King James Bible

King James Version – the next step?

Posted by Steve on April 21, 2012

I have just finished reading ‘In the beginning’ – The story of the King James Bible, by Alistair McGrath. It’s a very interesting story and I can recommend the book as a presentation of it. I would have liked to have read it before I read the KJV itself last year ().

I certainly had not expected that the publication of the KJV ‘caused scarcely a ripple to pass over the face of English society at the time’ given the idolising praise for it in some quarters. I laugh that the KJV was considered a bit to frank in its translations sometimes, McGrath quoting from Matthew Gregory Lewis’s novel, The Monk (1796) talks of a mother convinced that reading the bible would lead to all kinds of sexual dysfunction: ‘the annals of a Brothel would scarcely furnish a greater choice of indecent expressions…[it] too frequently inculcates the first rudiments of vice, and gives the first alarm to the still sleeping passions’. Why didn’t someone tell me this as a school boy?! All the people I knew thought it was a holy book which you were SUPPOSED to read, and it was therefore of little interest to me.

I like McGrath’s book as much for its history of the English language as of the KJV – a complement to Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue perhaps. I finished the KJV wondering if I would start another unfamiliar version to complement my journey through the King James – I’ve not read any version newer than the NRSV which in today’s newest-is-best society puts me way behind the times. I’ve used several of the newer translations of course, but none of them grabs me with that ‘aha, now THIS is my language’ feeling any more than any other so I’m not inspired to do more than refer to them at best. The main thing about a book of course is to actually read it, in the sense that we normally read a book i.e. cover to cover (why do we say we have ‘read the Bible’ when we only mean we have referred to it?) Our pew sheet carries the readings for Evening Prayer for the week so that people who want to follow it can read, essentially, the whole bible in two years, but even in serialised bite-sized installments it is SO HARD to keep up with it,  WHATEVER VERSION YOU USE!

Perhaps I should rather follow my KJV series with a complementary series of blog entries not on a modern version of the bible, but on how to sit still long enough to read and if not to read then how to otherwise receive the message the KJV translators wanted you to know.

Tell me your tips, after praying in church on Fridays 9.30am, Sundays 7.30pm ;-)

The King James Version – not like it used to be

Posted by Steve on January 14, 2012

I didn’t quite make it for the end of the year, but this week, it is finished – I have read the Authorised Version of The Bible, or King James Version. January has given me the familiar shock that Edna is a biblical name – I don’t know why but it always seems strange to read that name there –  Tobit, Tobias, Raphael, Edna. I didn’t know they had Champaign country in Israel (Judith 5.1), or that she had such thick hair – she bound it in a tire. 1 and 2 Maccabees again seems to be numbered the wrong way round and is so gruesome, and confused in its politics that I’m glad I don’t have that in my normal bible reading, though you can’t help smiling at the author’s style at the beginning and end of 2 Maccabees. The politics of religion there seems so odd – who does Alexander think he is to appoint the High Priest of a foreign nation, and why does Jonathan listen? Then Demetrius does the same thing, and Antiochus after him, and by 2nd Maccabees 5 they’re out bidding each other trying to bribe the king to appoint them as High Priest. Politics in our chaplaincy seems a doddle compared to that! What is the role of church and state with regard to each other? Would we rather have the church in control so we get godly government, or the government in control so we get a godly church? The English Anglican Church of course tries to do it BOTH ways together.

I thought that when I got to Hebrews I would instantly love it with ‘God, who as sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son’ except, those aren’t the words I expected. I get the good feeling of nostalgia when I hear, ‘In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son’ – I think it’s the ‘but’ that makes the difference, emphasising that God is about to do a new thing and it says ‘listen now!’. Revelation, one of my favourite books, is a fantastic ending and I encourage you to read it in one sitting rather than getting bogged down in details.

