I am reading Oxford University Press's new 2010 book entitled Bible The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011 by Gordon Campbell.
Bible: The Story of the KJV
Discussion in 'Books & Publications Forum' started by Logos1560, Oct 31, 2010.
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Please give us some details. Thanks
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The back cover states: "Marking the 400 year anniversary of the Authorised Version of the English Bible--better known to many readers across the globe as the King James Version--this is the remarkable story of one of the most influential works ever publlished in the English language.
It is the story of politics as well as religion; of supremely talented translators; of printers' errors, accidental and deliberate; of changing fortunes and changing belief down the centuries; of fierce arguments over revisions to the text; of a Bible that has known both adulation and deprecation." -
The chapter titles on the contents page include: (p. v)
The commissioning of the King James Version
Translators and Translating
Translation
The first edition
The Seventeenth Century
The Eighteenth Century
The Nineteenth Century
The Cambridge Paragraph Bibles
The Bible in America -
Chapter 7--the Eighteenth Century
Gordon Campell referred to "Blayney's modernized text in 1769" (p. 146) and "Blayney's modernization of the text" (p. 145). Campbell noted that Blayney "modernized archaic idioms, so 'was a building' becomes 'was building' (2 Chronicles 16:6)" (p. 140).
This book is interesting and informative, but it does have at least two or three factual errors. Here is one example of an error.
Campbell claimed that "a few of Blayney's errors still pop up in modern editions at Joshua 19:2, for example Blayney printed 'and Sheba' instead of 'or Sheba', and the misprint has proved to be remarkably difficult to extirpate" (pp. 141-142).
The example that Campbell cited is incorrect since Blayney's 1769 Oxford edition actually has "Beer-sheba, Sheba" at Joshua 19:2 and it did not have either "and" nor "or."
The rendering "Beer-sheba, and Sheba" is much earlier found in an edition of the KJV printed by the King's printer in London in 1617, and this rendering was kept in the standard 1629 Cambridge, 1638 Cambridge, 1743 Cambridge, and 1762 Cambridge editions. It was not an error introduced or even repeated by Blayney. It is found in many later Oxford editions printed after 1828, but it was not introduced or made by Blayney. -
Two other very fascinating books on the life and times of the KJV translators are
God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson (c) 2003. Harper-Collins.
and
In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath (c) 2001 published by Doubleday.
Neither one is KJVO, but they do provide a great introduction to what life was like in early 17th England--something all of us (regardless of your position on the KJV) would do well to keep in mind.
As I was often reminded when I was in graduate school for history, great works of literature, art, etc., usually do not come about in isolation to what life was like when they were created. -
Here is another interesting title for the 400th Anniversary:
Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language by David Crystal (Oxford University Press, 2010).
...Bob