The King James Version

The history of the King James Version is an extremely interesting one; but some background on the Bible and how it has come down to us today may also be useful; but first of all.......

The Bible - What is it?

Most people have heard about the Bible and would recognise that it is a book that has been around for a long time. They may not realise however that it is a "best seller" and has a most remarkable history. This article will provide some of the historical details, and particularly in relation to the King James Version (also called the Authorised Version). Few people recognise the tremendous impact which the King James Version has made since its appearance in 1611. (The history of the Welsh Bible is also worthy of note)

However, before looking at the history it may be worth stating what the Bible actually is and what it claims to be.

Taking the last point first, the Bible claims to be a Divine revelation from God; that the words contained within it are quite simply what God wanted to be written. It frequently records such phrases as "Thus saith the LORD", or "the word of the LORD came to...." etc. Moses says he wrote "by the commandment of the LORD".

As for what it actually is, while it is one book, it is actually a collection of 66 books making up one unique volume. It is clearly divided into two parts, know as the Old and New Testaments; the former written in Hebrew and the latter in Greek.

The following is the basic structure of the Bible:

The Old Testament

5 Books of Moses (Genesis to Deuteronomy)

12 Books of history (Joshua to Esther)

5 Poetical Books (Job to the Song of Solomon)

17 Prophetical Books (Isaiah to Malachi)

(39 books in total)

The New Testament

4 Gospel records (Matthew to John)

1 Historical record (the Acts of the Apostles)

21 Various epistles written to different ecclesias and believers

1 Historical exposition of prophetic history from AD98 to the present - given in symbol

(27 books in total)

The remarkable thing about this collection of books, is that it is complete and consistent with itself in all its parts. While written by men in every situation of life - from the King to the shepherd - and scattered over may centuries in its composition, it is pervaded by absolute unity of spirit and identity of principle.

This is unaccountable on the hypothesis of a human authorship. Here is a book written by forty authors, living in different ages and without the possibility of collusion. The writers too came from all walks of life. For example:

Luke was a physician
Amos was a herdsman
the Psalmist David was a shepherd, and later a king
Matthew was a tax collector

Not only that, but the Bible was penned by men living in different part of the world! For example:

Ezekiel lived and wrote in Babylon
Paul wrote some of his epistles from Rome
Peter lived in the Holy Land
Jeremiah gave some prophecies in Egypt

To produce a book which in all its parts is pervaded by one spirit , one doctrine, and by an air of sublime authority is a literary miracle.

The only explanation is that which it testifies of itself:

"Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets" (Nehemiah 9:30)

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 6:16-17)

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21)

While many people reject the Bible, the evidence shows it is true.

But the history of the Bible is also extremely interesting and unique, and the preservations of this wonderful book through the centuries points to a Providential hand.

The History of the Bible

Today it is very easy to purchase a Bible and read it. For many people they can just reach up to their book shelf, take down the Bible and read it. That has not always been easy to do! In fact, it was at one time very dangerous to possess a Bible and read it. It could - and did in many instances, incur the death penalty! It was a time when to believe things contrary to the established Church was to place your life in danger!

But this is getting ahead of ourselves.

So where do we begin?

The Old Testament

It's difficult to pick a starting point to begin our fascinating journey, but the Old Testament seems a good (and logical) place to start.

And here we stop for a moment to consider the voice of the critic in respect of the writing of the Old Testament scriptures, especially the books of Moses . The voices have long since been silenced of course, but in the early 19th century it was common for the writings of Moses to be scorned. There was no evidence to indicate that man was able to write at such an early period of time, and the Bible must be wrong!

A Great Discovery

However, in the year 1887 a discovery was made which shut the mouths of the sceptics. An Egyptian woman found amid the ruins of an ancient city (now know as Tell-el-Amarna), a collection of clay tablets inscribed with strange symbols. Here were documents engraved upon clay in cuneiform, or wedge shaped writing characteristic of Assyria and Babylonia. The tablets proved to be the official correspondence of Egyptian governors stationed in what became the land of Israel and in other places beyond the borders of Egypt. Their date was deemed to be about the year 1380BC. Now it is well known that the "experts" change their views about dates and periods etc, but there could, and can, be no doubt, that writing was known and used in the times of Moses. The Bible critics had to retreat - for the time being!

