James 1:13 (off topic)

Frank W. Hughes fwhughes at sunbeach.net
Mon Jul 17 16:34:50 EDT 2000


This is perhaps more on the King James Version of the Bible than anyone
ever wanted to know.  Robert G. Bratcher in the article on "English
Bible, The," in The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (San Francisco:
Harper, 1996) 289f. notes that King James I in 1604 ordered that "a
translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the
original Hebrew and Greek, and this is to be set out and printed without
any marginal notes and only to be used in all Churches in England in
time of Divine Service."  As Supreme Governor of the Church of England
perhaps he believed that he had the right to order that this new
translation to the exclusion of the others.  On the other hand, the
article on the "Authorized Version / King James Bible" in volume 3 of
The Cambridge History of the Bible by S. L. Greenslade notes that
"strictly speaking" neither King nor Parliament authorized the
Authorized Version.  I would add that neither did the Convocations of
Clergy convened by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.  Greenslade
also mentioned that the churches were not ordered to procure a copy for
use in services (as they were for the Great Bible and, I believe, the
Bishops' Bible); and for decades the other versions were used as well in
England.  Since, as F. F. Bruce noted, the Privy Council registers for
the years of 1611 and immediately after were lost in a fire, the
argument that the Privy Council "probably" authorized the use of the new
translation is an argumentum e silentio at very best.

Apparently the edition of 1611 is known as the Authorized Version in
England and the King James Version in America.  As an American living in
Barbados, I can tell you that this would be neither the first nor last
occasion upon which the British Commonwealth and America are rightly
said to be divided by a common language!

Frank W. Hughes
Codrington College
Barbados
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