'Majesty and Light': the Legacy of the King James Bible

‘Majesty and Light’: the legacy
of the King James Bible

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
Oxford, Ohio
Adult Forum
“Anglican Spirituality” series
Advent, 2007

Let me know if the title is OK.

e Collect for 1 Advent
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works
of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in
the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus
Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the
last day, when he shall come again in his glorious
majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we
may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.
Holy Trinity Adult Forum, Advent 2007: the King James Bible

Psalm 46, KJV
1 God is our refuge and strength; a very
present help in trouble.
2 erefore will not we fear, though the earth
be removed, and though the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 ough the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
A little digression about Shakespeare

Psalm 46, KJV
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the
earth; he breaketh the bow, and cueth the
ear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in
the ﬁre.
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be
exalted among the heathen; I will be
exalted in the earth.
11e LORD of hosts is with us; the God of
Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Early Bible translations
Lord’s Prayer, Anglo-Saxon, late 10th century

Fæder ure, thu the eart on heofonum,
Si thin nama gehalgod.
To becume thin rice,
Gewurthe thin willa,
On eorthan swa swa on heofonum.
Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg,
And forgyf us ure gyltas,
Awa swa we forgyfath urum gyltendum.
And ne gelæd thu us on costnunge,
Ac alys us of yfele. Sothlice.

John Wyclif, c. 1320-1384
Educated at Oxford

Ordained priest

Active against clerical abuses

Translations based on Latin Vulgate

Banned in 1401

Circulated in manuscripts only

William Tyndale, 1494-1536
Ordained a priest 1515
Studied at Cambridge (under Erasmus?)
“I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God
spares my life, I will cause the boy that drives
the plow in England to know more of
Scriptures than the Pope.”
Based on Hebrew and Greek manuscripts
First English translation printed (in Europe)
Opposed Henry VIII’s divorce
Condemned by Cardinal Wolsey,
strangled and burned at the stake

the Tyndale Bible
New words introduced to English:
‘Jehovah’ (from transliterated Hebrew YHWH)
‘Passover’ (from ‘pesach’)
Atonement’ (= at + onement, from ‘kippur’)
‘Scapegoat’
New phrases:
‘let there be light’
‘the powers that be’
‘my brother’s keeper’
‘the salt of the earth’
‘God forbid’
‘ﬁlthy lucre’
‘it came to pass’
‘gave up the ghost’

the Tyndale Bible
Controversial translations:
‘Elder’ from Greek ‘presbyteros’
‘Congregation’ from Greek ‘ekklesia’
‘Overseer’ rather than ‘Bishop’

Great inﬂuence on later translations

Preface to the RSV: the King James Bible
‘kept the felicitous phrases and apt expressions,
from whatever source, which had stood the test of
public usage. It owed most, eecially in the New
Teﬆament, to Tyndale.’


Geneva Bible
c. 1560

Produced by Englishmen exiled during the reign of Mary

Based on Tyndale, with new original translations

Strong Proteﬆant (Calvinist), anti-monarchical tone
--‘tyrant’ appears over 400 times (not in KJV)

Many marginal notes and commentaries

Called the ‘Breeches Bible’ from description of Eden


Bishop’s Bible
‘Authorized’ version dating from Elizabethan times

Another revision of Tyndale

Inﬂuenced by Geneva Bible, but without the annotations

Never achieved wide popularity, in part because of cost


Douai Bible
Smuggled in to England during Elizabeth’s reign

a/k/a Douay-Rheims Bible

Produced by and for Roman Catholics

Translation of the Latin Vulgate

Like the Geneva Bible, contained annotations

Also like Geneva, highly polemical
(but in favor of Roman Catholicism)

This would be the last slide in my ﬁrst part.

‘Majesty and light’

above: Puritan interior, Langley
Chapel, Shropshire
le: Marble Ha of Cecil’s Hatﬁeld
First slide in my second part.

‘Majesty and light’
From Miles Smith’s Preface to the King James Bible, ‘e Translators to the
Reader’:

‘Zeal to promote the common good, whether it be by devising
anything ourselves, or revising that which hath been labored by
others, deserveth certainly much reect and eﬆeem, but yet ﬁndeth
but cold entertainment in the world. . .

‘Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that
breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that pueth aside the
curtain, that we may look into the most Holy place; that removeth
the cover of the well, that we may come by the water . . .’


e process of translation
Genesis 1

Tyndale Bible (1526; normalized eing):
In the beginning God created
heaven and earth.
e earth was void and empty,
and darkness was upon the deep,
and the spirit of God moved
upon the water.

Genesis 1

Geneva Bible (normalized eing):
In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the deep,
and the spirit of God moved upon the
waters.

Genesis 1

King James Bible (normalized eing):
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.

Genesis 1

World English Bible:
heavens and the earth. Now the earth
was formless and empty. Darkness was
on the surface of the deep. God’s spirit
was hovering over the surface of the
waters.

Genesis 1

Revised Standard Version:
heavens and the earth. e earth was
without form and void, and darkness
was upon the face of the deep; and the
spirit of God was moving over the
surface of the waters.

Genesis 1

New Revised Standard Version:
In the beginning when God created the
heavens and the earth, the earth was a
formless void and darkness covered the
face of the deep, while a wind from
God swept over the surface of the
waters.

Notable KJV printings
‘He’ and ‘She’ Bibles of 1611:
Ruth 3.15: “and he went into the city”
‘Wicked’ Bible of 1631:
Exodus 20.14: “ou shalt commit adultery”
(printers ﬁned 300 pounds)
‘Vinegar’ Bible of 1717:
Luke 20: error for “Vineyard”
Last slide in my second part. I may drop it.

e legacy of the KJV
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1865

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this
mighty scourge of war may eedily pass away. Yet, if
God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman’s two hundred and ﬁy years of
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

My ﬁnal segment. Psalm 19:9

e legacy of the KJV

This is a brief movie from MLK’s speech to the March on Washington, 1963.

'Majesty and Light': the Legacy of the King James Bible

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'Majesty and Light': the Legacy of the King James Bible