I began this journey through the KJV expecting, as I have experienced with all other translations I have read – now 12 versions – that by the end I would be so used to the language that the style, strange at first, would seem easy and somehow natural and resonating with my heart by the end. I have heard of so many people who ‘swear by it’ that I had hoped I would understand the elegance and beauty of the language as they see it. I finish with a feeling that although I can intellectually appreciate that it was elegant, clear, and a milestone in its time, for me today it is just not so clear, and the language is a barrier to my entering into the intention of the text. The poetry which I find there in abundance comes not from the words but from the ideas within them. I can’t help but think that those who get all romantic about the wonderful language only read small portions of it, which come with past associations (carols services, 1am walks home from Christmas Midnight services and such like) rather than the beauty of the themes behind the words themselves. They say, it’s not like it used to be. Well no, but the message it was trying to get through to us is like it used to be. I can be nostalgic about ‘the old language’, but for me, as I have repeatedly found on this adventure through the King James, what I think of as from the old days is from the RSV – it’s in the cover of my old school RSV I have kept note of what versions I have read over the years, though I never took any interest in it until after I left school. And more often, the portions I know are from songs I sang at university which were from the RSV. Since then of course there’s been a new translation almost every year as booksellers try to reap the profits from people who think they will actually read their bible (and fulfil their failed resolutions) if only they can have it in the latest wrapping. It’s like my keep fit programme – If only I have a walking machine, or a swimming pool, or a gym, then I’ll get fit. Yeah right. Unless I use the apparatus, or sit and open the book, it will not affect me however impressive it looks.

I have loved being able to read the Bible at last in the traditional version. It has a wonderful message which I will continue to read, even if it’s a bit weird in places. I will return this particular version of the book now to Holy Trinity Church Dubai where it belongs. and tomorrow resume with my familiar version.

I was wondering about reading The Message bible as a contrast. But not yet.

The King James Version – The End is still not yet

Posted by Steve on December 25, 2011

I had been hoping to complete my reading of the KJV before the end of the year and I have been rushing a bit, but alas, my hopes are dashed. Old Testament done, I’m up to Hebrews in the New and Tobit, Judith and Maccabees from the Apocrypha still to go. Still, unless Jesus returns first and ‘time is up’ I hope to complete the job in January.

Waiting for the word of God sometimes takes a little patience – Jeremiah: after 10 days the word came; Ezekiel: sat for a week waiting for an answer; Esdras too had a good few waits, and when that word came it wasn’t always nice to hear. If, as I said last time, Isaiah was bad, well Jeremiah was worse, and Ezekiel only had the odd verse of good news with bad news including ‘your tires shall be upon your heads’. Not the normal stuff to read in the run up to Christmas and it felt disconsonant with the season but just because it’s not sweet doesn’t mean it’s not good to read it, just as Herod’s slaughter of the innocents is not a sweet thing to remember but we consider it profitable to have a date in the calendar especially for it (28th December). These dark deeds have something to teach us. Daniel seemed to be in the thick of politics and skulduggery and I wonder what was going on behind the scenes at the end of chapter 5 (Meany, Meany, tickle the parson!) – why wasn’t he at the feast? Why did they reward him so for such a bleak message? Was he working with the opposition and was the queen (also not at the feast) involved? After all, he ends up in the next chapter as the conquerors chief advisor!

After all those books, Bel and the Dragon (are kings that stupid?), and Susanna was light reading, and the Song of the Three was really refreshing and brought joy to the heart after the gloom – why can’t we sing their Benedicite more often? We did a good version of it from Nigeria in our church once.

Of course love is a nicer subject, and I wonder why that great chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13) translates to the word ‘charity’ rather than ‘love’ as it translates the same Greek word in many other places – I also wonder why Timothy is translated Timotheus sometimes and Timothy at others when presumably it’s the same in the Greek. I have more of a guess as why 1 Corinthians 11 is not used for any Sunday readings in our lectionary – which is the church recommends we read the WHOLE bible from time to time because in a 7 minute selection once a week you can’t hear it all, unless we read terribly fast. Now there’s a thought. But we’d soon be in a shambles if we did (1 Cor 10.25 – Had Paul been to York?). Love is such a wonderful thing but too much could be bad for you and you might even get ‘addicted to the ministry of the saints’ as the household of Stephanas (1 Cor. 16.15). Still, it could be worse –works of the flesh include lasciviousness, variance, and emulations (Galations 5.19,20), or you could go instead for a positive action and bless someone by refreshing their bowels (Philemon 7 and 20).

