The King James Bible: Why this Message?

Why this Message – on a 400 year-old Book? A simple answer: To inform, edify and provide for possible witness opportunities.

A Christian friend recently emailed me an article by Peter Hitchens of The Daily Mail about The Authorized Version. This article is a comment on the 400th anniversary of the 1611 Holy Bible, for which a special trust has been set up with HRH Charles the Prince of Wales as Patron.

Hitchens says this: “The Authorised Version tends, in fact, to use good hard, earthy English words: [2 Samuel 18:33] ‘And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!’ [That verse] doesn’t seem to me to be in any way hard for a 21st century person to understand. Indeed, you can hear and feel the woe and regret in it across the centuries, an old man weeping and alone…”

It may well be that items like this in the media will draw the attention of unsaved acquaintances to “the scripture of truth” Daniel 10:21 so that they can then be acquainted with “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” Ephesians 1:13. It is also to be hoped that for Christians receiving this message that the “good hard, earthy English words” of the 1611 Holy Bible will “build you up” according to “the word of his grace” Acts 20:32.