Happy Birthday KJV
You know you have a successful product when people recognize it but only its initials: “Want to go down to the KFC get a BLT?” “No, I have to go to the DMV and take care of a DUI.” I wonder how many people driving past our sign wondered who KJV was. They know JFK and FDR but who is KJV. And if there is anyone here who is still scratching your head, let me remove the suspense by telling you that this year, 2011, is the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible. It came off the press in 1611. Ever since Henry the Eighth had his feud with the Pope over too many wives and royal beheadings, the English Church separated from Rome and the King became the defacto Pope of the Anglican Church. The Kings who preceded James had translations done that favored their particular agendas. So most of the people used the Geneva Bible published in 1560 by a group of British scholars who had fled to Switzerland during the oppressive reign of Mary the First. The Geneva Bible was the most scholarly English Bible thus-far produced but it had notes in the margins with definite Calvinistic leanings. When King James gave the order to produce a new version of the Bible called the Authorized Version, The decree specified that it would have no notes in the margins. Fifty scholars went to work on the project not knowing that their Bible would stand as the Biblical standard for 400 years. It was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Knox, John Donne, John Bunyon (author of Paradise Lost) and it was the Bible that made the voyage with the Mayflower. It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that the British decided to update the KJV. Over time language usage changes and meanings change, so some modernization is required. The problem was that usage in America had developed differently than in England. Who was it who said that England and America are two countries divided by a common language? So, the American scholars asked to be included in the revision process. The British invited them to sit in but didn’t give them a vote. So, when the British released the Revised version of the Authorized Bible The Americans publish the American Standard Bible – nearly identical to the English Bible. But, no other Bible was going to have the life the KJV did. Less than fifty years later more revisions were necessary. Thus we have the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, my particular favorite. The main problem with the RSV is the so called “God language.” Bible publishers know they have to sell books, so you better give people what they want. By that time nobody was talking in “thees” and “thous.” But the people were used to speaking of and to God in that language. We still do it today. Take the Lord’s Prayer for example. So the Revised Standard Bible updated the language when referring to people (You instead of thou) but left it in in reference to God. So, they effectively created a God language that never existed in any ancient manuscript of the Bible. The New Revised Standard Bible is what you have in the pew. They were going to call it the Improved Revised Standard Version but that would have made it the IRS Bible and who is going to buy that. The New RSV went ahead and updated all the language but in its effort to be as gender inclusive as possible lost some of the apocalyptic grandeur – translating “Son of God” as “Mortal” for example. There are still lots of churches and individual Christians who still prefer the King James version in spite of the fact that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provided some new insight into translations and the meaning of words. Not all of the Scrolls were biblical material; some were legal documents. Those companion documents shed much light on the meaning of words coming in an entirely different context. These days there are a dozen versions out there to choose from, all equally useful and accurate. Among them the old KJV is still holding its own – 400 years old. If you ask people why they still prefer the KJV they will give you all sorts of answers: they like the poetry of it, the Shakespearian language gives it dignity and authority. Some say, “If it was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it’s good enough for me.” I never know if they’re joking when they say that. Let me tell you the real reason some persist with the KJV – Isaiah 7: 14! It reads as follows in the KJV, “Behold, the Lord himself will give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” All of the new translations say, “a young woman shall bear a son.” Conservative Christians immediately spotted a liberal conspiracy to weaken the doctrine of the virgin birth and rejected all translations of the Bible that didn’t translate Isaiah 7: 14 “correctly.” That verse became the litmus test for inspired authority. Never mind that the Hebrew word in question is always translated as young woman everywhere else. And there is another word for virgin in Hebrew and it’s not used in Isaiah 7: 14. The word that is used would be comparable the Spanish word Senorita, which suggests a young woman of marriageable age and assumes virginity. It’s one of those places where prejudice creeps in to the translation process. The translators back in the 17th century had 1600 years to absorb the doctrine of the virgin birth and when they got to that verse in Isaiah, of course they went with virgin. That prejudice, though unintended creeps in several places in the translation process. For example, Song of Solomon. In verse 5 of the first chapter, in the KJV, the woman describes herself as “Black but comely.” The article that is translated as “but” can also be translated as “and.” See the prejudice