I have puzzled at many points over KJV language, puzzling still further as to why the more aggressively evangelistic and Pentecostal of our congregations, who I imagine to be at the forefront of trying to make the gospel intelligible to the outsider, so often swear by the KJV in their preaching. There are points when the KJV leaves us puzzling on purpose – as they say in their introduction ‘we desire that the Scripture may speake like itself’ and the text they were translating is simply not clear in places and to carry that lack of clarity forward into the translation seems good, in a way, though in these last days when we want instant answers for everything I think translations tend to make everything clear. Not everything is clear, even with a clear translation, but the story of God at work is a book worth reading. Next time I write I’ll have read of heroic Judith, Tobias’s travels, the glory of Simon the High Priest, and my favourite book, Revelation. The End is nigh! Well, the end of the year at any rate and to finish this rather long post is the quiz I put out for the 9 Lessons and Carols service. Sorry, you’re too late to claim the prize. Happy Christmas!

KJV Conundrum at the 9 Lessons and Carols 2011

Steve has enjoyed reading the King James Version in its 400th anniversary year. The readings tonight come from that version of our bible. Below are some other words Steve has found in it. The remaining letters spell his Christmas wish to you all :-)

D

N

A

B

S

U

H

Y

D

O

O

L

B

M

L

M

E

S

S

I

A

S

E

A

T

E

I

W

O

T

T

E

T

H

A

E

S

J

E

N

J

O

G

S

S

Y

S

N

I

G

E

V

A

O

U

C

F

S

I

I

W

L

N

O

E

H

M

O

L

S

O

D

W

I

T

I

P

S

T

R

A

M

R

N

S

S

N

U

L

A

U

E

G

O

T

A

E

T

E

E

O

P

R

O

N

O

E

G

R

 E

B

A

H

L

I

D

I

S

S

I

P

R

I

S

O

L

C

R

E

R

B

R

O

I

L

A

X

E

S

E

T

D

U

B

S

N

N

E

E

S

I

N

G

S

U

C

L

G

E

C

I

R

T

A

K

C

O

C

O

 

Axes Flag Nethanim Sod
Beeves Gins Outches   of Gold Sop
Bloody   Husband Glistering Piss Stripling
Brigandine Habergeon Score Tale
Broil Jeoparded Sea Wist   (twice)
Clout Matrix Seam Wist
Cockatrice Messias Seat Wotteth
Curious Neesings Sober

 

Completed entries presented at any service before Christmas

Lunchtime will win a huge smile and a hug from the chaplain.

The King James Version – Herald of good tidings

Posted by Steve on December 6, 2011

king-james-bible-christ-church-jebel-aliAnother month, another week behind in the Old Testament but two in the New! Can I finish this year? What a month! I press on.

I’m so used to new translations harmonising spelling, making indentation for Old Testament quotes, and having headings that subdivide the text for me, that sometimes I have to double check where I am when reading this big King James bible I have. Reading of Chanaan, Emmor at Sychem, Saul son of Cis, Esaias and so on in the book of Acts when I am used to the Hebrew versions of the names keeps me on the ball as it were in concentration. I smile at the translation of Passover as Easter (Acts 12.4) when these days you have to remind people that Easter is at passover to help them understand the last supper. I’m interested that Saul was a man of the tribe of Benjamin ‘by the space of 40 years’ and that the jailor ‘sprang in’ to see if all was well (Acts 16.29). It also strikes me as rather odd that Paul would circimcise Timotheus in order to go together on a trip to deliver a letter saying that circumcision wasn’t necessary (Acts 16.1-4). Of course being a good vicar I can tell you good reasons why it might have been necessary, but reading it this time it struck me as not immediately obvious.

