Dear Friends: A Happy New Year.
Now that we have left the dark days of January behind, I was wondering how your New Year resolutions are going, if you made any. Are you indeed the slimmer and fitter new person you hoped to become or is the mandatory packet of biscuits back on the shopping list. I’ve given up making resolutions knowing that I just don’t have the strength of will to keep them up for long. Of course I used to make lots of resolutions, to get fit, lose weight, lower my alcohol intake and read my Bible. I was rather a sad and earnest child and would often begin a new year with opening my King James Bible and begin at the beginning: Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. One year I remember doing rather well and, reading a chapter every day, enjoyed the stories of Genesis and Exodus. It was only when I hit Leviticus that it started to get harder. Numbers became a duty and I never saw it to the end of Deuteronomy. Those of you who read your Bible will probably be smiling at this point. Of course, this is not the best way to go about reading the world’s number one best seller and for that reason it can often put us off mining the great treasury it contains. As Bishop John suggests in a leaflet he has produced on Reading the Bible which can be found in the church, it is better to see the Bible as a library of books written at different times, in different ways and by different people and then to pick one book to enjoy. Bishop John suggests starting with Mark’s gospel which tells the story of the life and death of Jesus and then perhaps to move on to the Acts of the early Christians. These days there are a number of reading notes, such as New Daylight or Daily Bread which can help you understand the context and meaning of the text.
This year is, of course, a special year for the Bible as it marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James or Authorized Version. It is often seen as an old fashioned or ‘difficult’ translation of the text for modern audiences and so superseded by other versions such as the Revised Standard Version or The Message. However if you managed to hear extracts of it being read out earlier in January on Radio 4 then I am sure you will agree that for beauty and force there is nothing to beat the Authorized Version. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same if the words ‘And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth…’ were ‘updated’.
It was Dr John Rainolds, the Puritan President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford who first suggested at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 that there should be a new translation of the Bible to replace the Bishop’s Bible which had been compiled by Archbishop Parker in 1568. The Bishop of London at the time Richard Bancroft was reluctant and it was through an order by the King that work began on what was later to be called the King James Bible. The text we have today is the result of the labours of a large body of professors of Hebrew and Greek from Oxford and Cambridge as well as other leading scholars of the day. They totalled 50 in all and sat in six groups, two at Oxford, two at Cambridge and two at Westminster. Taking the Bishop’s Bible as their basis, but consulting other versions such as the Douai Rheims and Geneva Bible, they each took a section of the text and then sent their work for further criticism and discussion to the other groups before making their final decision. The work started in 1607 but it was not until 1611 that the first folio copies were available for 30 shillings. It was a monumental and dedicated act of faith which produced a text which still today shapes the language, imagery and expression of the Christian faith in England.
In both Horspath and Garsington schools we still hand out Bibles to the young students as they finish their time at the school. If you have lost touch or been too intimidated by this great book, maybe this year, of all years, it is worth making another resolution and dust down your Bible where the whisper of God’s word is still to be heard.
Emma
Confirmation Classes will be starting shortly; if you would like to be confirmed at a service led by Bishop Colin on May 15th then please contact Emma on 361381
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