Sermon – The King James Bible

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – The King James Bible

Reformation Sunday, October 25, 2015

          Today is Reformation Sunday.  This is the day each year when we celebrate our Reformed heritage rooted in the work of John Calvin and others in the 16^th century Protestant Reformation of the church.  2015 is the four hundred and fourth anniversary of the publishing of the first authorized English language translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek, the King James Version.  And so today we will celebrate the reformers who risked their lives to make an English translation possible.  But first let's pray.

          “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

          The year was 1382.  The government of King Richard II of England was running a deficit.  They needed more revenue.  So the King imposed a new tax, a flat tax.  Everyone had to send in one shilling.  This was a hated tax and started a peasant rebellion.  The people asked their priests what the Bible had to say about all of this.  But the priests didn't know.  The Bibles in their churches were written in Latin which very few priests could read.    The Bishops told the priests and the people to pay the tax because whatever the king said and did was certainly God's will.

          But there was a man in England who argued intensively that the Bible should be translated into English so that anyone in his native country could read it for themselves and know what God had to say.  His name was John Wycliff.    Wycliff's ideas were dangerous to the king and the church hierarchy because it would break the monopoly they held in interpreting scripture.    The king declared translating the Bible into English a crime, but Wycliff and others cited Divine Law and translated the Latin Bible into English. 

          In 1450 a German blacksmith had an idea.  What if we could use movable metal type to print books?  Until then printing required that each page be carved into a block of wood, a time consuming and expensive process.  But Johannes Gutenberg thought that movable metal type would make printing far more economical.    He developed a permanent ink made from varnish and lamp soot and found that this bonded well with paper.  He also found that the paper could be pressed on the metal type covered with ink with a screw mechanism similar to what was used in the production of paper.    Gutenberg had invented the printing press and began printing Bibles to pay off his debts.

          The church found a use for this new invention, the printing press, and began printing indulgences which could be sold to gullible people as tickets to heaven.  This upset a German monk whose writings were also printed on printing presses and distributed all over Europe.  The year was 1510 and Protestant Reformation had begun as Martin Luther began publishing his ideas for all to read.  He even translated the Bible into German from its original languages, a book which became a best seller.    Luther's work had a powerful impact on an English scholar named William Tyndale. 

          Tyndale had studied Greek and Hebrew at Cambridge and was interested in translating the Bible from these original languages into English.    Neither Oxford nor Cambridge had any interest in translating scripture into English, but Tyndale, influenced by Luther, wanted everyone to be able to read the Bible.  So he went to Germany and translated the Bible from its original languages into English.   In 1526 Tyndale's English Bible was printed in Germany and smuggled into England. 

          But the King of England and his church were not happy.  Tyndale saw translation as a literary function; he wanted the translation to reflect the original meaning of the authors as much as possible.  So he translated the Greek word  presbyteros as “elder” rather than the word “priest” as the church had taught.  He also translated the Greek word ekklesia as “congregation” rather than “church”.  This satisfied the Protestants who saw the church as an assembly of people, a congregation led by the elders.  But the English church saw this as a way of undermining the authority of the institutional church and its bishops.  So the church attempted to suppress Tyndale’s translation, but it was so popular in England that the smugglers could not be stopped. 

          By 1535 the English church realized that an English translation was needed that was free from the problems they saw in the Tyndale translation.  Henry VIII had separated the Church of England from Rome and it needed an English Bible.  So the church hired Miles Coverdale to put together a new English Bible.  What Coverdale did was to put together various translations and correct them to conform to the traditional teachings of the church.    With the approval of the church and the king a copy of Coverdale’s “The Great Bible” was placed in the pulpit of every church in England.

          In 1560 John Calvin was established in Geneva where he had started a school for Reformed Theology.  A group of pilgrims arrived from England and an English congregation was started in a French church.  John Knox arrived from Scotland as their pastor and they needed an English Bible.    William Whittingham developed a new translation with prefaces before each chapter and margin notes to explain difficult passages.  The new Geneva Bible was printed cheaply and in a smaller size for family use.  It was an instant best seller sweeping across England.  Even William Shakespeare quoted from it in his plays.  And when James I came from Protestant Scotland as the new King of England many though that the Geneva Bible would become the official Bible of the Church of England.

          But James I had a passionate dislike of the Geneva Bible.  He was upset with those margin notes, for example the Geneva Bible's treatment of Daniel 6.  King Darius issued a decree that everyone should pray only to him for 30 days.  Daniel prayed to God rather that Darius, and was thrown into the lion's den.  Daniel then said that he had been saved from the lion's mouth because he had obeyed the command of God.  The Geneva Bible margin note pointed out that God had approved Daniel’s disobedience of the King's decree because the king did not act within the will of God.  This infuriated King James who did not want the English church to have a Bible that said it was ok to disobey the king.  James believed that the king was ordained by God with the divine right to rule.  So he initiated a process to produce a new translation from the original languages, consistent with the traditional teachings of the church, which would be free from those annoying margin notes of the Geneva Bible.  The King James authorized translation of the Bible was begun.  And in 1611 the first King James Version of the Bible came off the presses of the King's printer. 

          The new version fell flat.  People preferred the Geneva Bible.  The king granted a monopoly to the printers of the King James Version and banned the Geneva Bible.  But it continued to be printed in the Netherlands and smuggled copies were still preferred by the people of England.    But within a generation, as the economic benefits of the publishing monopoly took hold, the King James Version eventually became the translation everyone used.

          When settlers came to Jamestown in 1607 and later to the eastern shore of Maryland, they came escaping religious persecution in England.  They were intensely religious and brought with them their Geneva Bibles.   The Geneva Bible and margin notes had allowed them to see the hand of providence guiding them to a promised land.    But England controlled the importation of books into colonial America.  This monopoly ensured that only the King James Version would be available to the American colonist and so the King James Version became the American Bible.

          In 1769 Robert Aitken came from Scotland and established a printing shop in Philadelphia.  By 1777 he was printing the King James Version of the Bible.  Congress approved Aitken's freedom to print Bibles in 1782.  Aitken's decision to print the King James Version ensured that it would be the preferred Bible of the new country.

          The King James Version remained our preferred English translation until World War II when rival translations such as the Revised Standard Version became available.  Today there are many quality modern translations.  But we still love they majesty of the language of the King James Version.  Listen as I conclude with the King James Version's rendering of Psalm 23.

Psalm 23:1-6  KJV Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Amen.