Writing Materials

It is also worth mentioning at this point, that "the scriptures" were not in the convenient book form that we are so used to today - or even in a digital or Website format of course! In early times, printing had not even been invented and so manuscripts would be hand written - but hand written on what?

As referred to above, the writing in Babylon was on clay. We are used to paper as a writing material, but that too was not used in the earliest productions of the Scriptures. However, in Egypt books were made of papyrus, a material resembling paper, but manufactured out of the fibres of the papyrus-plant, which then grew plentifully in the waters of the Nile. The writings on such material would be rolled up. The Israelites when in Egypt would be familiar with these papyrus rolls, and some of their own books in later times were no doubt made in the same way and called scrolls. It was not until the beginning of the Christian era that the page form, as in a modern book, came into existence.

However it was not always possible to obtain papyrus by the time of Jeremiah the rolls were made of prepared skins of sheep and goats. This was a more durable material. This material is known as parchment or vellum, and while both materials were probably in use in Old Testament times, it seems that the scriptures of the Old Testament were always written on the more durable material.

Where are the original manuscripts?

A good question! Are they preserved in a museum?

The original writings upon the "hold me of God" spake (and wrote) are no longer in existence. The materials upon which the inspired words were written down would not have been preserved over such a long period of time.

How then can we be sure that what we have in our possession today is the living oracles of God? Another good question!

The answer is really for the technical scholar and the following is a brief digest of the comprehensive study and learning that has taken place on this question.

The Old Testament

The earliest evidences of the Old Testament writings is in what

were called Targums, or paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures

which gov back before the period of Christianity.

Later, and overlapping the period of the Targums, was the work

of the Talmudists. These scholars explained and commented on

the Hebrew texts. This period extended from about AD270 to

AD500.

The Masoretic Text

The final stage in the history of the Hebrew Scriptures began around the beginning of the seventh century . Scholars called Massoretes set themselves to sift out the traditions which related to the actual text of the sacred books. Besides recording varieties of reading, tradition, or conjecture, the Massoretes were meticulous in their work, treating the texts with reverence. Every page was laid out according to an approved pattern, and they undertook a number of calculations. They numbered the verses, words and letters of every book. They calculated the middle word and the middle letter of each document. The letters, words, and paragraphs had to be counted, and the document became invalid if two letters touched each other. The middle paragraph, word and letter must correspond t those of the original document. They enumerated verses which contained all the letters of the alphabet, or a certain number of them. They were indeed anxious that not one jot nor tittle should be lost. Extraordinary care was taken to secure perfect accuracy in the transcription of the sacred books.

The antiquity of the Masoretic Text dates back as far as the 9th and 10th

Centuries. The Aleppo Codex (named from being located in Aleppo,

Syria) is considered the oldest Hebrew manuscript, dating back to the

10th Century. Unfortunately, it is incomplete. However, the Leningrad

Codex (9th Century) is the earliest complete manuscript of the Hebrew

Bible.

There are today many Hebrew manuscripts of the complete Old

Testament which date from the ninth and tenth century AD together

with some 1700 fragmentary ones.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The question may be asked "how accurate were the scribes? How do we know that the Old Testament is the original words of the writers who were inspired by God?"

In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered some scrolls inside a cave west of the Dead Sea. The manuscripts were dated between BC100 and AD100. Over the next decade more scrolls were found in caves and the discovery became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Every book in the Old Testament was represented (except Esther), and they have very few discrepancies from the the Old Testament scriptures of our Bibles. In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls gives unshakable evidence of the integrity and accuracy of the scriptures we now hold in our hands. They correspond exactly to our Bible. The following words on the Scrolls are of great interest:

"What is astonishing is that despite their antiquity....they are on the whole, almost identical with the Masoretic text known to us. This establishes a basic principle for all future research on texts of the Bible. Not even the hundreds to slight variations established in the texts, affecting mainly spelling, and occasionally word substitution, can alter that fact" [Dr Yigael Yadin - archaeologist]

The Septuagint

It may be useful at this point to consider the Septuagint. As intimated above, the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) was already in existence as a collection of writings in the third century BC, and in fact was translated into Greek in Alexandria about the year BC280. The historian Josephus gives an account of this in his 'Antiquities of the Jews'.

