| CUL Home | > | Fondren Library Center | > | Exhibits | > | Books of the Millenium | > | King James Version of the Bible |
For the Fondren Library Center's Exhibit, "Books of the Millennium," I would include the King James Bible. The impact of this 1611 translation upon religion, culture, and literature is incalculable. It has been the principal Bible used by English-speaking Protestants for almost four centuries. Its prolonged use made Seventeenth Century English the Language of the Christian faith in English-speaking countries. It is indeed fitting that the Bridwell Library of SMU's Perkins School of Theology possesses a first edition and the largest copy of the King James Bible. It was featured in the library's recent exhibition, "Formatting the Word of God."
As members of an institution of higher education, we should also note that the King James Bible not only shaped the English language, as has no other book in history, but that it also influenced the writings of innumerable English and American authors such as Milton, Burns, Carlyle, Tennyson, Hawthorne, and Melville. One book on the history of the Bible calls the King James Version "the greatest of English books, the first of the English Classics, the source of the greatest influence upon English character and speech." Music, the visual and performing arts, education, law, and the tradition of public service also reflect influences of the King James Bible.
In the twentieth century, particularly the latter half, numerous translations in more modern English have been published including the American Standard Version (1901), the Revised Standard Version (1951), the New International Version (1973), and even a Revised King James Version (1979). Although in my own study and public speaking I almost never use the King James Version, there are many passages from this translation that are in such beautiful language, memorized over the decades and centuries by untold numbers of people, that do not sound "right" unless they are in the language of the original 1611 translation: the 23rd Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes of Matthew (chapter 5), and the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, to name but a few. When one of these beloved sections is before me, quite often I, too, pull down my old King James Version and join the millions before me in the Second Millennium and untold millions in the coming Third Millennium who have been, are, and will be inspired by its message and the music of its language.
R. Gerald Turner
President
