The individual today has more choice of English versions of the Bible than at any previous time, most of them translations made last century. An important contributor to this book, the Apostle Paul, liked to talk of plethora — that is, magnanimous overabundance — and some would say that we are spoilt for choice when it comes to Bibles: our cup runneth over, there is a plethora of interpretations.
This year is the 400th anniversary of that most fabled and revered of all English Bibles, the King James Version (1611). The anniversary seems an appropriate time to consider anew what the Bible does and why we need fresh versions.
These questions were on the minds of the 47 scholars brought together to deliver a defining text in the native language of the new United Kingdom. One of the problems was too many Bibles. Catholics, Anglicans of various stripes, and Protestants of every type, had over the previous decades all produced versions, in keeping with the newfound zeal for having Scripture in your own language. The only problem was, which one was best? Which was most accurate? Which one was without ideological influence? Which one reflected reality, and whose reality?
This was not just a matter of personal taste. King James inherited from his godmother Elizabeth a realm divided by religion. Like her, he saw that anything that could bring about national cohesion was certain good. Conflicting opinions about the Word of God were a daily pest, so he commissioned a group of the ablest and most reverend linguists with the task of making an English Bible.
Nowadays we would not want to be seen to be associated with 'a book written by a committee', but the authors of the King James produced something authoritative.
Even better if you were James, it could become authorised, which had the useful outcome of quietening disputes about conflicting meanings in different versions. Except for a couple of violent interruptions, this and only this version was read in churches for over three centuries, with a resultant shaping of English usage that is inestimable: they were the words everyone heard every week of every year.
The Committee included such anonymous luminaries as Richard Bancroft and Lancelot Andrewes. William Shakespeare probably did Psalm 46 unless you think, as some do, that Shakespeare was a committee. Parts of the Catholic Douai Bible are found there. Nor did they put their candle under a bushel.
But interestingly, 90