A Humble Toast to the King James Bible…Happy 400th

I just finished another reading of Adam Nicolson’s 2003 bestseller, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. I had read it a few years ago, but as this is the 400^th anniversary of the first printing of that great work, I felt the need to revisit it. Nicolson, who also wrote Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar and Quarrel With the King (which is a history of one family leading up to the English Civil War), is a wonderful storyteller who combines great scholarship, a love for his subjects, and a gift for making the complex easy to understand.

The Bible is a fascinating and inspiring work of literature. Well, let me rephrase that. It’s a fascinating and inspiring work of literature for some, and the divinely inspired Word of God for others. But this blog is not to argue about which of those definitions are more plausible, or even healthier. I guess this is just one person’s appreciation for one of the greatest, if not THE greatest work of English prose ever assembled.

Whether or not you believe the Bible is sacred literature (and I do not), the beauty and majesty of the language and the power that language gives its stories is undeniable. Nicolson reminds us that the KJV came into being during a time when Shakespeare was at his literary heights and England may have been witnessing a glorious age of prose and poetry. In fact, Shakespeare was in the middle of, or had just finished The Tragedy of King Lear. Harold Bloom compares this era in England to what he calls the “Jewish Literary Renaissance” during the reign of King Solomon that gave us the earliest portion of the Hebrew Bible by the J Writer (the story of Adam and Eve up through the death of Moses), as well as the writers who gave us the Psalms, the Song of Solomon and the stories of King David. It's amazing to think that these two periods in time gave us, arguably, some of the greatest prose in the history of human existence. And it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that King James I likened himself to King Solomon and wanted a version of the Bible not only as a crowning achievement for England, but as a crowning achievement for himself as well.

This love of the language that so permeated Jacobean England is something that Nicolson dwells on and that I heard Sunday after Sunday as my father preached exclusively from the KJV. The soaring rhetoric and the majesty of those words were and still are a comfort to those seeking divine guidance or are just looking for sublime poetry and wisdom.

Nicolson reminds us that the men who took part in the translation weren’t exactly Christian men or even decent men by today’s standards. This may or may not be relevant to some people, especially believers. It is ironic to a certain degree, but I’m not sure one should care. What we should care about is that these men gave us a masterpiece of literature and beauty. They debated every word and phrase and agonized over translations, taking 7 full years before they were comfortable with the final product. They knew that language is important and in their world, religion (or for them, the Word of God) deserved the most compelling and beautiful translation possible. They succeeded.

So whether or not you're a believer; whether you read the KJV as a great work of literature or as the inspired Word of God, take the time to read a few chapters again and thank those Jacobean scholars who gave up a good chunk of their lives to bring it to you. And take the time to read Adam Nicolson's book to see how it was done.