The Reformation, a consequence of the Renaissance, was brought about by original versions of the Bible becoming available in the west. Scholars had moved west, carrying many ancient texts with them, when the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottomans. New translations of the Bible appeared regularly as the invention of the printing press ensured that anyone could now read the Bible for themselves, in their own language.
John Wycliffe, sometimes referred to as "The Morning Star of the Reformation", was the first to translate the Bible into English, in handwritten form before the development of the printing press. William Tyndale translated the first English printed version, but did not translate the entire Bible.
There appeared the Coverdale Bible, the Matthews Bible, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible and, the Bishops Bible. The competition between versions of the Bible revolved around not so much the words of the Bible itself as the margin notes that were added to the Bible.
Henry VIII's daughter, Mary I, tried to bring England back to Catholicism by force. Puritans set up a printing operation in exile in Geneva, and introduced the very popular Geneva Bible, sometimes referred to as the "Breeches Bible".
After Mary I died another daughter of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, became queen and restored the Reformation while trying to bring peace by compromise with Catholics. The result was the Anglican Church and the Bishops Bible. We can see today how the Anglican Church was the result of such an attempt at Puritan-Catholic compromise in how it still tends to be divided into a "high church", representing the Catholic side, and a "low church", representing the Puritan side.
The Bishops Bible was Elizabeth I's Anglican Bible. But it never gained popular acceptance. The few remaining copies of the Bishops Bible seem to have barely been used.
Elizabeth I was the last of the House of Tudor. She died childless and was followed by her nearest living relative, who happened to be King James of Scotland. He also thus became the King of England. This was a new dynasty so the first Stuart King of England was James I. This began the personal union with England and Scotland being ruled by the same king, the "Union of the Crowns", but it would be another century before they would actually unite as one country.
The Puritans, in disagreement with the Anglican Church because they wanted no compromise at all with Catholicism, hoped that James I would listen to them. He did, although he did not sympathize with the Puritans as much as they had hoped. But James I did agree that a new translation of the Bible was called for.
A conference was held and teams of scholars were appointed for the necessary translation of the Bible. It was reminiscent of the Septuagint, when the Hebrew Scriptures was translated into Greek for the Jewish community in Alexandria, many of whom were forgetting how to speak Hebrew. The conference took place at a palace that had been built by Henry VIII, Hampton Court Palace. Ironically, the palace was originally intended for a cardinal, but that was changed upon arrival of the Reformation.
The result was the publication, in 1611, of the King James or Authorized version of the Bible. Most of the phrases of William Tyndale, in the parts of the Bible that he translated, were retained in the King James Version. This is the familiar old Bible with the archaic wording such as "thee" and "thou". In 1769, another edition standardized spelling and punctuation.
The King James Bible was not an immediate success. It was decades before it replaced the Geneva Bible, and was plagued with printing errors in it's early days. But the Geneva Bible was considered as the Bible of the Puritans and when they fell increasingly out of favor, the King James Bible took over because it was seen as the Bible of reconciliation.
This is the most printed book ever, in the English language. It was by far the dominant English-language Bible for at least 250 years, from 1700-1950 when versions in "modern" language began to be printed. The King James Bible had more influence on the language than Shakespeare did. Even today, there is a "King James Only Movement" in Christianity, that will only use the King James Bible.
My first Bible, that I used to take to school when there was psalm-reading there, was a King James Version (often abbreviated as KJV). Years later, when I started to really study the Bible for myself, it was with another King James Version.
There are over 200 of what are referred to as King James Idioms. These are phrases that were introduced into the language by the King James Bible, and are all around us today. Here is a list of some of these phrases, that most people use without having any idea of how they got into the language.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/feb/18/phrases-king-james-bible
Here is Hampton Court Palace, where the conference that led to the King James Bible was held.
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A conference was held and teams of scholars were appointed for the necessary translation of the Bible. It was reminiscent of the Septuagint, when the Hebrew Scriptures was translated into Greek for the Jewish community in Alexandria, many of whom were forgetting how to speak Hebrew. The conference took place at a palace that had been built by Henry VIII, Hampton Court Palace. Ironically, the palace was originally intended for a cardinal, but that was changed upon arrival of the Reformation.
The result was the publication, in 1611, of the King James or Authorized version of the Bible. Most of the phrases of William Tyndale, in the parts of the Bible that he translated, were retained in the King James Version. This is the familiar old Bible with the archaic wording such as "thee" and "thou". In 1769, another edition standardized spelling and punctuation.
The King James Bible was not an immediate success. It was decades before it replaced the Geneva Bible, and was plagued with printing errors in it's early days. But the Geneva Bible was considered as the Bible of the Puritans and when they fell increasingly out of favor, the King James Bible took over because it was seen as the Bible of reconciliation.
This is the most printed book ever, in the English language. It was by far the dominant English-language Bible for at least 250 years, from 1700-1950 when versions in "modern" language began to be printed. The King James Bible had more influence on the language than Shakespeare did. Even today, there is a "King James Only Movement" in Christianity, that will only use the King James Bible.
My first Bible, that I used to take to school when there was psalm-reading there, was a King James Version (often abbreviated as KJV). Years later, when I started to really study the Bible for myself, it was with another King James Version.
There are over 200 of what are referred to as King James Idioms. These are phrases that were introduced into the language by the King James Bible, and are all around us today. Here is a list of some of these phrases, that most people use without having any idea of how they got into the language.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/feb/18/phrases-king-james-bible
Here is Hampton Court Palace, where the conference that led to the King James Bible was held.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move onto the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.
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