King James - a persistent vision

King James. Two titles: James I and James VI. The entwining of England and Scotland.

Rather like Elizabeth, James was well educated. His tutors felt that the better he understood the Bible, the more effective he would be as king. Our book (The Reforming Power of the Scriptures by Mary M. Trammell and William G. Dawley) tells us that:

…from the time he was four years old, they (his tutors in Scotland) subjected him to a twice-daily routine of linguistic, theological and scientific studies that included Bible reading in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, and French. By the time he was 8, James could translate any Bible passage from Latin into French, and from French into English, with ease.  p. 179

James had the idea that a new translation of the Bible might reconcile those who endorsed the Geneva Bible and those who endorsed the Rheims or Bishop Bible of the Catholics. The idea was rejected and he had to wait till he was king of England as well as Scotland (in 1603).

The time came when this was a reality, chiefly through James’ endeavours to get things moving. It was he alone who – in their words – propelled the design for the new Bible forward “that the work might be hastened, and that the business might be expedited in so decent a manner, as a matter of such importance might justly require” (p. 187).

It is fascinating to read about the translators. There were six sets of them:

 The King James Version of the Bible (published 1611)

Group name	What they translated into English
The Westminster Hebrew Committee	Genesis through II Kings
The Cambridge Hebrew Committee	I Chronicles through Song of Solomon
The Cambridge Greek-Hebrew Comm.	the Apocrypha
The Oxford Hebrew Committee	Isaiah through Malachi
The Oxford Greek Committee	the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation
The Westminster Greek Committee	Romans through Jude

 Joyce Voysey