So the Archbishop of Canterbury would like everyone to read the King James Bible “in order to get the Big Picture”.
If he were encouraging everyone to read the Bible (version not specified), I would be in wholehearted agreement. But why the King James Bible? It’s true that the translation commissioned by James I of England 400 years ago has been enormously influential over British culture. And any book that is still being read 400 years after its first publication must have something going for it. The problem is that it is, well, 400 years old. And although it still has a vociferous fan club in the higher strata of the Church of England, the rest of the church (not to mention the other denominations) has moved on – and for good reason. For one thing, although the translation was the best that could be done at the time, many more (and older) New Testament manuscripts have been discovered since – so the modern Bible versions are much closer to what was originally written. (Admittedly, there haven’t been very many changes; and the vast majority are trivial)
More importantly, Continue reading “Reading the Bible”
Boadicea's Chariot 