The Story of Our King James Bible

The 19th Century, continued

Over the course of America’s existence:

1. The center of the English language has shifted from England to the U.S.

2. England has become much more “secular.” The U.S. still has one of the highest church attendance rates in the world

3. The KJV has become an “American Bible”

America’s religious heritage

1. 12/13 colonies officially Protestant (MD the exception)

2. To be English was to be Protestant, and the Seven Years War reinforced that idea in the colonies

3. The King James was the primary version used from the mid-1600s on

4. In the 18th century, Rationalism became a powerful force in Europe

5. Rationalism led to Deism6. It was offset in American

through two religious revivals7. The First Great Awakening

(1730-1760; ultimately reached spread through all the colonies

8. The Second Great Awakening (1790-1820; spread to the western states)

The Second Great Awakening• Heavily promoted the idea

that the U.S. was a “Christian Republic”

• And the KJV has been the predominate Bible used

• Presidents use one as they are sworn in

• The KJV was read in public schools (A 1922 court case in Georgia, protested the fact that the Roman Catholic Bible was not read)

American Revisions of the KJV

1. In 1862 Robert Young (Scotland) published Young’s Literal Translation

2. His stated goal was to complement the KJV, but his work was viewed as an attack

3. And stimulated a revision of the KJV

There had been demands for a revision since the middle of the century

1. Many different manuscripts had been found

2. In 1881 the Revised Version of the NT was published

3. In 1885 the OT was published

4. And the American version was published in 1901 as the American Standard Version

The Revised Version

1. Was prepared by English and American committees

2. The goal was to improve the text of the KJV, using the newfound manuscripts

3. But the scholars didn’t agree on the merits of those manuscripts

4. This is where Westcott and Hort become “famous,” as their defense of some of the Alexandrian texts prevailed over the defenders of the Textus Receptus

5. So traditional readings were put in the margins

6. The RV never gained widespread popular acceptance

1. The most vocal opponent was John William Burgon

2. Dean of Chichester (a cathedral in Sussex, England)

3. Burgon’s defense of the Textus Receptus (published in 1896, after his death), severely damaged the reputation of the RV

4. The KJV only “Dean Burgon Society” is named after him

The RV opened the door for other revisions

1. It was revised in 1946: the Revised Standard Version

A. The RSV used “young woman” instead of virgin in Isaiah 7.14

2. In 1965 a Roman Catholic version of the RSV was published

3. The New American Standard Bible (1963). A revision of the ASV

4. 1989: the New RSV (gender neutral)