This Greek translation is known as the Septuagint and is valuable because it was made from Hebrew manuscripts older than any now extant. Apart from the Dead Sea Scrolls, all the Hebrew manuscripts extant belong to the ninth and tenth centuries AD or later. Nevertheless, their accuracy is attested by the textual agreement of independent copies and by the Greek translations of greater antiquity. These date back to the third and fourth centuries AD and a few earlier than that. The Septuagint was the Greek Old Testament used by the early Christians.

The New Testament

The New Testament was written in Greek, and its last book dates back to AD96. There are Greek copies extant that date back to the early centuries AD. In addition, translations were made into other languages including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Armenian, Latin and Syriac.

There are today 350 copies of the Greek Septuagint with 4000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and 8000 of the Latin Vulgate.

In addition to Bible Manuscripts there have come down to us the writings of the early Christians, who were accustomed to quote from both the Old and New Testaments. It has been stated that the whole of the New Testament except eleven verses could be reconstituted from such quotations!

In the light of the above it is interesting to note that the late Sir Frederick Kenyon of the British Museum wrote the following words:

"It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures , and our convictions that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God."

The Latin Vulgate

In the above section the Latin Vulgate was referred to. How did this come about?

By the end of the second century, many churches in the West were combining the four Gospels, the Acts and the letters of Paul, together with several other works, and calling them the New Testament. As Christianity spread to all parts of the Roman Empire where no Greek was spoken, the Bible had once again to be translated, this time into Latin.

So many translations were made and so great were the divergencies among them that eventually, early in the forth century, Damascus, who was then Bishop of Rome, commissioned Jerome, the most learned and capable scholar of his day, to compile one authorised Latin version from the many manuscripts which then existed. Jerome's task took over 20 years to complete and when it was finished, his version was accepted and known as the Vulgate, from the Latin vulgata, meaning 'made public.'

In AD596 Augustine brought Christianity to England but more than a century was to pass before any attempt was made to translate the Bible into Anglo-Saxon.

The Bible in English

The history of the Bible and the various translations of parts of it throughout the centuries would occupy a significant amount of paragraphs, as men such as Caedmon, Bede and even Alfred the Great would need to be referred to. We must however, confine our remarks to one or two individuals and the desire they had for the Bible to be read in English. Some other significant names will also be briefly referred to.

John Wycliffe

The first of these individuals was John Wycliffe.

It is hard to believe now, but the road that led to the English Bible was a long and bloody one, and it started with John Wycliffe.

Prior to the coming of the Normans in 1066 there were Anglo-Saxon versions of the Scriptures. They were rather fragmentary and much removed from the English as spoken today.

After 1066 Saxon versions ceased to appear. The language of the country was changing because of the gradual mixing of Saxon with Norman French. This brings us to the time of John Wycliffe who was born in Yorkshire and became Master of Balliol College, Oxford in 1360. He resigned from this post and later became priest of Lutterworth. Wycliffe's concern was to give the laity of his day a Bible they could read. He accomplished this by arduously translating the Latin Bible into the language of the people - English. He is called the "morning star of the Reformation" for his English Bible did much to prepare the way for that movement in Britain.

To get the Bible to the common people, Wycliffe organised the "Poor Priests" or "Lollards", who went everywhere teaching the Bible and delivering it to the laymen.

Nearly 200 copies of Wycliffe's Bible, or revisions of it, are still found in various libraries and museums. This is an amazing fact, given that copies were very expensive being copied by hand, and the authorities had passed a ruling that anyone who read the Scriptures in English "should forfeit land, cattle, life and goods from their heirs forever."

