King James
VI and I- seen here
in a portrait
by Paul van
Somer - regarded
the Bible as a
useful tactical
concession to
critics of the
Church of
England
More than 400 years after it was first published,
Pauline Croft explains how the “most important book
in the English language” came into being
F
rom the opening salvo of
Genesis (“In the beginning
God created the heavens and
the earth”) to the closing
words of Revelation (“The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen”), one book has had
a greater impact on the English-speaking
world than any other. That book contains
such well-used phrases as “Let there be
light”, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and
“A multitude of sins”.
The book in question is the Bible – or
more particularly, the King James or
Authorised Version of the Bible. This is an
important distinction for, though many of
the above phrases had been used in earlier
translations, it was the King James Version
that was to become required reading
throughout the American colonies and
the rest of the British empire.
The King James Bible was the product
of 17th-century scholarship in Hebrew,
Greek and Latin – scholarship that made
it possible to produce an English version
that’s proved to have enduring influence.
Yet, while the Bible’s reach and impact
are unparalleled, its beginnings were
fraught. It was published in the early years
of the reign of the King James VI and I
after whom it was named at a time when
the realm was being subjected to the
tremors of the Reformation. In 1604, James
arranged a conference at Hampton Court
to try to settle the simmering differencesbetween the Church of England authorities
and Puritans. One of the Puritan requests
put to James was for a new translation of
the Bible, to which he willingly conceded.Political concessions
The King James Bible was published, in
English, in 1611. As a highly educated man,
James found the translation project
worthwhile in itself, yet the Bible also
served him politically – as a tactical
concession to those who were unhappy
with the state of the Church of England.
However, political considerations only
tell part of the story – for the real
driving force behind the publication
of an English Bible was the emergence
of a new technology: printing.
The year 1456 witnessed the emergence
of a printed version of the Latin Vulgate
Bible – the fourth-century translation by
St Jerome – which was followed by a wave
of learned editions of classical texts. These
inspired the brilliant young scholar
William Tyndale to try to print the New
Testament in English. But the reigning
king in England, Henry VIII, was still very
much against the Protestant movement at
this time, so Tyndale fell under suspicion
of heresy and fled to Germany in the 1520s.
Tyndale probably met the Protestant
reformer Martin Luther at Wittenberg
only two years after Luther’s German New
Testament appeared in 1522, and his own
English New Testament was printed atTHE MAKING OF THE
KING JAMES
BIBLE
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