King James Bible Notes
The King James Bible (1611)
Commissioned by King James I of England.
A new translation of the Bible was needed because the existing translations contained interpretive comments that the king and others disliked.
Renaissance scholarship had increased awareness of textual inaccuracies.
The new translation was checked against the most authoritative Hebrew and Greek texts available at the time.
Translated by a team of fifty-four learned clergymen, divided into groups, each responsible for a section of the Scriptures.
Each group had a pair of scholars to check the work.
After seven years, a committee of bishops gave it a final review, and the translation was published.
Known as the "King James Bible" (sponsored by King James), the "Authorized Version" (authorized by the Anglican Church), and simply the "English Bible" (its importance to English-speaking countries).
Influence of the English Bible
The English Bible was widely read and heard in churches for nearly four centuries.
Most writers in English have been influenced by the English Bible, consciously or unconsciously.
They have quoted, echoed, paraphrased, alluded to, imitated, and retold its stories.
Everyday English speech contains words and phrases from the English Bible (e.g., "loving kindness," "tender mercy," "long suffering," "cast pearls before swine," "wait until the eleventh hour," "wisdom of Solomon," "patience of Job," "scapegoat").
Even when first published, the language sounded old-fashioned because the translators preserved much of William Tyndale's style, who had been dead for over seventy years.
In 1611, English people were beginning to address each other as "you," but the new Bible kept the archaic verb forms and old second-person pronouns (thou, thy, thine, thee).
The language of the King James Bible has become more distant from ordinary English over the years.
This remoteness evokes more sublime feelings for some readers.
The King James Bible and Shakespeare represent English when the language was more flexible, eloquent, and capable of stirring people's hearts and minds.
Genesis: Introduction
Genesis means "coming into being."
It opens with two accounts of creation:
Chapter 1 emphasizes the cosmos or universe.
Chapter 2 focuses on the earth and humanity.
Moses is traditionally thought of as the author, but scholars believe two different writers recorded the creation accounts.
The two accounts are considered complementary, spare, simple, and elevated in style.
The first chapters deal with how and why human beings were created.
Chapter 3 explains why individual members of the human race must suffer and die, and why the history of the whole race has been bloody and troubled.
Ancient writers used a pictorial style rich in imagery to appeal to an unsophisticated audience.
The text evokes strong emotional and intellectual responses.
Genesis: Creation Account
Day 1: God created the heaven and the earth; the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. God created light and divided the light from the darkness, calling the light Day and the darkness Night.
Day 2: God created a firmament (sky) in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters, calling the firmament Heaven.
Day 3: God gathered the waters under the heaven into one place, and the dry land appeared, calling the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters Seas. God brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth.
Day 4: God created lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day (the sun) and the lesser light to rule the night (the moon); He also made the stars.
Day 5: God brought forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. God created great whales and every living creature that moveth.
Day 6: God brought forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. God made man in his own image, after our likeness, to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing. God created man in his own image; male and female created he them. God gave them every herb bearing seed and every tree yielding fruit for meat.
Further Details from Genesis
God saw everything that he had made, and it was very good.
On the seventh day, God ended his work and rested, blessing and sanctifying the seventh day.
God made the earth and the heavens. He formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; man became a living soul.
God planted a garden eastward in Eden and put the man whom he had formed there. God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, including the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
A river went out of Eden to water the garden and was parted into four heads (Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates).
God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
God commanded the man that he may eat of every tree of the garden freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he shall not eat; for in the day that he eats thereof, he shall surely die.
God said it was not good that the man should be alone; therefore, He would make him a help meet for him.
God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.
God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took one of his ribs, and made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.
They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
The Fall of Man
The serpent (more subtil than any beast of the field) questioned the woman about God's command regarding the trees of the garden.
The woman recounted that they may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but not of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, lest they die.
The serpent said they would not die; instead, their eyes would be opened, and they would be as gods, knowing good and evil.
The woman ate of the fruit and gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
They hid from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
God called unto Adam, who admitted he was afraid because he was naked.
Adam blamed the woman for giving him the fruit, and the woman blamed the serpent.
God cursed the serpent to crawl on its belly and eat dust.
God said he would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their seeds; the woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent shall bruise his heel.
Unto the woman, God said he would greatly multiply her sorrow and conception; in sorrow she would bring forth children; and her desire shall be to her husband, and he shall rule over her.
Unto Adam, God cursed the ground for his sake; in sorrow, he would eat of it all the days of his life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth; in the sweat of his face, he would eat bread until he returns to the ground, for dust he is, and unto dust he shall return.
Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
The LORD God made coats of skins and clothed them.
God drove out the man from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.
God placed cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.