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At Medical School we were told that the time honoured way of dealing with a ganglion (a small swelling that can appear on the hand or wrist) was to hit it with the Family Bible! That dated from the time when most houses would have had a Bible which was often large and heavy. I suspect that in Britain today there are many homes who do not have a Bible in the house and who would not even be sure what the Bible was supposed to represent. Several others may still have the Family Bible passed down the generations but it sits gathering dust and is never opened.
This year is the 400th Anniversary of the production of the King James Bible, often called the ‘Authorised Bible’ because King James 1 decided that it was important for the Church of England to have its own version of God’s Word in the vernacular. There had been other versions of the Bible translated into English but none of these were adopted for general use, and many of the translators were martyred as heretics as a consequence of their translations. In 1604 King James called the Hampton Court Conference and appointed fifty scholars working in six groups to translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek texts. Seven years later the King James Bible was produced and due to the availability of the printing press it was spread far and wide. However it must be remembered that at that time many people were unable to read and write and so were encouraged to memorise parts of the Bible. One very important part of translating the King James Bible was that it was read out loud to make sure that the language flowed. So for instance, John 15:12-13 was translated by Tyndale as:
“This is my commandment that ye love
together as I have loved you. Greater love than this hath no man than
that man bestow his life for his friends.”
The King James Bible translates it thus: “This is my Commandment, that ye love one
another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Beautiful as the language of the KJ Bible is, much of it is quite inaccessible today and this year of the Bible is about celebrating that, just like the people in the early seventeenth century were given a Bible that they could understand, so we too have not just one but many translations of the Bible in our own language. Ultimately reading the Bible is not about listening to the poetic flow of words but learning about God and His great love for us. Sometimes the very poetry can distract from the message.
Like many of you, I suspect, I have different versions of the Bible and will sometimes look at all of them to get slightly different nuances of meaning from each version which helps my understanding of the message. But for people who are not familiar with the Bible I feel that it is important to trade in the poetic for intelligible, the lyrical for comprehensible. When your friend understands the basic message of the Bible they can explore other versions and pick the one that they prefer. The Bible is a life-changing book and we should share it, cherish it and encourage others to do the same.
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