The King James Bible, once again

Having heard something read from the King James Bible in at least one or another of its versions almost every week of my childhood, I often have posted something about it here.

Here is another one, complete with a neat little video I can use in class. It is the 400th anniversary of the work.

Enjoy.

Words from long ago

Sometime in the first decades of the fifth century the Bishop of Hippo, a town in North Africa, wrote the following:

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something, about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world ... and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics . . . If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason.

Somewhere else he wrote:

"Whoever, therefore, thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all.

This particular bishop became a saint, and if that weren't enough, his mother was a saint too. (He apparently didn't care too much for his dad).

he wrote a bunch of other stuff. I should read some of it sometime.

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The King James Bible

Having grown up hearing the King James translation of the Bible read out almost every week and often enough reading portions of it myself I still find myself unconsciously using Bible metaphors in my language. Not long ago I led our little Episcopal book club in reading a book on the history of the translation. It is a powerful force in the shaping of our language and for me and my fellow Episcopalians our faith.

So I was pleased today to read this little essay in praise of the King James Bible. In the godless New York Time no less.

since King James was a notorious homosexual it has always amused me to see the anti-gay crowd thumping their King James translation while fulminating.

A 'Conservative' way to translate

Some conservatives are unhappy with the way the Bible is translated. Here's the whole argument at Conservapedia. Now I thought translating should be a straightforward process of establishing the best text in the original language, and then trying to come up with the most accurate translation, this being the Word of God. I thought it was only liberals who wanted to take lines out of the Good Book, especially some of Paul's more ferocious sentiments.

As usual, I was wrong. Here are three examples of what Conservapedia has in mind:

First Example - Liberal Falsehood

The earliest, most authentic manuscripts lack this verse set forth at Luke 23:34:^[6]

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Is this a liberal corruption of the original? This does not appear in any other Gospel, and the simple fact is that some of the persecutors of Jesus did know what they were doing. This quotation is a favorite of liberals but should not appear in a conservative Bible. [So we should ditch anything that appears in only one Gospel? Interesting - Clemens]

Second Example - Dishonestly Shrewd

At Luke 16:8, the NIV describes an enigmatic parable in which the "master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly." But is "shrewdly", which has connotations of dishonesty, the best term here? Being dishonestly shrewd is not an admirable trait.

The better conservative term, which became available only in 1851, is "resourceful". The manager was praised for being "resourceful", which is very different from dishonesty. Yet not even the ESV, which was published in 2001, contains a single use of the term "resourceful" in its entire translation of the Bible. [ I suppose it would be foolish to ask what the Greek term is - Clemens]

Third Example - Socialism

Socialistic terminology permeates English translations of the Bible, without justification. This improperly encourages the "social justice" movement among Christians.

For example, the conservative word "volunteer" is mentioned only once in the ESV, yet the socialistic word "comrade" is used three times, "laborer(s)" is used 13 times, "labored" 15 times, and "fellow" (as in "fellow worker") is used 55 times. ['Laborer' and 'labored' are Socialistic? Also interesting, but what does the Greek say - Clemens]

Once upon a time, barley 50 minutes from where I live, a preacher was so incensed at a new translation of the Bible that he tried to burn one in public. When he couldn't get it started he said "Just like the Devil, he won't burn either!" Burning Bibles of any variety would seem to be a slippery slope.