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 ...
As Disraeli said, when you give people education without also giving them religion, you only make them into more clever devils.
“...when the team of 47 of the top Bible scholars of the time finished their work.”
A point in its favor. Most modern editions are the translation of one person, meaning that personal preferences can’t be avoided.
I pray for the day that the only place you see this travesty is in a museum.
Well, since many churches don’t use King James in favor of other bibles, I would say this poll is worthless.
Remember that the KJV that is common now was the revised version from the 19th century. You couldn’t read an actual original one today, too much of the language has changed.
Travesty?
Pretty prescient of Disraeli
Most people under 35 can’t tell you what brand of blender is on their counter, either.
I am hoping to get a commemorative 1611 next year, with original fonts and spelling.
Doesn’t say if they normalized the data to account for the fact that there’s a lot more young muslims in the UK than there used to be.
Which ones? Your statement certainly does not apply to the NIV.
Nor have they heard of Samson and Delilah, or the Witch of Endor, or David and Goliath, or ‘the still,small voice’, or trampling out the grapes of wrath, or ships that go down to the sea, or ‘let my people go’ or ‘feed my sheep’ or any of the other thousands of references that inhabit our daily discourse, which all come from the Bible.
Or if they have heard them they don’t know where they come from. they have been robbed of a great literary tradition as well as a spiritual one.
>>Well, since many churches don’t use King James in favor of other bibles, I would say this poll is worthless.
I don’t use the KJV, but I know its historical and cultural significance as any English-speaking Christian should. Oh, this was in the UK....never mind.
But they know everything about Paris Hilton, Lyndsey Lohan, and so forth.
There are modern translations more nearly worthy of your “Travsty” award. But four centuries of English-speaking souls have been shepherded into God’s kingdom in hearing the Gospel as preached from the pages of the KJV. I would hesitate to call that travesty.
I thought that Travesty was more polite than "Bastardization."
What would you call a book that was literally plagarized from the Douay Rheims Bible and is missing seven Books and parts of two others?
Somebody could do a facebook page for the King James bible, then they would hear of it.
I'm an atheist and I know its historical and cultural significance. It would be interesting to conduct such a poll here in the States; I suspect it would have similar results.
Take Psalm 46 — count 46 words from the beginning, count 46 words from the end. The answer is —
It was in World Net Daily that I first learned of the Geneva Bible, which was the whole reason for the King James Version in the first place.
King James ordered the King James Translation to be undertaken so as to 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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.