Let there be light: Handwritten draft of King James Bible reveals the secrets of its creation

From Salon-

The King James Bible may well be the greatest work of literature ever written by committee—and now we know a bit more about the collaboration that produced it.

Jeffrey Allen Miller, an English professor at Montclair State University conducting research at Cambridge announced a remarkable discovery last week: “in the archives of Sidney Sussex College there survives now the earliest known draft of any part of the King James Bible, unmistakably in the hand of one of the King James translators.”

More here-

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/28/let_there_be_light_handwritten_draft_of_king_james_bible_reveals_the_secrets_of_its_creation_partner/

The Most Popular and Fastest Growing Bible Translation Isn't What You Think It Is

From Christianity Today-

When Americans reach for their Bibles, more than half of them pick up a King James Version (KJV), according to a new study advised by respected historian Mark Noll.

The 55 percent who read the KJV easily outnumber the 19 percent who read the New International Version (NIV). And the percentages drop into the single digits for competitors such as the New Revised Standard Version, New America Bible, and the Living Bible.

So concludes "The Bible in American Life," a lengthy report by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Funded by the Lilly Foundation, researchers asked questions on what David Briggs of the ARDA, which first reported the results, calls "two of the most highly respected data sources for American religion"—the General Social Survey and the National Congregations Study.

The numbers are surprising, given the strong sales of NIV translations in bookstores. The NIV has topped the CBA's bestselling Bible translation list for decades, and continued to sell robustly in 2013.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/march/most-popular-and-fastest-growing-bible-translation-niv-kjv.html

Grace Episcopal Church to host 20-hour read-through of KJV Bible

From Massachusetts-

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Four hundred years ago, these words from John 1:1 were printed in a new revised Bible offered by King James of England as a Bible for all people.

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of its printing, Grace Episcopal Church will host a 20-hour read-through of the King James Version, and the 15-minute readings will feature the voices of over 80 SouthCoast residents.

"St. Ambrose said that to be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Jesus," said the Rev. William J. Bradbury, pastor of Grace Church. "So I thought this was a great way to help remind us of the great story of Jesus by reading the New Testament from beginning to end, and part of the Old Testament, and to involve as many people as possible to be part of that."

The four-day event will be held from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 20-22, and will conclude with the 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 23 service and reception in the Parish House.

The service will feature a special sermon by Bradbury; readings from the King James Bible, including Chapter 22 of the Book of Revelation by retired WBZ reporter Charles Austin; and 1600's organ and choir music directed by Brian Roderick.

More here-

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111008/SPECIAL/110080311/-1/NEWS06

Christians celebrate Bible’s big birthday

From England-

ABOUT 200 Christians from Worcestershire and beyond gathered in Worcester Cathedral to study the Bible under the guidance of both the Anglican Bishop of Worcester and the Roman Catholic Archbishop for Birmingham.

The event was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and drew people from a Baptist and Pentecostal background, as well as Roman Catholics and those from the Church of England.

The day started with a dialogue between the bishop and archbishop on the impact of scripture on our culture and the life of our churches. Those attending were split into groups of about 15 people to look at a passage using a prayerful approach known as Lectio Divina.

After a second address, the groups were invited to enter into a bible scene using their imagination, engaging with the scripture in what is known as an Ignation way. The whole process was directed centrally by the bishops.

More here-

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/local/9282246.Christians_celebrate_Bible___s_big_birthday/

Folger exhibit looks at King James Bible

From The Washington Times-

In his new book, “The Shadow of a Great Rock,” the eminent literary critic Harold Bloom laments that few people today read and fully appreciate the King James Bible of 1611. But Mr. Bloom is talking about the beauty of the language and the majesty of the

most sonorous passages in the seminal 17th-century translation rather than its appeal as a source of religious devotion or comfort.

