Sometime in the mid-10th century AD a monk named Aldred “domesticated” a Latin version of the Four Gospels: he added Anglo-Saxon glosses between the Latin lines. In so doing, Aldred unleashed for the first time the full force of the Bible on English language, history, manners, literature, and culture. The single greatest monument to the power of the English Bible celebrates its 400th anniversary this year--the King James Version.

If you have a sorrow and call it a “broken heart”; if you carry a burden and call it “a cross to bear”; if your neighbors are “a law unto themselves”; or if you can read the “signs of the times” you are citing the King James Bible at Psalms 34:18, Luke 14:27, Romans 2:14, and Matthew 16:3, respectively. If you call your place of worship a “church” rather than a “congregation,” you’re adopting the ecclesiastical polity of the King James Bible as recorded for instance in 1 Corinthians 1:2. If you’ve had a religious experience and call it being “born again” you’re describing that experience with the language of the King James Bible (John 3:3). If you have wished for character traits such as the “patience of Job” or had to eat “sour grapes” you can thank the King James Bible at James 5:11 and Jeremiah 31:30.

Since its founding in 1816, the American Bible Society has printed and distributed the King James Bible. Its rare Bible collection contains several early editions, including three of the original 1611 versions. To prepare for the actual 400th anniversary in 2011, the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship, the research and service arm of the ABS, already convened a symposium at the 2003 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. It followed up with a conference in 2004 at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York City and in 2009 with the publication of the proceedings which appeared as Translation that Openeth the Window, edited by Dr. David Burke, retired Dean of the Nida Institute.
 
On the actual occasion of the 400th anniversary (2011), ABS, with support from the Nida Institute and the Museum of Biblical Art, joined worldwide celebrations with spirited and learned events in New York City and London.  The Museum opened on July 8 an exhibition entitled On Eagles’ Wings: The King James Bible Turns 400 that sets out the story and scope of a spiritual and literary masterpiece. The exhibition displays over 130 artifacts, including more than 50 editions of the King James Bible.  ABS President Lamar Vest hosted a President’s Weekend on July 8-10 in New York City that included a private reception at the exhibition and a service of worship led by Dr. N.T. Wright. The Nida Institute’s Dean, Dr. Philip H. Towner, facilitated the New York symposium as well as organized in collaboration with the Society of Biblical Literature and Kings College London a symposium in the UK whose speakers included J.D.G. Dunn, Simon Crisp, and Vincent Wimbush.

Dig Deeper

Benson Bobrick, Wide as the Waters (2010)
David G. Burke, ed., Translation the Openeth the Window (1992)
David Lyle Jefferies, A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature (1992)
Alister McGrath, In the Beginning (2001)