The King James Version of the Bible

In 1604 King James of England authorized a new translation of the Bible. There were two main competing Bibles at the time, the Geneva Bible and the Bishop's Bible. The Geneva Bible was a good translation, but had many notes which were against monarchy. The Bible also did not support the idea of ordained clergy which was how the Church of England was organized.

Queen Elizabeth authorized the Bishop's Bible in response to the Geneva Bible, to provide a translation which would support the monarchy and ordained clergy.  The translation was not a very compelling one and this helped keep the Geneva Bible popular, although the Bishop's Bible was the official version.

King James organized a committee of 47 translators to produce the new translation, all of which were members of the Church of England. King James wanted to keep many of the same translations of the Geneva translation and the committee was encouraged to seek inspiration from the other translations as well as the original texts. The translators did not translate the passages word-for-word but used italics to indicate if a word was implied and not in the original text. They also used words which were slightly archaic, which was supposed to help the text have an uncommon and holy feel about it.

The translators worked in groups to translate different parts of the Bible and the Apocrypha. When a group got to the point where they were discussing the different translator's version, they would speak the passage aloud for all to hear, so that the sound of the translation would be an important part of the text. King James dictated that there would be no notes, to avoid the accidental inclusion of anti-monarch and ordained clergy notes which had made their way into the Geneva text.

The Bible translation did not have a name at first and was eventually known as the Authorized Version.  In 1611, the translation was finished and printed by Robert Barker, who would subcontract the rights to print the Bible to other London printers after demand got too high for him to meet by himself. This resulted in decades-long disputes between the printers.  The printers all had their own variations of spellings of various words and their own punctuation and sometimes a different word here and there. In 1769 Oxford produced a standard version of the text, which is identical to most versions in print today.

The King James Version of the Bible helped codify the English language. The King James Bible is the most popular version of the Bible, with an estimated one billion copies printed. Before the King James Bible, most churches did not have a Bible because they could not afford one. 

Thomas Becket returned to England after fleeing to France On December the 3rd 1170 This Week in Christian History for the week of December 1-7

Thomas Becket was born on the 21st of December 1118 or1120. He worked his way up as clerk under Archbishop of Canterbury Theobald (the head of the Church of England) to become Archdeacon of Canterbury. He became friends with Henry II and was appointed chancellor. They went on hunting parties together and Henry entrusted Thomas with teaching manners to his son, who stayed for a while in his household.    

As chancellor Thomas went along with Henry no matter what he proposed, including some taxes which were more heavily instituted towards the clergy. Thomas was also complacent when vacancies in the church were left open longer than necessary, and the king pocketed the salaries. Thomas became very rich and generously gave away fortunes to people he wanted political favors from, and also the poor.

When Henry asked Thomas to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas told him it wouldn’t be a good idea, but Henry didn’t listen. On becoming the head of the Church of England Thomas changed, and championed the Church’s rights. Henry introduced the Constitutions of the Clarendon and Thomas opposed this greatly. As the pressure grew and Thomas wouldn’t fold, he was accused of false charges.

Thomas fled England and became a monk in France. After six years Henry came to see him and he agreed to come back to England. Because he had stood up to the king, crowds met him and people saw him as a hero. Meanwhile he was not restored property that was his and he was not able to fulfill his duties without money to run the church. He received threats and was offered a few guards as he travelled home.

This was exaggerated to an army as word spread. When this reached Henry, he stated that he wanted to be rid of him. Four knights who overheard this took him to mean that they should kill Thomas. They attacked him in Canterbury’s Cathedral, killing him on the altar. All of Europe was shocked and the pope made the king parade to Thomas’ tomb while being whipped by monks.

 
Thomas’ story is in my new book  Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past      

It is also available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. It is a collection of biographies of Martin Luther, Francis of Assisi, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, and Thomas Becket.

Come, tame a wolf, flee from the wrath of the king, feel the horror of impending doom on a ship, and the uncertainty of one’s own salvation with these great heroes of the faith.

