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King James I of England
Who was the King James that the King
James Version of the Bible is named after?
The King
James version of the Bible is also called the Authorized Version, because
the translation was authorized by King James I of England.
The preface of the KJV dedicates the work “To the most High and Mighty Prince James,
by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of
the Faith, &c.”
Prior to ruling England, James was King James
VI of Scotland.
It was not until 1603, upon the death of
Queen Elizabeth I, that the kingdoms of Scotland and England were united and
James became King James I of England, the first of the Stuart line.
Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son
James in 1566 in Scotland.
In June 1567 the Protestant lords rebelled
against their queen.
They arrested and imprisoned Mary in Loch
Leven Castle, where she was forced to abdicate the throne of Scotland.
James was thus only a year old when he became
James VI, King of Scotland, in 1567.
In spite of his mother’s Catholic faith,
James was brought up in the Protestant religion. He was educated by men who had
empathy for the Presbyterian Church.
King Henry IV of France called James “the wisest fool in Christendom.”
Although intelligent and well educated, James
was unpopular, and he made many enemies, especially in Parliament.
James was seen as uncouth, and there is
evidence that he was bisexual.
He often wrote against the power of the pope
and against Catholicism’s meddling in affairs of state.
In his opposition to the pope’s power, James
promoted the divine right of kings - the idea that kings are accountable to God
and no one else.
In 1605, a group of Catholics attempted to
assassinate James and his wife and son and to blow up Parliament; however, the
Gunpowder Plot was foiled.
That incident is remembered today as Guy
Fawkes Day.
James had his successes, too.
He approved the design for the flag of Great
Britain; he was a patron of the arts, and William Shakespeare was a sponsored
playwright (Macbeth was written in James’s honor).
Trade with India was expanded during James’s
reign, and in 1607 England’s first permanent colony in the New World was
established in Virginia - a colony named Jamestown, in the king’s honor.
James was married to Anne of Denmark, and
their son Charles later ruled England as King Charles I.
James died in 1625 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey.
The
creation of the King James Version of the Bible:
The Scottish Reformation was completed before the English Reformation.
The Scottish Reformation was completed before the English Reformation.
The Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians
wanted a new Bible that would get as far away as possible from the structure of
the Bishop’ Bible of the Anglican Church, and the idea of a new
translation of the Bible was first proposed at a religious conference in
Aberdour, Fife.
King James was in favor of a new translation.
He didn’t care for Tyndale’s translation of Matthew
16:18, which said Christ would build His “congregation” on Peter (James much
preferred “church” from ekklesia).
The only other alternative at the time was
the 1560’s Geneva Bible, but King James objected to a “treasonable annotation”
on Matthew 2:20 that suggested that kings are tyrants.
In 1604 King James convened the Hampton Court
Conference and authorized the start of a new translation of the Bible into
English.
The objective was to have one standard
version of the Bible to be used across all English-speaking parishes.
The task of translation was undertaken by 47
scholars, taken from a cross-section of Jacobean England.
Many of them were highly skilled in ancient
languages.
The King James Authorized Version of the
Bible was finished in 1611, just 85 years after the first translation of the
New Testament into English appeared (Tyndale,
1526).
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