Reading Jeremiah, Lamentations and Baruch has been odd, doing it at this time of year (Advent) when the focus of church life is on God’s return/arrival rather than God’s abandoning his people. I misread Jer. 4.22 as ‘they are Scottish children’ at first and really thought something must be odd in translation. I had to look up Cockatrice in the dictionary and was told, amongst other things ‘compare Basilisk’ and thought of Harry Potter, and then read of dragons in 49.33 – interesting menageries they had in classical mythology – they surely needed their Brigandines. I smiled at ‘naughty figs’ (24.2) and ‘cast clouts’ (38.11) and it sounded like some requests I get here, that the heading in my bible for chapter 39 is phrased ‘Jeremiah is kindly used’. But what got me about Jeremiah is how hard it is for people these days (I think cheifly of Westerners I think), used to prosperity and government support, used to wars always being in far off places rather than at home, to read of the horrors of war like this. It’s like the current day news, except that the current day news misses out the really horrible bits and Jeremiah doesn’t. We don’t like to read it. We leave out those bits. But any military person who has seen active service in actual war knows that it’s the truth. Human beings ARE like that.

Jeremiah is not all doom and gloom – he keeps putting in the odd verse here and there of positive hope, all the way through. Coming up to Christmas we all think we know Isaiah as a positive book but  he also is devastatingly negative, if less so than Jeremiah, but then Isaiah was writing at a time when only three quarters of the nation was going into extinction where Jeremiah was witnessing the death throw. Isaiah is given such an odd task (Isaiah. 6.10) – rather than being sent to make the people repent, he’s sent to make them even more hardened for judgement. What a calamity for that people that they had come to that! He can’t resist a little bit of good news, almost invisible, except to one who understands that trees are not dead in winter, but dormant (Is. 6.10).

I wonder at him ‘hissing for the fly and the bee’ (7.18) and wonder if his wife was ‘the prophetess’ (8.3) if Jo is a ‘chaplainess’. I wonder what his wife and kids thought of his antics in chapter 20.

What amazes me about Isaiah is how he keeps switching from doom and gloom back to good news back to doom and gloom and some of it is really vicious stuff. As with my thoughts about Jeremiah, I find it significant that we only know the good stuff and only want to read, learn and sing of the good stuff, reading Isaiah 2, 9, 11 at Christmas, and how many choruses I know from Isaiah 55 (though all based on the RSV rather than KJV)! There are old songs based on Lamentations that I love, but they are not sung these days except in small midweek ‘special’ services because sorrow and fear is too disconsonant with propserous society for it to attract any large numbers. The modern world and church is not good at dwelling on sin and it’s consequences, prefering the good news of forgiveness and Emmanuel. We want to people simply to abandon sorrow, despair, depression, hopelessness and so on at the first opportunity by somehow healing it with positivity and good news – going with them calmly and without judgement on their journey through despair is not thought constructive.

But there are good tidings also – in Isaiah, in Jeremiah, in Lamentations, in Baruch – for those in the midst of the end of their world. Many in Dubai here, when they lose their jobs, face exile. It’s funny because it’s exile back home, but it’s exile back to unemployment and homelessness too in many cases. It may be that judgement has finally caught up with you, or that you are an innocent victim of judgement (usually the bank) catching up with another but whatever, now you face uncertainty. If you want to wallow, read Isaiah and feel the anger and long for the judgement of whoever your Lucifer (Is. 14.12) happens to be (corrupt boss, sponsor, brother, whatever) with the words of Isaiah 14. But don’t just read that. Carry on further. And let the good parts speak too, and carry on further, until you burst into chapter 40 onwards.

There is a herald of Good Tidings: Hear some good bits of Isaiah at our 9 Lessons and Carols service with Dubai Chamber Choir on the 18th December 7.30pm. If you like it less formal come to our Nativity play and carols service on 16th December at 9.30am. Don’t forget Christmas itself – Christmas Eve 11pm and Christmas Day 9.30am :-)

The King James Version – Archbishop’s sermon

Posted by Steve on November 16, 2011

Well, I’ve been enjoying my read through the KJV, and still going, but this time, instead of my own reflections, click here for some good reflections from Archbishop Rowan during the 400th anniversary celebrations in Westminster.

Good sermon vicar!

 

Pages:123»