As it marks its 400th anniversary this year, the King James Bible is suddenly a trending topic, the focus of a surge of scholarly, curatorial and public interest - not to mention ecclesiastical anxiety - that includes a spate of books and essays as well as “Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible,” a fascinating new exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The King James Bible, or KJB, has from the beginning led a double life. It is the sacred Scripture of the Protestant communion, particularly of Episcopalians and Anglicans, but it also is a literary masterpiece - “the sublime summit of literature in English,” which it shares only with Shakespeare, and “a basic source of American literature,” Mr. Bloom declares.

“Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Emily Dickenson, are its children, and so are William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy,” he writes.

More here-

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/29/the-king-james-bible-folger-exhibit-looks-at-endur/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

Uses and Abuses of the King James Version

From The Living Church-

As was the case in 1911, this 400th anniversary year for the King James Version (KJV) has brought forth a flood of positive commentary on the style, affect, and influence of this greatest of English-language Bibles. Although I agree wholeheartedly with most of what has been claimed about the beneficent legacy of the Authorized Version, as both a historian and a Christian it has seemed to me that other sides of the King James Version story deserve a hearing. What follows, therefore, is not an attempt to negate positive assessments, but rather an effort to add sober realism to what sometimes becomes runaway triumphalism.

For a surprisingly numerous cloud of American witnesses, the recent ascension of new translations at the expense of the KJV was long overdue. James H. Hutson, chief of the manuscript division at the Library of Congress, has published a splendid little book providing well-authenticated quotations from the American Founders on religious matters. In this great wealth of fascinating commentary are several surprisingly negative opinions about the KJV. John Adams, for example, once wrote to his son, John Quincy, to attack the notion that any one version of Scripture could count as a true “Rule of Faith.” He began his argument by denouncing “the translation by King James the first” as being carried out by someone who was “more than half a Catholick,” which in 1816 was for Adams anything but a compliment.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/9/26/uses-and-abuses-of-the-king-james-version

WHITTAKER: The King James Bible turns 400

From MA.

When someone asks me, “What is the Episcopal Church?” I am tempted to respond, “We are the people who gave you the King James Bible.”

That translation, published 400 years ago in 1611, was brought to America by Anglican colonists, members of the Church of England, which became the Episcopal Church after the American Revolution. Over the years, it became so accepted and loved that those opposed to new versions of the Bible often speak as though the King James version was the one originally dictated by God.

The original languages of Scripture were, of course, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Christians, however, do not regard the original text as a revelation that cannot be translated in the way that Muslims view the Quran, whose English renderings are considered merely paraphrases. In the late 4^th century, a Latin translation of both the Old and New Testaments was made, mostly by St. Jerome. Known as the Vulgate, it became the standard Bible version in the Western Church.

Read more:

WHITTAKER: The King James Bible turns 400 - Holliston, MA - Holliston TAB http://www.wickedlocal.com/holliston/archive/x1252551461/WHITTAKER-The-King-James-Bible-turns-400#ixzz1WKRtLqBc

William Shakespeare: His role as a King James Bible translator

From The Washington Times-

It would seem unlikely that a man who wrote Romeo and Juliet, Measure for measure, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, and Richard II would be ignored by the translation committee to participate in the translation of the King’s Bible.

He was at the apex of his writing acumen in 1604 when the KJV was initiated.

An interesting story involving Shakespeare (1564-1616) as a possible translator of Psalm 46 has become a part of historical lore.

If you count in the KJV 46 words from the beginning, you arrive at the word shake in the phrase, “the mountains shake.” If you count 46 words from the end backwards you arrive at the word speare” in the phrase, “cutteth the speare in sunder.”

Shakespeare was baptized in 1564 (birth date unknown) this would make him about 46 years old, if baptized as an infant, when the KJV was published. Does this invite the imagination to surmise that William Shakespeare the greatest writer in English literature translated some of the Psalms?

More here-

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/worlds-best-selling-book/2011/jul/16/william-shakespeare-his-role-king-james-bible-tran/