Archbishop of Canterbury preaches on 400th anniversary of King James Bible

Dr Rowan Williams

Archbishop Rowan Williams preached today at a Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey, for the 400th anniversary of the 1611 Authorized (King James) translation of the Bible, attended by Her Majesty The Queen and TRH The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales.

In his sermon, the Archbishop reflected on the King James Version of the Bible and on what makes a good translation: “A good translation will be an invitation to read again, and to probe, and reflect, and imagine with the text. Rather than letting me say, ‘Now I understand’, it prompts the response, ‘Now the work begins.’”

Regarding the historical context of the publication of the 1611 Bible, he said “it was not yet a volume that everyone could be expected to own…it was meant to be read aloud. And that means that it was meant to be part of an event, a shared experience. Gathered as a Christian community, the parish would listen, in the context of praise, reflection and instruction, to Scripture being read”.

Dr Williams concluded his sermon by saying that to celebrate the Bible “is to recognise the absolute seriousness with which [the translators] sought to find in our language words that would pass on to us hearers and readers in the English tongue the almost unbearable weight of divine intelligence and love pressing down on those who first encountered it and tried to embody it in writing”.

The service was the culmination of a year’s worth of events to mark the anniversary of this globally important text organized principally by the King James Bible Trust. This global importance has been reflected around the world over the past year. In the United States and in many Commonwealth countries there have been major symposia and conferences, with outstanding exhibitions featuring original 1611 Bibles. Church communities everywhere have celebrated the 1611 Bible with reading marathons, artistic displays, lectures, and commemorative services.

For its own part the Trust has both tried to give as much publicity as possible to all this effort through its website, and itself instigated a press and publicity campaign. It has helped promote major lectures at Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle. It has established education programmes for primary and secondary pupils in the United Kingdom, and has joined forces with the British Council to ensure that the literary and linguistic importance of the King James Bible continues to be spread throughout the world via the internet.

An artistic legacy is being left with the anthem performed at the Abbey today Out of the South Cometh the Whirlwind by Zachary Wadsworth; with the Bush Theatre’s Sixty-Six Books: 66 responses to the books of the 1611 translation by internationally renowned writers; and by the production of James, the Musical by Chester’s Theatre in the Quarter. The Trust’s most important work has however been to help people everywhere become reacquainted with this unique work of learning and language.

To read the whole sermon see: www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2246/archbishops-sermon-at-westminster-abbey-400th-anniversary-of-the-king-james-bible