Archive for January, 2010
Promoting Bible Study
It is important for children to welcome the bible into their lives at an early age, thus assuring that they grow up with a proper moral code. Church Sunday schools are not always available, and in some cases not the best for learning about the bible’s teachings. Parents should also strive to acquire bible study materials for their children to be able to learn about the bible at home. Introducing the bible is a great experience to share between parent and child, and ensures that the child learns what the parent feels is important in addition to the standard moral code.
One of the best ways to introduce your children to in-depth bible study is with a Thompson chain reference bible. Taking an active role in your child’s development illustrates that you are an active parent, and faith is an important aspect of life to share during childhood.
The History of the King James Version
The Authorized King James Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible conceived in 1604 and brought to fruition in 1611 by the Church of England. Printed by the King’s Printer, Robert Barker, the first edition included schedules unique to the Church of England; for example, a lectionary for morning and evening prayer. The first “authorized version” was the Great Bible commissioned by the Church of England in the reign of King Henry VIII. In January 1604, King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans, a faction within the Church of England.
The king gave the translators instructions designed to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the Episcopal structure of the Church of England and its beliefs about an ordained clergy. The translation was by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus series of the Greek texts. The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text, while the Apocrypha were translated from the Greek Septuagint (LXX), except for 2 Esdras, which was translated from the Latin Vulgate.
While the Authorized Version was meant to replace the Bishops’ Bible as the official version for readings in the Church of England, it was apparently (unlike the Great Bible) never specifically “authorized”, although it is commonly known as the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom. However, the King’s Printer issued no further editions of the Bishops’ Bible; so necessarily the Authorized Version supplanted it as the standard lectern Bible in parish church use in England. In the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible - the Epistle and Gospel readings - and as such was “authorized” by Act of Parliament. In the United States, the Authorized Versions are known as King James Bibles. The earliest appearance in print of the phrase “authorized version”, to mean this particular version of the bible, was published in 1824. The phrase ‘King James version’ first appeared in print in 1884
Selecting the Best Bible Translations
The bible contains complex language and themes that, misconstrued or misinterpreted, can have much different meanings. After all, lines like Luke 6:31 “do unto others, as you would have them do unto you” is much different than “do unto others, as they have done unto you”. With a simple misinterpreted word, we might have a drastically different idea of the fundamentals of social interaction. The most popular translation of the bible are the King James Versions, or KJV bibles. This version was undertaken by the Church of England in 1611 under decree of King James I. The KJV bible was then updated in the 1900s to resonate better with modern audiences, however the original version is still hailed as the most accurate translation.
There are various other translations of the bible that were undertaken for different reasons, but if you’re looking for the closest translation to the original Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, the King James Version is the best.