The King James Bible was first published 400 years ago, in 1611, after four years of translation by the best Greek and Hebrew scholars in Britain. The King James Bible went on to have a great influence on the English language (much like Shakespeare, who was writing his plays at about the same time). It was the official Bible of the English church and became a popular translation throughout the English-speaking world, especially in America.
I grew up hearing the King James Bible, with some mid-18th Century revisions, read in church. It was the Bible I read when I first began to study it for myself (I usually read the New King James Version now). I think its influence on my speech and thought can still be heard from me, just like the remnants of my Bootheel accent.
The King James Bible can be tough reading. The language has changed in the last 400 years. Because it was officially a revision of an earlier translation, it was a bit stodgy, formal and dated even for its time. Mostly, it was considered an incredible, accessible, beautiful and even poetic translation in its time. Even the modern ear can detect the carefulness and cleverness of the language, the sense of rhythm, mood, and storytelling. The scholars who produced this translation wanted it to be both faithful to the original language and great writing in English. It was to be read from in the churches across England, so they wanted to sound good.
In addition to enjoying the Bible, I’ve had the pleasure of reading some histories that cover the translation of the Bible into English, especially the King James Bible. Here is a selection.
Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution it Inspired by Benson Bobrick
Benson Bobrick tells two related stories side by side. One is the history of the translation of the Bible into English, culminating with the King James Bible. The second is how the concept of religious liberty, greatly tied into Bible translation, fueled thought on personal and political liberty, leading to reforms in the English government and the formation of American political thought.
Certain people serve as pins on which Bobrick hangs his narrative: John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale, and King James I. Tyndale prepared an influential translation of the Bible with the support and protection of a group of English wool merchants with ties to European Lutherans. The protection was not complete and Tyndale was executed after being convicted of heresy in the Netherlands for espousing Protestant views. When England became officially Protestant under Henry VIII, Coverdale translated and published English Bibles with official approval. Coverdale’s work, and the legal sanctions for it, prepared the way for the Authorized Bible that would take form in the reign of James I.
In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath lays the groundwork for his history of the King James Bible in the Protestant Reformation and the invention of the printing press. He then presents the history related to the King James Bible itself. Like Bobrick, McGrath wraps up with the influence of this translation, though he focuses more on language and culture than politics.
God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson
Nicolson focuses more specifically on the King James Bible and the men who prepared it than the other authors previously discussed. His choice to write less about what came before and after the King James Bible gave him room to write more about the translators, their work, personalities, and place in the spectrum of the English Reformation.
Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible by Teems, David
This biography of King James includes several chapters on the translation he authorized. Its also provides interesting background on the man and the political and cultural climate of the times. A 17th century boy-king was not a very pleasant thing to be, and James’ journey to adulthood and monarchal power was full of danger. Teems’ style is less formal than some of the other authors on this subject.
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, December 21, 2012
Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers
On February 5, 1946, The Adventures of Superman radio
program opened with a new introduction:
Google
Yes, it’s
Superman. Strange visitor from another
planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities farbeyond those of mortal
men. Superman, defender of law and
order, champion of equal rights, valiant, courageous fighter against the forces
of hate and prejudice!
This announced the beginning of the radio Superman’s
struggle with post-war social issues, especially a campaign against racial and
religious intolerance. In this adventure,
Jimmy Olsen
infiltrated the Guardians of America, a fictional
stand-in for pro-Nazi
groups that were operating in the United States
at the time. This was only the
beginning. Later that year, Adventures would feature a 16-episode
story in which Superman took on the Clan of the Fiery Cross, a stand-in for the
Ku Klux Klan
(KKK).
Behind these fictional stories of Superman were real-life
adventures. The KKK was attempting to
launch a new national membership drive, playing on the insecurities people felt
after World
War II. There were real infiltrators
of the KKK and other organized hatemongers who exposed the workings of these
organizations in the media. Rick Bowers
tells the story of these men and the producers of the comic
book and radio Superman in Superman
versus the Ku Klux Klan.
