Written by Franklin Redgrave Monday, 02 May 2011 22:59

The King James Bible is Being Celebrated on Its 400th Anniversary

WALES, UK - The public are to be given a unique opportunity to see one of the original surviving first editions of the King James Bible – 400 years after it was published.From now until September 10 a free exhibition at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, will celebrate the anniversary of the first English Bible, named after King James I of England. It was published in 1611 and is known as the “authorised version”.

Librarian Andrew Green said: “This exhibition will show the wealth of collections the library has for those interested in religious collections and literature in English and Welsh and is a celebration of what is a very important year for the English language.”

The exhibition will also feature a copy of the original William Morgan Bible, the 1588 Welsh translation which pre-dated the English text, a fact which many consider to have contributed to the survival of the Welsh language.

Up until the mid-16th century, Welsh was not considered the “official language” of religion and law and was in decline. The Bible’s translation was only realized by an Act of Parliament in 1563 brought on by pressure from Welsh scholarly Protestants. The first translation of the New Testament and Book of Common Prayer was completed in 1567 by William Salesbury.

A spokesman for the National Library said: “Many of the phrases and idioms used in the Bible have been absorbed into modern language such as ‘by the skin of your teeth’, ‘flesh and blood’ and ‘labour of love’.


“The language of the Bible however was not as innovative as some perceive, as many of these idioms can be traced back to other versions such as William Tyndale’s translation in 1525 and subsequently the Geneva Bible in 1560.”

Still a best-seller, the King James Bible is being celebrated on its 400th anniversary as a religious and literary landmark and formative linguistic and cultural influence on the English-speaking world.

You don't have to be a believer to appreciate it. When Britain's most famous atheist, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, read a chapter from the Book of Ruth for a YouTube Bible project, he said "It is important that religion should not be allowed to hijack this cultural resource."

The celebrations may be tempered by a sense of loss — the decline of churches, a lack of awareness of the King James Bible's legacy — yet that legacy has more than fulfilled the goal set by its team of translators.

"Truly, good Christian reader, we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one ... but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one," the translators said in a preface to the first edition.

Says British academic Gordon Campbell: "Other translations may engage the mind, but the King James Version is the Bible of the heart."

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