The KJB Story - Part 2 - The Critics' Den

The Anvil of God’s Word

By Alan O'Reilly

Dr Smith stated in The Translators To The Reader that:

“Neither did we think much to consult the [earlier] Translators or Commentators, Chaldee, Hebrew, Syrian, Greek or Latin, no nor the Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch; neither did we disdain to revise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered: but having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass that you see.”

That work has received an avalanche of criticism in the last 400 years from a legion of critics, “My name is legion: for we are many” Mark 5:9.

The Appendix to this work addresses some of the better-known criticisms.

For now, it will hopefully be enough to point out what KJB supporters believe, namely that which was brought back to the anvil to be hammered afresh eventually became the anvil that has withstood all the critics’ hammers for the last 400 years.

This anvil and the critics’ hammers are described in a poem entitled:

The Anvil Of God’s Word

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
When looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I,
“To wear and batter these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he; then with a twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”

And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s Word,
For ages, sceptics’ blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed - the hammers gone.

We now address our final question, what happened to the 1611 Holy Bible after 1611 and on to the present?

(To be continued)