I have excepts of the book on my website williamdeanhamilton.net,

 Thank you for reading.

Bio of C.S. Lewis who died on November the 22th 1963. - This Week in Christian History for the week of November the 17th through the 23th

 

Clive Stapes Lewis was born in Belfast Ireland on the 29^th of November 1898. His childhood was filled with books; he especially liked the ones with talking animals. His mother died of cancer when he was young and he suffered from health problems. He eventually had to go away to a health resort and attended school there.

While he was a Christian when he was younger, he became an atheist and became interested in the occult and nature. He read about old Icelandic myths and he experimented with different forms of writing like epic poetry. C. S.was accepted into University College at Oxford and underwent a mild culture shock. He met Yeats while there, and was astounded that his English companions didn’t appreciate his work.

C. S. served in the English army during WWI. He had made a pact with one of his fellow servicemen that if either one died the other would take care of their family, which C.S. did after the man died. C. S. was wounded and returned to his studies after he was discharged. He began to embrace Christianity, partially from the influence of his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, and partially from the works of George MacDonald. He adopted the Church of England, which disappointed Tolkien who wanted him to become Catholic.  

He met Joy Davidman and married her in a civil ceremony, which was probably a ploy to keep her from being deported. He eventually fell in love with her and they got married in the Church of England. She died and C. S. took care of her two sons.

After he converted to Christianity his books became more popular than the ones before and most of his books were overtly Christian. The Legend of Narnia series, The Screwtape letters, The Abolition of Man, and Mere Christianity are still popular among readers.

C. S. became ill with kidney failure in June of 1961. He recovered by 1963, but then suffered a heart attack. After he was discharged his health never fully recovered and on November 22, 1963 C. S. died. He was buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, and his brother was later buried alongside him.

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past      

It is also available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. It is a collection of biographies of Martin Luther, Francis of Assisi, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, and Thomas Becket.

Come, tame a wolf, flee from the wrath of the king, feel the horror of impending doom on a ship, and the uncertainty of one’s own salvation with these great heroes of the faith.

I have excepts of the book on my website williamdeanhamilton.net,

 Thank you for reading.

 

The Mayflower Compact was signed on November the 11th 1620 - This Week in Christian History for the week of November the 10th through the 16th

In England the only official religion was the Church of England. Puritans wanted to leave England to have religious freedom and were granted the right to settle in the colony of Virginia. The Mayflower left England but had to turn back two times since the ship which it was sailing with leaked. A violent storm broke one of the beams that supported the ship, but it was repaired with a great iron screw.

Partially because of their difficulties they landed well north of their original destination. Since this was outside of any English colony, some of the settlers felt as if they would not be bound by the laws of England, but would be free to pursue their own liberty. William Bradford, the head of the Separatists, drew up the Mayflower Compact and it was signed by most of the adult males on board.

The compact didn’t establish rules or ordinances, but it stated that all would abide by whatever rules were established for the colony. This was also important since not all of the Pilgrims were Separatists; some still belonged to the Church of England. The colonist headed up the coast from where they had landed and established a town where some Native Americans had lived. The Native Americans had almost all died from sickness. The colonists built their houses while living on the ship. They didn’t finish until the next spring, at which time the Mayflower left for England.

 The Mayflower Compact has been seen as an important document in defining the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. While many presidents have declared days of thanksgiving to commemorate the Pilgrims and our heritage, It was Abraham Lincoln who declared an official date for the celebration of Thanksgiving. Some have speculated that he did it to help promote the idea of America as a unified nation.

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past      

It is also available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. It is a collection of biographies of Martin Luther, Francis of Assisi, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, and Thomas Becket.

Come, tame a wolf, flee from the wrath of the king, feel the horror of impending doom on a ship, and the uncertainty of one’s own salvation with these great heroes of the faith.

I have excepts of the book on my website williamdeanhamilton.net,

 Thank you for reading.