at work there? In my RSV version it is still there, “I am very dark, but comely.” The NRSV finally got it right; they came right out and said it, “I am black and beautiful.” The reason why the KJV has lasted for 400 years in spite of errors and changes in usage is because they got so much right. King James ordered the translation that would immortalize his name for political reasons, and could never have guessed that it would amount to a scholarly work to stand the test of centuries. So, happy birthday, KJV; long may you live. So what Bible translation do I think you should read? I don’t care. Just read one. Or read several like I do and let them comment on each other. Or just don’t worry about the stuff you don’t understand; it will keep you plenty busy dealing with the stuff you do understand. It was Mark Twain who said, “Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always notice that the passages in scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.” People argue over whether the Bible should be taken literally or figuratively. Again, I don’t care as long as you take it seriously. We are a religion with hundreds of denominations, theological leanings, creeds and dogma. There is nothing to hold Christianity together except the Bible. We are a people of a book – this Book. Paul was seeing it already in the first century church and he warned his young apprentice, Timothy, about it. People will be blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine. All you have to do is turn on the TV preachers to see how many directions the wind blows. How do you sort out the wind of the Spirit from the hot air? This book. Luther’s reformation may never have taken hold had it not been for Guttenberg. At the turn of the last millennium there was a TV program about the 1000 most important people in the last thousand years; you know who came in number one? Johann Guttenberg, the inventor of the movable type printing press. And the first book to be printed for mass production? The Bible – in 1455. This is a copy of the first page of the Gospel of John, printed on Guttenberg’s press. I bought it in Mainz, Germany. Before Guttenberg, the only people with a copy of the Bible were Church officials. They were each copied by hand. The people didn’t read the Bible, the clergy did, and they told the people what was in it – their interpretations full of prejudice and political agenda. It was the Bible that brought about the Reformation. Martin Luther was a priest but had never really studied a real Bible. Then he was assigned by his bishop to teach New Testament at the College at Wittenberg. He decided that if he was going to teach it, he ought to read it. And he did. And it spun him around. The famous “95 Theses” posted on the door of the Wittenberg chapel was a list of all the places he found where the doctrine and practices of the church didn’t line up with the Scriptures. It was supposed to be an in-house debate but somebody leaked it to the press. When called to accountability by the hierarch of the Church his argument was simple. “Show me in the Bible where I’m wrong and I’ll shut up.” At that moment the Bible, not the Church, became the authority for Christians and Guttenberg’s invention put one in the hands of everyone who could read. If Jesus’ people stop reading it, the church is ripe for that same misdirection all over again. It’s the job of clergy to help you with interpretation. You send us to seminary and give us time for advanced study so we can guide your understanding, but not in place of your reading it. Your insights and inspirations of the Holy Spirit are valid and valuable. I’m not the only one in the congregation who is supposed to be having divine “ah ha” experiences and epiphanies. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.” Don’t you want to carry your own flashlight? The reason we call this book the living word of God, is because God’s Spirit speaks through these old words and stories. If you read this word and love it and internalize it, there will be times when something will come alive like it was written just for you – maybe something you have read a dozen times before and suddenly this time it comes alive, and God speaks a word directly to your heart. I want that for you. Read your Bible, any translation. If you don’t understand it, keep going until you find something you do understand and treasure it, meditate upon it in your heart as the psalmist has said. A final story: When I was in college, I took a Bible class from Professor Reuben Welsh. Every class session began the same; we would read a long lesson together in unison, he sitting on the edge of his desk. One day I happened to look up while I was reading and noticed that the professor was reciting the words but not reading. He had this long passage from Paul memorized. There was a softness in his eyes – love. He formed each word in his mouth as if it were a treasure directly from God. That moment changed the Bible for me forever. I’ve sat under lots of professors since then, some who seemed to take great delight in pointing out the errors and inconsistencies. But, even though they might have been Bible scholars, the word for them never became the living word. For that to happen you have to love it like Professor Welsh – like the psalmist. “I have laid up thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Open my eyes that I might behold the wondrous things out of thy law. I will delight in thy statures; I will not forget thy word. I will meditate on thy precepts, and fix my eyes on thy ways. In the way of thy testimonies I delight.” Read your Bible. Keep reading it until you fall in love with it and the Spirit of God will speak through it. |