King James and Bibles

For some reason I cannot fathom King James seems to be both King James the VI and the I living between 1586 and 1625. Most of us know him as he commissioned the writing of the King James Bible, which dominated the church for almost 400 years, and some still believe it is the best of the translations. An old pastor of mine argued we had to use it because at the beginning it said, “The authorized version.” In fact, the complete title is “The Authorized King James Version.” Strange logic. It does reflect the wonderful prose and poetry of the Jacobean or Elizabethan writing; the stuff of Shakespeare. That also renders it almost unintelligible to most readers. It is fancy writing whereas the original Bible was written in street language Greek, Hebrew, and a bit of Aramaic.

But it is King James himself that intrigues me. He was a man of spindle legs attached to a rotund torso. He was well read, even wrote a couple of books. He loved to spend money. He was big on the divine right of kings. He became king of Scotland at age 13 months and eventually King of England etc. His mother was Mary Queen of Scots a strong Roman Catholic who fought John Knox of the Reformation tooth and nail in Scotland. Yet James as King of England is the Protestant leader and definitely understood himself and the head of both church and government. He also like to disregard the Magna Carta, which made him subject to the law thought he didn’t see it that way; he saw himself as the law.

He lived in violent times and he was violent. Europe is coming out of the feudal times to mercantile times and James loves selling royal titles and positions to line his own pockets creating monopolies, which in turn cost his subjects a bunch of money. The fights between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants were bloody and just plain awful.

Two major in government, philosophy, and religion were Sir Edward Coke and Francis Bacon; two very intelligent men who vied for high positions in the government and were adversaries. Coke in essence adopted and hand tremendous influence upon Roger Williams, the very influential pilgrim in the early history of our country and who was the first to advocate the separation of church and state.

In the future I will be writing about Roger Williams but for now I will deal with biblical translations.

The King James bible a.k.a the Authorized Version, which King James I (VI) commissioned in 1604 and was completed in 1611. Other English Translations preceded it for the Church of England: the Great Bible commissioned by King Henry VIII and the Bishops’ Bible of 1568. Forty-seven biblical scholars of the Church of England collaborated in the translation from the original languages. Benjamin Blayney and Francis Sawyer Parris at Oxford edited the King James Version we use today in 1769.

In 1409 John Wycliffe’s followers made the first English translation, which was a translation of the Latin Vulgate bible. The first printed English bible was done by William Tyndale of Martin Luther’s time, which he revised several times. There is also a Geneva Bible, which was a revision of the Tyndale.

King James was not a fan of the Puritans in England so he commissioned his bible to limit their influence. King James was particularly upset with some of their margin notes, which he did not want in his new translation.

Enough of all this. Today we have lots of biblical translations to choose from. In my youth the first major revision of the King James Bible was called the Revised Standard Bible. It stirred up controversy in the church that was huge. Since then with new translations abounding, folk don’t get so upset, but there are still those who believe the good old King James or the New King James which took out the archaic “thees” and “thous” out of the text.

The English Bible came out in 1961 was a fresh translation from the original language and restored the poetic form of many passages in scripture. In was updated in 1989 as the Revised New English Bible. In 1985 the New Jerusalem Bible was published; it was a translation from a French translation or influenced by the French and began to be widely used in the Roman Catholic churches in place of the older Douay-Rheims, which was a King James contemporary of that tradition. Also widely used in Roman Catholic churches is the New American Bible, which was first translated in 1970.

Along side the Revised Standard Bible and the New Revised Standard Bible, the Today’s English Version followed by the Contemporary English version of the bible by the American Bible Society is likely the most popularly used bible in protestant churches today. These bibles are very readable and understandable.

There have also been some very interesting one person translations. J.B. Phillips did a very good one, which began with “Letters to the Young Churches”, and eventually he did the entire New Testament by 1982. Again it has an Anglican background and was interested in making the bible understandable by all readers. Earlier in 1922 James Moffit did his own translation that I have enjoyed.

Also popular today is the New International Bible completed in the 1970’s by more evangelical interpreters. It is a very “tight” translation meaning it tries to be very close to the original languages which some find good and others to rigid in terms of understandability.

I used to use a paraphrase of the bible by Presbyterian layman, Andrew Edington who taught a very popular Sunday School class and would do his own paraphrases which were a lot of fun. It would be akin to the Cotton Patch paraphrase by Clarence Jordan which put the bible into the south and its dialect.

A favorite of mine today is another single person translation by Eugene Peterson called The Message, who is a remarkable biblical scholar who has made the bible come alive with this modern translation. I use it frequently when reading in church services, though I use the NRSV primarily for a study bible. It gives great fresh insights into scripture.

I could go on, but enough is enough. You can find charts of bibles on the internet such as this one  or this one though I am not sure any of them are complete.

I’ve mentioned before I do my own translating or paraphrasing from time to time.