Posted on 11/27/2010 7:12:53 AM PST by re_tail20
A new poll taken for the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible reveals that a majority of those under 35 in the United Kingdom don't even know about the work, which has been described as a significant part of the estimated 100 million Bible sales annually, making it the best best-seller, ever.
"Yet this is a work which was far more influential than Shakespeare in the development and spread of English," a spokesman for the King James Bible Trust told the Christian Institute in a recent report.
The Christian Institute's report said the translation, which will celebrate its 400th anniversary next year, was the subject of a poll commissioned by the Bible Trust, and a spokesman said it was clear "there has been a dramatic drop in knowledge in a generation."
The results revealed that 51 percent of those under 35 never have heard of the King James Bible, compared to 28 percent of those over the age of 35.
The institute reported that Labour Member of Parliament Frank Field said, "It is not possible to comprehend fully Britain's historical, linguistic or religious development without an understanding of this great translation."
According to officials who are working on a series of events marking the 400th year of the King James Bible, work on the translation into English of God's Word started in 1604 at the request of King James I. Work continued on the project until 1611, when the team of 47 of the top Bible scholars of the time finished their work.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
A corrupt text.
Was it not mostly the Tyndall translation given a new cover and preface
Maybe in about 30 years. Right now, most Americans have enough familiarity with Christianity to know about the KJV.
Multi-culturalism and the liberal version of tolerance will “fix” that in the future.
This is sad on so many levels. It’s not really a religious question. The King James Bible is as significant a literary/cultural work in the history of Western Civilization as any book. Whether or not one reads it or believes it one should certainly be familiar with it and its significance to be called educated by any stretch of the term.
But then again since schools no longer teach Western Civilization this should not be surprising.
There are lots of online sources for Biblical Greek...if anybody’s interested...?
Britain is full of immigrants from the Middle East.
None of those Muslims would have heard of anything but the Koran.
You wrote:
“Most modern editions are the translation of one person, meaning that personal preferences can’t be avoided.”
Actually most of the bigger selling translations are done by teams of translators and editors. Very few one-man Bible translations ever make it to the big leagues. None have done so in at least 50 years. Moffat, Phillips and Knox were probably the last ones. NIV, NAB, NASB, REB, ESV, etc. were all made by teams of scholars.
What she failed to realize is that there was a spanish language translation of the scriptures years before the KJV. This is what happens when we are "western focused" rather than "mission focused".
I thought King James was one of the basketball players on the Miami Heat?
**You couldn’t read an actual original one today, too much of the language has changed.***
Actually you can read it well. It is slower going for a few chapters then it becomes almost as easy as the modern KJV.
The problem is the Gothic alphabet in the reproduction. In the original old one it is the Olde English font alphabet.
You wrote:
“...supplant the Geneva Bible, which he hated, as it had lots of side notes and annotations and was written for the people to free them as opposed to the establishment to keep them in power.”
Many Christians don’t buy that Calvinism is about freedom.
"Educate people without religion and you make them but clever devils."-- Benjamin Disraeli
“Many Christians don’t buy that Calvinism is about freedom.”
Reading the Bible in your own language isn’t a bad thing for freedom. That’s why Rome (at the time) “preferred” it in Latin.
Once the common man could read it in whatever language he was capable, freedom from those who would tell you what it meant and that you couldn’t possibly be allowed to read it for yourself was a good thing - and people got used to it.
You need to get together with the guy from post 16.
LOL
And the most popular name for newborn males starts with the letter M. And it ain’t Moses.
In KJV, it is Shake Spear if you dont count Selah.
Which manuscript is more true, an older inaccurate parchment or the next oldest manuscript accurately corresponding to many more parallel parchments?
The translators say in their preface that they had not seen all of the Catholic bible. Besides, anyone who has read Bible history knows that the KJV was based on Tyndale's GREEK tests from Eurasmus and not the LATIN based Douai Rhemes.
From the Translators to the Reader 1611 KJV
Now to the latter we answer; that we do not deny, nay we affirm and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our profession, (for we have seen none of theirs of the whole Bible as yet) containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God. As the King's speech, which he uttereth in Parliament, being translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and Latin, is still the King's speech, though it be not interpreted by every Translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense, everywhere.
As for the “missing “ books, the original KJV had them in it. Many considered them irrelivant and they were removed about the time the Americans started printing bibles.
Here is a list of the translators and you can see there was a committee to translate the Apocrypha.
KING JAMES VERSION TRANSLATORS
I. The First Westminister Company—translated the historical books, beginning with Genesis and ending with the Second Book of Kings.
Dr. Lancelot Andrews
Dr. John Overall
Dr. Hadrian Saravia
Dr. Richard Clarke, Dr. John Laifield, Dr. Robert Tighe, Francis Burleigh, Geoffry King, Richard Thompson
Dr. William Bedwell
II. The Cambridge Company—translated Chronicles to the end of the Song of Songs.
Edward Lively, Dr. John Richardson, Dr. Lawrence Chaderton
Francis Dillingham, Dr. Roger Andrews, Thomas Harrison, Dr. Robert Spaulding, Dr. Andrew Bing
III. The Oxford Company—translated beginning of Isaiah to the end of the Old Testament.
Dr. John Harding, Dr. John Reynolds
Dr. Thomas Holland, Dr. Richard Kilby
Dr. Miles Smith, Dr. Richard Brett, Daniel Fairclough
IV. The Second Oxford Company—translated the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation of St. John the Divine.
Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dr. George Abbot
Dr. Richard Eedes, Dr. Giles Tomson, Sir Henry Savile
Dr. John Peryn, Dr. Ralph Ravens, Dr. John Harmar
V. The Fifth Company of Translators at Westminster—translated all of the Epistles of the New Testament
Dr. William Barlow, Dr. John Spencer, Dr. Roger Fenton, Dr. Ralph Hutchinson, William Dakins, Michael Rabbet, [Thomas(?)] Sanderson
VI. The Sixth Company of Translators at Cambridge translated the apocryphal books.
Dr. John Duport, Dr. William Brainthwaite, Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe
Dr. Samuel Ward
Dr. Andrew Downes, John Bois
Dr. John Ward, Dr. John Aglionby, Dr. Leonard Hutten
Dr. Thomas Bilson, Dr. Richard Bancroft
The King James translators did not consider Apocrypha scripture—
**The Geneva Bible is not sold in any stores, whereas you can see whole shelves of King James Bibles in any store. This is the biggest tragedy of Bible translations.***
The Geneva Bible is still available but you have to hunt for it. I have one I ordered over the Internet, and a Geneva NT I found in a used book store.
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