In 1411, Archbishop Arundel wrote to the pope saying:

"This pestilent and wretched John Wycliffe, of cursed memory, that son of the old serpent....endeavoured by every means to attack the very faith and sacred doctrine of Holy Church, devising - to fill up the measure of his malice - the expedient of a new translation of the Scriptures into the mother tongue"

By the year of his death in 1384 he had completed his life's work of translating the whole Bible from Latin into English. The Lollards spread abroad his teaching that every man had the right to study the Scriptures for himself.

In 1428, Wycliffe's bones were disinterred from a grave in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, and burned, and the ashes scattered on the River Swift, which runs through Lutterworth. But as one historian observed, the river Swift carried these ashes onward to the Avon and Severn, and the Severn to the sea - so that in a symbolic sense, his influence spread far and wide. John Wycliffe had started a revolution that could not be stopped. Rather than make people avoid contact with the Bible, the outlawing of this Book made people more inquisitive to what the church was hiding. More and more people became interested in this growing minority of "Bible men." It was a risky business, but worth it for the enlightenment it brought.

Great changes were taking place in the world of knowledge following the days of Wycliffe. Bible manuscripts were coming to light and being studied. Scholars were becoming proficient in ancient languages. In addition , the invention of printing greatly altered the outlook so far as the dissemination of Bible knowledge was concerned. A direct translation from the original languages was now becoming possible, and the demand for such a translation grew as it came to be recognised that Wycliffe's Bible was a translation of a translation (i.e. from the Vulgate).

The Printing Press

It is worth pausing a moment to consider the advent of the Printing Press referred to above. The church's efforts to prohibit the copying of the Bible into English was further thwarted by the advent of this remarkable machine.

In 1450, a German by the name of Johannes Guttenburg, unveiled his idea of a printing press with moveable type. Up until this time, books were scarcely less time consuming than the method used to produce scrolls. It would take 10 months to make one copy of the Latin Bible. It is easy to imagine then, that Bibles were very expensive and not so easy to obtain as they are today. But the advent of the printing press with moveable type ushered in a time when books would be made more available to the common man. Perhaps it was (and is) significant that the first book to roll of Guttenburg's press was a Latin Bible.

This considerable reduced the labour involved in the production of a Bible, meaning that Bibles could be printed in greater numbers, more easily and with less cost. The Church was determined to put a stop to this "heresy" at all costs.

A "just war"

It is also appropriate at this point to consider the suffering and death of many who dared to go against the Church. The freedom to read the Bible has not been the lot of ordinary men and women as we have already seen.

Brian Moynahan in 'Book of Fire' pointed out that "the principle of the 'just war' against heretics had been enshrined by the Bolognese monk and jurist Gratian in the Decretum Grat iani of about 1140. This passed inot the Corpus luris Canonici, the chief collection canon law, which laid down ecclesiastical rules on faith, morals and discipline in the Catholic Church for the next nine centuries." That law taught that heresy (as defined by the Church) separates man from God more than any other sin, and as such the heretic was held to merit the fiercest punishment of burning alive!

As we approach the time of 1530, burnings in England had not occured for eight years. A man by the name of Thomas Moore soon put a stop to that. He concluded that in the condemnation of heretics the clergy "might lawfully do much more sharply than they do." A phrase in connection with convicted heretics was used at the time - "leave him to the secular arm." That sounded innocent enough, but it meant that the Chruch authorities 'relaxed' hold of the heretic by transferring him to the secular authorities for execution. As Moyhahan says "The ritual handing over was designed to preserve the principle that 'Ecclesia non novit sanguinem' - the Church does not shed blood!

Thomas Hitton was the first to suffer from Moore's "sharpness." Hitton had fled to join William Tyndale in the Low Countries and had returned to England on a brief visit to contact supporters of Tyndale and to arrange for the distribution of smuggled books. Hitton was walking through fields by the coast when he was stopped by a posse of men looking for a thief who had stolen some linen. They found no linen. What they did find in hidden pockets in his coat were letters to those overseas who were regarded as "heretics." Hitton was interrogated but remained true to his beliefs. "The mass should never be said" he declared, and he denied purgatory. Sentence was passed and he was burnt alive at Maidstone on 23 February 1530.