Superman had been dealing with cultural concerns from his
beginning. When Jerry Siegel
and Joe
Shuster, Jewish
high-school students in Cleveland,
created Superman in the 1930s, they pitted
him against criminal
gangs and crooked politicians. As Nazi Germany began to
rise as an aggressive European power,
the hero opposed Nazis at home and abroad.
During the war,
he protected the home front. Though it
is not the focus, Bowers describes how Superman has changes with the concerns
of the times.
The Klan has roots going back to the Reconstruction
era after the Civil
War. It started as a jokey order of
former Confederate
Army officers in Tennessee who
imitated the mystery religion-inspired
fraternal orders that were popular at colleges, with mysterious rituals and
strange names. It spawned imitators that
secretly gathered in Nashville to
organize themselves in 1867. Former Confederate
General Nathan
Bedford Forrest was the first Grand Wizard, who lead the Klan in opposition
to Reconstruction, including domestic terrorism
against blacks and white proponents of racial equality and Reconstruction
policies. The violence of the Klan
members, called Ghouls, eroded the organization’s popularity.
William
J. Simmons launched a campaign to revive the Klan, taking it national in 1920. For Simmons it was largely a moneymaking
scheme, though he seemed happy to promote intolerance of blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants and
anyone else who wasn’t a white, male Protestant. (I’m a white, male Protestant and I find
nothing in Protestantism, or Christianity
in general, that justifies the intolerance promoted by the Klan.) Successors led the Klan to political activism
in the 1920s, and it became very powerful, but front-line violence and
leadership hypocrisy undermined their position.
The post-war membership campaign, led by Samuel Green
who was Grand Dragon of the Georgia Realm,
was thwarted by law enforcement and equal rights advocates with help of medial
like Adventures.
The library helpfully labeled Bowers’ book with a sticker that reads, “TEEN.” I suppose it is a young adult
book, though I think it is within the grasp of many middle school
students. It is an unusual introduction
to the history of bigotry in American and the movements that promoted equality,
but the tie to a popular superhero might make the subject more appealing to
kids in school. It made me pick up the
book, and I’m far passed my school days.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Faith by Jimmy Carter
President
Jimmy Carter is well known for his Christian faith. Excepting a handful of famous pastors, Carter is one of the few Americans who is known as a Christian almost as
much as he is known for other things; this is especially extraordinary for a
former president.
Faith is the title and subject of his
recent book. He addresses religious faith, but other types of faith are
important to him as well.
For instance, each
person need faith in himself to take action with hope to achieve positive
results. We need faith in each other to live, work and trade together peaceably.
We even need some degree
of faith in government. If we hope to achieve the ultimate
purposes of government, justice, equality under the law and peace, we have to believe it can be done.
Especially in a republic we need to believe we can achieve these goals through
our institutions, laws and the people we elect to represent us.
“A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant, because our peple and our country want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.”-Jimmy Carter, Faith (quoting a speech he presented in 1978)
There are also personal goals that require faith. Justice and
equality may be the highest goals we can expect from government, but we want
more. If we also hope for love, humility, generosity and kindness, we need another kind of faith.
For many, including
Carter, this is religious faith. We find in religion reasons to believe that
things like love are real and worthy of pursuing, even if we don’t always get
it right.
For Christians, this
faith is founded on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the proof of God’s loving mercy and grace. It all starts with God,
and we can hope to be better people through the empowerment of God and our
grateful response to His love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. As Carter puts it,
“It is not what we do for God that is important but what God does for us. Faith
brings about good works, but doing good things does not result in faith."
For Carter, Jesus is
worthy of consideration as an example of the ideal in human character. Being
like Christ is being a better human being. As a Christian and Protestant, Carter believes he has a personal
relationship with an ever-present Christ. The faith that underlies Carter’s
career and achievements as a politician, philanthropist and peacemaker is that he does not walk
alone, but he walks with a living Christ and with other believers who seek to
follow Him and see His good will done in our time.
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
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