Description
Kent P. Jackson, Editor. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University in cooperation with Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011. Hardbound, 6 x 9″ 304 pages.
What is the King James translation of the Bible? How did it come to be? Why do people still read it today?
The King James Bible and the Restoration explores these questions. It tells of the KJC’s origins, the texts from which it was translated, the major characters involved in its creation, and its story to the present. But this book explores other questions as well:
What is the relationship between the King James Bible and the scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? What has been its lasting legacy in Mormonism?
The King James Bible turned four hundred years old in 2011. To commemorate that milestone, the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University held a symposium in which scholars looked at the KJV from a Latter-day Saint perspective. The papers that were presented make up most of the chapters in this book, along with others that round out the collection.
William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536), the father of the English Bible, created the English translation from which the King James Bible derives. His work was taken by others and edited and reprinted for eight decades until King James I directed that a new Bible be prepared—not strictly a new translation but a revision of previous English Bibles. The result, published in 1611, was the most carefully produced English Bible to date. The translators, among whom were the best Hebrew and Greek scholars in Britain, retained the vast majority of Tyndale’s words, his syntax, and his vision for how Hebrew and Greek phrases should appear in English scripture.
The King James Bible and the Restoration emphasizes the power of the words of the KJV and highlights its role in the Restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Beginning with the First Vision—an event brought about by reading a verse from the KJV—the King James Bible has had a profound influence on Latter-day Saint scripture, religious language, and worship.
Contributors:
- Daniel L. Belnap
- Lincoln H. Blumell
- Eric D. Huntsman
- Kent P. Jackson
- Frank F. Judd Jr.
- Robert L. Millet
- David Rolph Seely
- Gaye Strathearn
- John S. Tanner
- Grant Underwood
- Thomas A. Wayment
- David M. Whitchurch
- Fred E. Woods
