EXPLORING THE KING JAMES VERSION January 5, 1981 Issue

7 From pioneers to pioneer (Part 1)

CORA MASON

What draws us to the King James Version as a translation of the Bible may sometimes be— without our knowing it—our sharing of delight in a new, advancing sense of Christianity.

The pioneer English Christians whose work led to the KJV were people who were deeply convinced of the reality and power of God. They had chosen to stake their lives on Him and on His Word. Finding God's grace and His requirements made newly clear to them through the Bible, they undertook what they felt was a divine mission: to bring that same Bible, in an intelligible way, to their fellow countrymen.

The opposition could be fierce. The Roman Church, and at times even a nominally Protestant ruler, feared what might happen if ordinary people, without proper permission and control, could read the Holy Book in ordinary language. But the pioneers kept on working, often in exile, and the climax of their effort in that age was the King James Version. The KJV took more than two centuries to arrive—if we count from Wycliffe's preparatory work in the fourteenth century—but when it did, it had great staying power.

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