Early draft of King James Bible found

#1142 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 25 October 2015

In the words of Professor David Norton of New Zealand’s Victoria University, the King James Version of the Bible has had unparalleled influence on the religious consciousness of English-speaking peoples, comparable to William Shakespeare’s influence on the English language.

Eternity newspaper reports that the earliest known draft of the King James Bible has been discovered in the archives of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, pointing the way to a better understanding of the translation process.

Its translation began in 1604 at the behest of King James I of England, who commissioned 54 of England’s greatest scholars into six teams ordered to create an “authorised” Bible that would cast off the King’s concerns of anti-royalist margin notes in the first English Bible translation, the Geneva Bible of 1560.

Politics and history aside, the freedom to read the Bible in one’s own language is a precious gift showing the way of salvation and teaching us how to live well.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.