Posts Tagged ‘King James bible’
First KJV Bible
Virtually every culture and religion has a set of rites that adolescents must go through before they are considered an adult by the elder members of the community. Growing up in a Christian household, this rite of passage included going through confirmation and receiving my first communion. At my church we also received a Bible to commemorate the ceremony.
I remember being nervous as I was forced to kneel in front of the entire congregation to receive the communion. Following this, I was presented with my own KJV Bible with my name inscribed in it. The ceremony had little impact on me, honestly, and seemed more important to my parents and family.
A Trusted Translation
Leading up to the beginning of the 17th century, several English monarchs had commissioned translations of the Latin Bible, but the results had been murky and middling at best. It wasn’t until 1604 that King James I convened a special conference to have a new version drafted that would correct previous mistakes and make the content more clear and concise.
By 1611, the King James Version Bible was complete. To this day, Christians continue to read this version of the Bible. Many people find comfort and solace in its pages. The ancient parables add up to a moral guidebook that acts as a compass for believers to this day. Without the King James Bible and its clear, decisive language, the word of God wouldn’t have been understood by the masses to the extent that it is today.
Spreading the Word of God Near and Far
Last spring my church, The Sanctuary of Universal Life, organized a missionary project to help build clay huts for the families of who had lost loved ones to the deadly and vicious disease malaria. Our journey began in a small village outside the African Congo. Traveling only by bus or foot once we had reached our new continent of exploration, we journeyed through rainforests and deserts in an effort to reach out to as many shelter-less people as we could. After three weeks of hard labor and nearly sleepless nights we had built more than 85 huts from the ground up.
Once the strenuous work had been completed, we stayed an additional week to spread the word of God. During our twice-daily prayer sessions, all the villagers gathered around Pastor Boba Fett in awe of his pressed white robes and authoritatively squeaky voice. For hours on end they sat atop a tattered, burlap blanket and listened. Before parting ways with our newly beloved Christian pen pals and heading back to the land of the mighty, we granted their wish of a concrete wisdom of the Lord. And thus, we gave them bibles.