Happy Birthday, Bible!

Have you sung “Happy Birthday” to your Bible yet? If it is a King James Version of the Bible you should, because this is the 400th birthday of its completion. As written in an article by Sam Hodges in the March 19, 2011 edition of The Dallas Morning News, “In 1604, a few dozen clerics and scholars took on King James’ challenge to produce a new Bible translation that would help unify a religiously divided England, while also bolstering the idea of the divine rights of kings. They worked in teams for seven years.”

What they produced became one of the most influential pieces of English literature ever written. Selling over a billion copies, the KJV gave us phrases like “fat of the land”, “holier than thou”, “labor of love”, and “salt of the earth.” In Christian circles, it became known as the “authorized version” of the Bible. That is what is stated on its title page. Many came to believe that meant the Bible was authorized by God. I remember 30 years ago a sign on Dallas Drive in Denton, where I was serving a church at the time, that proclaimed, “The 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the only authorized version of God’s holy Word and all those reading other versions will go to HELL (the word ‘hell’ written in red letters)." As stated above, it was authorized by King James who, though he believed in the divine right of those in his position, was a far shot from being the Lord.

There are still those who believe the KJV is the only “authorized” version, but their numbers are dwindling. As Hodges writes, other versions and translations of the Bible started to appear using manuscripts not available to the KJV crew (for instance, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known copy of the Bible including portions of every book of the Old Testament, weren’t discovered until 1946) and they started to use language more contemporary and understandable to the time. As William Lawrence, dean of Perkins School of Theology at SMU, said, “There simply have been too many textural discoveries in the past centuries, too many achievements in research on linguistics and anthropological matters, and too many changes in English language usage to use the KJV in the way that it might have dominated for its first 300 years.”

All this being said, when studying the Bible it is best to use one of the most contemporary versions available – such as the NRSV or the NIV or many others – and leave the KJV on the shelf. But when it comes to reading the 23rd Psalm and other favorite verses, thank God for the poetic language of the King James Version. Happy Birthday old friend.