Last week I mentioned that this year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. The Authorized Version was published in November, 1611, and there are special observances being planned across the globe this year, but most especially in England.
The Authorized Version was not the first English Bible, nor even the first authorized version of the Bible in English. The first translation of the whole Bible into English was made under the supervision of John Wycliff in 1384. It was based on the Latin Bible of the medieval Church, St Jerome’s Vulgate. Wycliff’s was meant to be in the English commonly spoken in his day. Here are the first two verses of the Book of Genesis:
“In the bigynnyng God made of nouyt heuene and erthe. Forsothe the erthe was idel and voide, and derknessis weren on the face of depthe; and the Spiryt of the Lord was borun on the watris.”
Here is the Authorized Version:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
In 1526, William Tyndale published the first printed version of the New Testament (Wycliff’s translation pre-dated the printing press); about 10 years later, in 1535, Miles Coverdale, working at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, oversaw the publication of the first printed version of the whole Bible, which combined Tyndale’s New Testament with Coverdale’s translation of the Old (Coverdale’s translation of the Book of Psalms is the basis for the Psalter used in the Book of Common Prayer—the first Prayer Book was published more than 60 years before King James Bible). Coverdales’ Bible, with some minor alterations, was published in 1540 with the authorization of both King Henry VIII and the Archbishop. It was ordered to be “set up in some convenient place within the said [parish] church that ye have care of, whereas your parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same and read it."
In 1568, a second “authorized version” appeared, under the authority of Queen Elizabeth I and her Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. Parker commanded the English bishops to undertake a translation. Their version is called the “Bishop’s Bible,” and remained the Bible for official use in the Church of England until the publication of the King James Version fifty year later.
There was this distinction between the Authorized Version of 1611 and those translation which preceded it: unlike the earlier versions, which were intended to be in the everyday language of the people, the translators took as their pattern no "spoken" language language at all. They sought to replicate the original Hebrew and Greek sentences and the linguistic structure, not in 16th century English, but in the Biblical languages themselves. The translators were not chosen for their abilities with English prose but for their knowledge and skills as Biblical scholars. A happy result of this is that the “style” of English used in the Authorized Version isn’t that of literature of the day (recall the complex language of Spencer’s Faerie Queene, for example). The translators weren’t intending to create a literary masterpiece, but to reproduce as faithfully as they could the languages of the Bible in English. The result of their work, however, was the greatest piece of English literature ever penned. The Authorized Translation, along with the works of Shakespeare and the Book of Common Prayer, are the greatest monuments of our language.
The problem with monuments, though, is they become too familiar. We acknowledge their past importance while failing to grasp their current potential. There are all kinds of reasons to admire the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, but in our day both are said to be things of the past. They are seen as part of our heritage, without much present relevance. They fit nicely in museums under glass. The language of the Bible and Prayer Book is often criticized as too archaic, too obscure, to be of much use to us today. Since 1970, at least 126 new versions of the Bible have appeared; 14 more are currently being prepared. While all may differ in their approach to translation, all agree that the King James Version needs supplementing—or replacement: our culture finds the language outdated and hard to understand.
The same rationale applies to the language of worship. The language of the Prayer Book is too anchored in the 16th century to be of use today, many tell us. Modern liturgies, grounded in the most banal and pedestrian language, have become the order of the day.
There is something to be said for these criticisms. The language of the Prayer Book and the Bible, is not the language we use when gossiping about the latest tabloid story or place our orders at Burger King. Sometimes the old language is hard to understand. We seem to have forgotten it's not supposed to be the language of the tabloids. We've been taught to talk to God the same way we order a hamburger: instead of saying “We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord” (the opening of the Prayer Book version of the Te Deum), many Christians now say “You are God: we praise You.” A hymn now in use in many Episcopal churches (and others, too) in our country begins: “Lord, You are so incredible.”
When we talk in fast-food language to God, God isn’t lessened: we are. Our concepts and beliefs about God suffer, and when those things are cheapened, our relationship with God is cheapened too.
The King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer “learn us in the way wherein we should go,” as Coverdale’s Psalter says. In the most subtle ways, the language we use about God and the words we say to God forge important links in our life with God. To lose these strong chains is to lose something essential to our Anglican tradition—and something profound for the Christian Faith.
Our Anglican heritage runs deep; it's something for which we should be profoundly thankful, and none too eager to change-at least until we really understand what we're giving up.-Fr Gregory Wilcox
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