most important times of our church year, the King James translation with its literary and poetic power, tells the story most vividly.
Since this is an anniversary, it is worth going back to that time—the 16th and 17th centuries—to look at how the translation came about, and why it turned out to be such a landmark, not only in our Christian faith as English speaking people, but in our language—the way we express ourselves.
You might have thought the earliest attempts to translate the Bible into English would have been heralded as a great step forward.
But William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament in 1526—decades before King James, was banned. Tyndale fled England to complete his New Testament.
Thanks to Guttenberg’s invention of the printing press, copies were able to make it back to England. The Bishop of London ordered all copies seized and burned.
Tyndale lived on as an outlaw, but he was finally captured an imprisoned in Brussels, then executed by strangulation and burned at the stake by the Holy Roman Emperor.
You may wonder why Bible translation was regarded as subversive. At that time the church hierarchy of Rome, led by the Pope was facing the massive upheaval of the Reformation and the growth of Protestantism.
Translating the Bible would mean people could form their own interpretations of the Bible rather than simply accepting the interpretations of the clergy.
So translators such as Tyndale were regarded as heretical, as well as being subversive.
Tyndale had this to say to a scholar he was debating: “I defy the Pope and all his laws; if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth a plough shall know more scripture than thou dost.“
Tyndale may have been martyred, but his translation forms the basis for 90 per cent of the New testament King James version, including phrases such as: “Ye are the salt of the earth,” and “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
The strength of Tyndale’s work came from going beyond the later Latin translations, to the original Hebrew and Greek texts. Tyndale only managed to finish 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
The next translation was by Myles Coverdale, who produced the first complete English Bible and made extensive use of Tyndale’s work in 1535. It was Coverdale’s Bible which King Henry V111 had placed in each English parish church in 1539 when he led the English church away from Rome.
That only lasted four years before Parliament declared Bible reading illegal.
But the publication of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 included Coverdale’s psalms and prescribed Bible readings for a whole year.
After decades more of religious ferment in 1607, 47 leading scholars of the church of England gathered at Westminster Abbey to plan the production of a more accurate translation of the Bible.
They were encouraged by King James, the first King of England and Scotland.
The work was done by six teams of translators who completed their work over three years before finalizing the text in 1610.
In 1611 King James Version of the Bible was published by the King’s Printer Robert Barker, bound for 12 shillings.
One of the goals of the King James translators was to reflect the theology of the Church of England. All the scholars were members of the Church of England, and all but one were clergy. The New Testament came from the original Greek. The Old Testament was from Hebrew text. The Apocryphal books were from Greek and Latin.
In 1662 when the Book of Common Prayer was revised , readings were added from the King James version, replacing Coverdale’s Bible translation.
Acceptance of the new King James translation was far from universal. For some time another English language European translation called the Geneva Bible was still popular.
Some scholars condemned the new version because of its rejection of word for word equivalence with the Hebrew and Greek.
By the next century, the authorized King James Version became the standard for the English speaking world, and it was until the last century the Revised Standard, then the New Revised Standard—the translation we now use, came into wide use, along with many other translations.
In many respects, the King James Version has had a tremendous impact on our faith and culture. It has contributed 257 expressions to our English language; more than Shakespeare.
The King James translation has also set the direction for other translations to follow.
It was the culmination of a critical period in the life of the church where—the Bible, which contains the stories of Creation, the Exodus, the history of the People of Israel, the life of Jesus and the birth of the Christian Church—is made accessible to ordinary people—and not just the preserve of the clergy and church establishment.
One of the challenges we face in our hectic modern lifestyle, with all its multi-media opportunities from television, radio and newspapers, to the internet and e-mail and Facebook, is taking the time to read and reflect on our sacred scriptures.
William Tyndale, Oxford and Cambridge educated, was willing to sacrifice his life to make the Bible accessible in English.
When I look at all the different Bible translations I have to make use of, I realize we are the beneficiaries of his work, and of others through these more than four centuries.
And it is fitting that Tyndale’s work is carried on by Tyndale Bible translators which is still translating the Bible into different languages as we speak.
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