Others at this time were suspected of supporting William Tyndale. A man by the name of John Petite was suspected of supporting the printing of Bibles. Petite did indeed have one of Tyndale's New Testaments, which was not found when Thomas Moore searched his house. Nevertheless, Moore had him thrown into the Tower, and when a witness withdrew his charges, he was released. However, he emerged a sick man and died two years later.

A Dutchman of Antwerp (Christoffel van Ruremund) in 1530 was arrested for selling 'certain New Testaments in English.' He was put in prison at Westminster and there died.

It was a dreadful time to live if you desired to read the Bible in your own mother tongue. Further details could be provided but sufficient has perhaps been said.

William Tyndale

We will return at this point to consider some more of the individuals that are connected with how the Bible came to us, and William Tyndale has already been referred to.

By the end of the fifteenth century printed Bibles in French, German, Italian and Spanish were being produced, while in 1530 the first printed Bible in English appeared. This was the translation of William Tyndale.

Tyndale was born in Gloucester around 1490 and was educated at Oxford University from 1512 to 1517, and Cambridge University from 15-17 to 1521. He was an excellent linguist and spoke fluent French, Greek, Latin, German, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish - as well as English! It was noted that he spoke these languages so well that it was difficult for a listener to determine which was his mother tongue.

He became chaplain to a man by the name of John Walsh in Little Sodbury Manor and tutored his children. After falling foul of the clergy in Gloucester for his "radical" beliefs, he left the house of John Walsh with a determination to translate the Bible into English.

Prior to leaving Gloucester in 1523, he had been told by a clergyman that "we were better off to be without God's law than the Pope's." Tyndale was infuriated, and responded:-

"I defy the Pope , and all his laws, and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that

driveth the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost."

Tyndale had studied all the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of his day as well as Wycliffe's Bible. He had become familiar with the Bible first as a matter of scholarship at Cambridge where he met Erasmus, the great Greek scholar.

Having translated some portions from Greek, Tyndale applied to the Bishop of London (Tunstall) for permission to continue work at the palace. But the ecclesiastical authorities were opposed to making the Bible available in the common tongue. Tyndale was branded as "a heretic in logic, a heretic in divinity, and permission was refused. Consequently, Tyndale removed to the Continent to continue his work as he realised that the work of translating the Bible into English would endanger his life. He was correct.

However, his work and life on the Continent was not secure, and he constantly had to go into hiding. In 1525 at Cologne some sheets of the New Testament were ready, but Tyndale was betrayed and had to flee to Worms. Here he produced the whole of the New Testament and sent copies to England in bales, cases, barrels, sacks etc. They were confiscated by the thousand. Many were actually bought by the Bishop of London to burn, but this only supplied Tyndale with more funds. In 1526, Bishop Tunstall condemned the publication and had the imported books burned.

Later he revised his New Testament translation and issued it in 1534., but attempts to secure his arrest were increasing. His arch enemy, Thomas Moore, branded him as "a traitor and a heretic." Eventually he was betrayed by a man called Harry Phillips who befriended him. Nobody knows who set Phillips up for this task, but in the eyes of many it had the hallmark of Thomas Moore, even though he himself was now a prisoner in the Tower of London.

Tyndale was held in a damp and cold prison cell at the Castle of Vilvoorde in Belgium for approximately a year. He was tried on a charge of heresy and condemned to death. Foxe in his book puts the date of his execution as 6th October 1536 . He was strangled and burnt at the stake. His last words were "Lord open the King of England's eyes."

Tyndale's work had been chiefly in relation to the New Testament but he had translated parts of the historical books, the Pentateuch and the prophets. Succeeding versions were but revisions of Tyndale's and it is estimated that nine-tenths of out New Testament (Authorised Version) is as Tyndale translated it.

