God’s Secretaries

[robin_d_laws]

Comments

[luckymarty]

The King James version was a dead-on-arrival flop on its debut in 1611. Only after the Reformation, when Britons sought to reestablish a continuity to a past that never quite was, did it catch on as the authoritative version.

Since the Reformation in England was 77 years old in 1611, or 52 years if you date from the final settlement, I am not sure what "after the Reformation" means in this sentence.

[jeffwik]

I mentally elided that to "Restoration," but I dunno.

[robin_d_laws]

Corrected to read "Restoration." Thanks for spotting my error.

[adrienne_j]

Ohh, adding this to my Christmas list. Thanks for the recommendation!

[wickedthought]

There's a lot of really good Bible scholarship out there. One of my favorites is Robert Price. He recently did a complete translation of the Gospels that rocks my boat.

Interestingly enough, this is also the same Robert Price who edits Chaosium's fiction line. I had the opportunity to chat with him once. One of the smartest men I ever met.

[agrumer]

According to Wikipedia, the Geneva Bible was also published in a smaller, cheaper edition than other translations of the time.

[mhacdebhandia]

There is also the bit about Shakespeare's name being encoded in Psalm 46.

[varianor]

Yes. My college literature professor mentioned this. There's some evidence to suggest that he wrote or consulted on the language for portions of the King James.