Saturday 29 January 2011

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)

7 comments:

alanorei said...

Thank you, Sarah

Again, I comment here also in order to receive any readers' comments.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I enjoy your blog, good that you never quit as I feel the party is about to get back on track after yesterdays activism in Barnsley.

I have changed my blog name/url

Northfield patriot is now

http://birminghamnationalist.blogspot.com/

Please take a minute to update your link.

Thanks

Tadeuse said...

Very beautiful words. The King James Bible was a massive undertaking and has dictated how we in England have worshiped for 400 years, at least it was until very recently.

It is frightening how far we have moved away from faith in the last few decades.

Anonymous said...

I have heard that some of the translations in the KJ Bible reflected attitudes and prejudices of the time.

How accurately do you think it reflects the original text, both Latin and Aramaic?

alanorei said...

Thank you, Tadeuse, much appreciated. You are right. The movement away from true faith in this country has also been in direct proportion to the movement away from the KJB.

Anon. 13:33

Re: the original text and the KJB, John Bunyan believed that he had a true copy of the original via the KJB.

The resources that the King's men possessed reflected the Old Latin and Syriac Peshitta texts of the 2nd century AD, i.e. almost within living memory of when the New Testament was first written.

See Part 1 of this series, The Learned Men.

By prejudices of the time, you may mean words that the King's men used like bishop, which are said to be exclusively C of E words. However, a bishop in the New Testament is simply the pastor of a local church, not a doicesan bishop as in the C of E. Also 1 Peter 2:25 refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," which clearly puts C of E archbishops in the unenviable position of supposedly outranking the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr.D said...

Alan says, "Also 1 Peter 2:25 refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," which clearly puts C of E archbishops in the unenviable position of supposedly outranking the Lord Jesus Christ."

No doubt that there is some egotism to be found in ++Rowan Williams and ++John Sentamu, but I doubt seriously that either of them would make this claim nor that they are much troubled by this reasoning. Only a Baptist could see things in this light and get worked up over it. LOL!!

alanorei said...

Thanks, Dr D.

Re: Sentamu and Williams, despite the latter's commendable recommendation of the KJB, they seem not to see the irony of their situation.

(Oddly enough, neither did Archbishops Bancroft and Abbott at the time of the AV1611's compilation.)

They might get more worked up at the Judgment Seat of Christ, Romans 14:10, if either of them is there.

Re: Baptist, well, yes, Independent King James Bible Baptist, strictly speaking.