Miles Coverdale

Miles Coverdale is the next name to refer to. His translation added the parts which were missing from Tyndale's Bible. Printed in Zurich and issued in 1535-6 Coverdale's Bible is sometimes called the 'treacle Bible' because of its rendering of Jeremiah chapter 8 verse 22 where the word treacle is used instead of balm.

About this time Cranmer and some of the advisers of Henry VIII wanted a Bible really worthy of the nation. Coverdale was selected to produce this. It was published in 1539 and 'Authorised to be used and frequented in every church in the kingdom'. Henry VIII made a proclamation in 1541 to every vicar to procure a copy. It was chained to a desk in churches and came to be called 'The Great Bible' because its pages were 15 inches by 9 inches.

The Geneva Bible

The reformers in exile in Geneva issued an English translation of the New Testament in 1557 and of the Old Testament in 1560. This Bible was smaller in size and used small type with Roman letters. It was divided into verses and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.

The English authorities however, wanted an official translation, and so we find the Bishop's Bible produced in 1568. The translation however, proved to be inferior. The need for a version which all could accept was therefore quite real, especially as the Geneva Bible included notes that were very strongly worded.

The Authorised Version (King James Version)

The confusion caused by the use of several translations was brought to a head during a discussion at Hampton Court in 1604. Dr Reynolds, the leader of the Puritan party, suggested that a new translation be mBade, but the Bishop of London disagreed. King James I, however, commanded a new translation and 54 scholars, including churchmen and Puritans, were invited to engage in the work. Actually, 47 took part. This panel was divided into six groups which met at Cambridge, Oxford and Westminster. Their work commenced in 1607 and in 1611 what we commonly call the Authorised Version was issued.

The Committee's work was monumental, and this translation has won its place by its intrinsic merit in addition to the working of Providence. This and subsequent translations have largely reflected Tyndale's work. It has been said that his wording can be traced to the extent of 80 percent in the Old Testament and 90 per cent in the New. Certainly the Authorised Version owes its literary beauty to William Tyndale.

The King James Version quickly became the unchallenged champion of English literature. While not perfect it dominated religions in the English-speaking world for some three centuries. The impact which it has has been described as follows:

"However much the ruling powers might wish to direct the understanding of their subjects, no state or Church authority could any longer hope to force it in a mold. "Pandora's box was open, and not power could put back the thoughts on religion that took hold of the minds of men.

Before the advent of the vernacular Bible, which was made available to the general public by printing, most people did not know what the Bible actually said. Thereafter, they could read it for themselves and decide, for themselves, what it meant. Their free discussions about the authority of Church state fostered concepts of constitutional government in England, which in turn were the indispensable prerequisites for the American colonial revolt. Without the vernacular Bible - and the English Bible in particular, through its impact on the reformation politics = there could not have been democracy as we know it, or even what today we call the "Free World." In short, the English Bible, with all that followed in its train, had sanctioned the right and capacity of the people to think for themselves." (Benson Bobrick - from 'Wide as the Waters')

Bobrick's book demonstrated that the English Bible - especially the Geneva and the King James - has been responsible for the course of British history, as well as for that of her relatives across the seas.

One reason for the triumph of the King James Bible has been its readability. As one writer pointed out:

"It's worth noting the emphasis the King James translators placed, not only on the readable text of the King James Bible, but also its sound. Before the King James Bible was published and after the initial translation work was completed, a re-working took place. The process involved going through the text, re-working it so that it would not only read better but sound better, a quality for which it became famous throughout the English-speaking world."

Another has written:

"The best example of easy prose (about 2- affixes per 100 words) is the King James Version of the Bible."

Another reads:

"The King James Bible was published in the year Shakespeare began work on his last play, 'The Tempest.' Both the play and the Bible are masterpieces of English, but there is one crucial difference between them. Whereas Shakespeare ransacked the lexicon, the King James Bible employs a bare 8000 words - God's teaching in homely English for everyman."

The fact is that no other version of the Bible has ever achieved the task of causing men and women to receive "the engrafted word" as successfully as the King James has. In this it is a work that is unsurpassed.