Posted on 09/09/2014 7:52:23 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
In 1611, the new British state headed by King James I issued its translation of the complete Bible, "newly translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. By His Majesty's special command. Appointed to be read in churches." The book gave English-speaking Christians a common standard through which they could express their faith. Soon, the spread of printing technology meant that this translation above all became the definitive Bible that believers kept in their houses, and before too long, carried in their pockets.
*snip*
Even thinkers not sympathetic to the Bible's message still praise its language. Famous skeptic H. L. Mencken found in the King James "a mine of lordly and incomparable poetry, at once the most stirring and the most touching ever heard of."
*snip*
No serious study of literature in English can neglect the impact of the 1611 Bible, and that is equally true for any century from the 17th through the 20th. All the great canonical authors are immersed in that Bible, even (or especially) those who reject its fundamental religious message. To put it ironically, the Bible they reject is the 1611 version, which created the literary air we breathe. The King James language informs and inspires American literature, from Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne through Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. It has its special power in African American tradition, from Frederick Douglass through Alice Walker.
(Excerpt) Read more at baylor.edu ...
And those books and the manuscripts they were translated from were all corrupt. THAT’S why the King James, and all the bibles that led up to it (during the Reformation) came into being.
Actually, the New Testament of the Douay–Rheims Bible was published two decades before the KJV and the Old Testament a few years before the KJV. It has long been acknowledged that the translators of KJV used portion of the Douay–Rheims New Testament in certain places.
The D-R and KJV were both translated by learned men, who had been educated in similar fashions, so it is not unusual that there are plenty of similarities among the two translations. Additionally, it's worth noting that when Bishop Challoner revised the D-R (the original had been mainly ignored by English-speaking Catholics) he relied heavily on the prose style of the KJV.
Though I am Catholic, I can certainly recognize that enormous impact that the King James Bible has had upon the world. Along with the works of Shakespeare, the KJV forms the basis for modern English; so, from the simply a linguistic point of view, the KJV certainly changed the world.
From a historical and political point of view, it gets a bit murkier. England's greatest era was certainly the three centuries which followed the KJV, much of the world was colonized by men who relied upon the KJV. However, though spreading Christianity was often the stated goal, the British were typically more motivated by power and profit. America is unique in that many Englishmen permanently moved to the colonies and our Founding Fathers descended from them and almost without exception these men viewed the KJV as the most important book ever written.
What places would that be? The entire premise of the King James was to translate from the original languages. Latin was not the original language of the Old or the New Testament. It must have been in the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical Books, which most Catholics seem to believe were never included in the KJV, if so.
I checked - Bible says only way to Heaven is through Christ, and most certainly not by confessing to a man.
And so I thought when I studied them in high school!
For later
If you want to drag me into a KJV-only debate, don't bother.
I’m not the one seeking to disparage one of the greatest works of English literature that the world has ever seen, your fellows are.
There are a number of decent English translations of the Bible today. The KJV remains the gold standard of sheer linguistic skill and beauty, however.
I’ll note that you’ve not provided these purportedly Douay-Rheims derived passages from the KJV, and leave it at that.
Please show me where I have done that.
There are a number of decent English translations of the Bible today. The KJV remains the gold standard of sheer linguistic skill and beauty, however.
I largely agree with this, in fact I noted that the Challoner revisions relied heavily upon the KJV.
I’ll note that you’ve not provided these purportedly Douay-Rheims derived passages from the KJV, and leave it at that.
The committees explicitly states that former translations are used. Transcripts of notes taken by John Bois indicate the same.
And a lay person caught with one was burned at the stake.
Source, please.
You do know that the 1609 Douay Bible contained the books of Esdras and Manasseh, and post Council of Trent Bibles don’t, right?
If the King James version came out after the Catholic version, and it is not the same, doesn’t that mean that the King James version must be incomplete and thus inaccurate?
The message was proclaimed around the world every day at mass throughout the world to the faithful in the pews that couldn’t read. Even today, if you attend daily and Sunday mass every day for three years, you will hear read, virtually the entire canon of scripture.
Everybody conveniently forgets that literacy is a fairly recent achievement, and it is not yet universal.
Everyone needs to check the facts.
But no one read it...No one was allowed to read it...And it certainly didn't change the world as the KJV has...
1609 was "post Council of Trent". What did you mean to say?
They made a new translation because previous translations were inaccurate...They did just the opposite of what you claim...
Name one. It was never contrary to church law for a lay person to possess or use an approved translation, except for about 50 years in southern France during the Albigensian heresy (13th century).
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