Some Thoughts on the 400th Anniversary of the King James Version

Like many in my generation, I grew up believing that God spoke in Elizabethan English. I heard so many “thee’s” and “thou’s” in the prayers, hymns, sermons, and scripture readings during the course of an excursion to church or Sunday School that it seemed a logical conclusion to a young boy. You can imagine my surprise to later learn that the archaic expressions used in the church of my youth were more a product of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible than a proclivity for speaking in God’s native tongue.

This year we observe the 400th anniversary of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible. If my brief perusal of the Jan/Feb edition of the History Channel Magazine is any indication, the year will be filled with articles and memorabilia to commemorate the occasion. Marketing strategies will pitch every conceivable edition of the venerable KJV, including those in the original 1611 olde English (hardly decipherable by modern English readers), along with bindings in leather and designer fabrics. Already I’ve noticed a number of media responses to include NPR broadcasts and various special reports.

Although I rarely use the KJV for public speaking or preaching anymore, I must admit to an affinity for this most common of the English translations of the scriptures. Probably because of my youthful exposure to the best-seller of all time, I tend to think biblically in the King James Version. Indeed, most of the hundreds of Bible verses I memorized as a child and teenager were from the pages of the KJV. Those verses have served me well over the years, filling my heart and mind with principles, promises, and ideas that transcend human comprehension.

When faced with temptations to compromise my convictions or do wrong, I immediately think of a verse like Psalm 119:11, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” or 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (For the purposes of this article I am writing out the verses from memory, so I might not get them exactly right—maybe you should check.)

When weary or troubled, my thoughts go to those red-letter words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

When discouraged, my mind turns to Hebrews 10:35-36, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” or 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.”

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Although we never use a word like “recompence” in daily conversation, the word has meaning to me precisely because I was taught at an early age to look up words I do not understand in a dictionary. That may seem quaint and even archaic in the post-modern world of electronic technology, yet it served the purpose of encouraging my love of learning, and desire to investigate and find out something for myself. There was something intrinsically satisfying about going to the library and taking a look at the Oxford English Dictionary to find the precise definition of a word, or using the old oak library catalog and Dewey Decimal System to research just the right book or resource, that I find lacking in the 5 million hits of a one second Google search.

Don’t get me wrong, I would not trade the ability to search the internet for a throwback to the old Dewey Decimal System and its arcane code of numbers and alphabet. Still, there is something to be said for actual printed books and real brick and mortar libraries that I miss when using my iPad. In the same way, there is something to be said about a translation of the Bible that has served us in the English speaking world well for the past 400 years, and you can be sure to hear at least some of it in the coming year.

The King James Version of the Bible has strongly influenced our culture and history. Handel used it as the text for his oratorio, The Messiah in 1741. Verses from its pages can be found engraved in public buildings in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King quoted from Isaiah 40:4 in his 1963 “I have a dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

King James authorized this translation of the Bible to, “be read in churches.” When read aloud, the poetry and majesty of the words create a syllabic soliloquy that convey the drama and pathos of the printed word, often in relatively simple terms. The fact is, most of the British citizenry was illiterate in 1611, and having a Bible available to be read in the common language of the people, with verses easily understood and memorized, opened up literacy to the general populace.

Our modern tendency is to explain and over-explain, and use far too many words in the process. As a man who has made his living preaching sermons most of my adult life, I should know. While many verses in the Bible do require explanation, exposition, and commentary using principles of biblical interpretation, many verses easily stand on their own with clear meaning—even when using the 400-year-old KJV.

The late British journalist and host of Masterpiece Theater on PBS, Alistair Cooke, once used hyperbole to offer a modern politician’s wordy rendition of God’s simple command, “Let there be light, and there was light” in Genesis 1:3: "The Supreme Being mandated the illumination of the universe and this directive was enforced forthwith."

Even the detractors of the Bible recognize its importance as a singularly unique and glorious piece of literature. “For three centuries, this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; it has become the national epic of Britain and is as familiar to noble and simple … as Dante and Tasso once were to the Italians … it is written in the noblest and purest English and abounds in exquisite beauties of pure literary form.” One would not expect such accolades for the Bible from Thomas Huxley, known as the first public figure in Britain to declare himself an “agnostic” while championing Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Such is the power of the Bible to create conversations about the most important topics of life: “Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” And those who objectively look at the Bible will acknowledge its influence and beauty. For those of us who believe it to be the Word of God, we also acknowledge its inspiration and authority—but primarily its power to change lives for the better.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not worship the Bible, rather I worship the God of the Bible. And I do not think there is any special blessing that comes from reading the KJV as opposed to any other translation. Those who believe so ignore the fact that Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek make up the original languages of the Bible. Nor was King James a saint by any stretch of the imagination!

Yet the translation endures in popularity. And I for one, want to say, “Happy 400th birthday!” to an old friend and faithful companion from my youth. The leather bindings, gilt edges, and India paper will always bring a sense of peaceful nostalgia to my soul, but it is the power of the printed words upon the pages that have been transferred to the flesh of my heart that really make the difference.