This year is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. That translation has had a profound impact upon the development of the English language. Robert Lowth, a professor at Oxford in the 18th century called the King James Bible “the noblest monument of English prose.” Professor Albert Cook of Yale University wrote, “No other book has so penetrated and permeated the hearts and speech of the English race as has the Bible. What Homer was to the Greeks, and the Koran to the Arabs, that – or something not unlike it – the Bible has become to English.” (“Translation that Openeth the Window,” 8-9)
It’s not just the language. Many of us, I certainly, grew up learning the Bible from the words of the King James. The words picked by scholars 400 years ago were the words through which the Spirit of God brought faith into many hearts and nurtured that faith. Memorized Bible verses are important to a Christian and to me as a preacher they are a tool of the trade. It’s those memorized verses from the King James translation, impressed in my mind as a youth, that still come from my mouth. And yes, sometimes the wording is very archaic.
What translation of the Bible did the Spirit use to shape you?
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