“Grave, Learned and Reverend Men” the KJV Translators and How They Worked Together on Their Common Task Eric Marshall
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“Grave, learned and reverend men” The KJV translators and how they worked together on their common task Eric Marshall HE KING JAMES translation of the Bible issues raised in the three days of discussions, “the arose almost unexpectedly from the ten- only thing accomplished after the Hampton Court sions between the bishops in the Anglican conference that was of any lasting significance T 4 Church and the Puritans at the accession of James was the translation of the new Bible.” VI of Scotland to the English throne as James I. On the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the Puritans’ Planning the new translation Millenary petition had urged the king, on his de- Having opened the way for the production of parture from Edinburgh, to undertake to complete a new translation of the Bible, the king was the English Reformation. The petition gave James not slow to progress the matter. He instructed the opportunity to start his reign in England with Richard Bancroft, who became Archbishop of an initiative to bring peace and unity to his new Canterbury shortly after the Hampton Court subjects. To this end he set up the Hampton Court Conference, to ensure that the most competent Conference, in the opening speech of which he scholars and theologians were assembled for the said: “Blessed be God’s gracious goodness, who task. By the summer of 1604 fifty-four scholars hath brought me into the promised Land, where had been selected as translators, although the religion is purely professed, where I sit amongst grave, learned and reverend men . Our purpose therefore is, like a good physician, to examine and 1. State Trials II, pp. 31-2. Cited in Derek Wilson, The try the complaints, and fully remove the occasions People’s Bible (London, Lion Hudson, 2010), pp. 84-5. thereof, if scandalous; cure them, if dangerous; James’s reference to Cerberus illustrates his extensive and take knowledge of them, if frivolous, thereby knowledge of Greek mythology: Cerberus was a three- to cast a sop into Cerberus’s mouth, that he bark headed hound which guarded the gates of Hades, to 1 prevent anyone from escaping. no more”. 2. Although he died before the KJV was actually pub- The “grave, learned and reverend men” to lished, Rainolds, who was the President of Corpus whom James referred were the senior bishops of Christi College, Oxford, took an active part in the the Anglican Church and strong supporters of work of translating Isaiah to Malachi. Another of the the status quo, of a king ruling by Divine right as members of his first Oxford company left this written head of both State and Church. His description tribute to him in later years: “I can upon my owne of those who were critical of this view was much knowledge testifie of the deceased Phenix of our Uni- versity and Colledge Doctor Rainolds his industry, less complimentary! Even so, as we will discover, who followed that pious worke with that intention of it is an accolade that is justified for the group of spirit and vigilance, that hee thereby much impaired men who were selected to produce a new transla- his strength, and neere the end of it ended his days; tion of the Bible. and in the translation of the Booke of life, was himself The proposal for the new translation was made translated” (Daniel Featley, in his introductory essay by the Puritan Dr John Rainolds (or Reynolds),2 of 1630 to Clement Cotton’s A complete concordance to the Bible of the last translation). and it was accepted by the king as an opportunity 3. For King James’s (critical) views on the Geneva Bible, to supersede the use of the Geneva Bible favoured see Wilson, op. cit., pp. 85-6. by the Puritan Protestants 3 and to replace the 4. Laurence M. Vance, King James, His Bible and its Transla- unpopular Bishops’ Bible. Despite the number of tors (Pensacola, Vance Publications, 2006), p. 21. 138 The Testimony, June 2011 number actually involved in the translation work Details of the translators are given in a number dropped to forty-seven.5 of places,11 where the scope of their learning is This is a large group, which to the modern clearly indicated. Vance’s essay on ‘The learned mind would be a recipe for endless debate and men’ tells us that the translator John Bois (1560– an uninspiring product. But the king was aware 1643) could read the Hebrew Bible at the age of of the hazards of the enterprise and insisted that six, and that Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626) knew “So religious a work should admit of no delay.” 6 so many languages that he might have served “as He also drew up a list of precise guidelines for interpreter general at the confusion of tongues.” the translators to follow,7 in order to ensure that Fellow translator Miles Smith (1554–1624) was a they produced a conservative translation, without noted Orientalist who had Hebrew at “his fingers’ marginal notes as used in the Geneva Bible. As ends.” Hebrew had been taught in England for Adam Nicolson has noted, “the text, as all good many years, and King Henry VIII (1491–1547) Protestants might require, was to be presented had established Hebrew professorships at both clean and sufficient of itself, except where ac- Oxford and Cambridge. Several of the KJV transla- tual words of the original were so opaque that a tors had been, were, or were to become Hebrew ‘circumlocution’ might not explain them within Professors; and the translator William Bedwell the text.” 8 (c. 1562–1632) was not only a competent Hebrew scholar but also had a mastery of Arabic which The translation companies was “unsurpassed in England.” 12 To facilitate the work of translation the selected The translators contained a mix of those who translators were grouped into teams, usually were strong supporters of the establishment, like referred to as ‘companies’. Each company had a Lancelot Andrewes, John Overall and Richard leader with up to nine other translators. The six Bancroft, and those with Puritan, anti-ceremonial companies were based, two each, at Westminster, ideals such as Lawrence Chaderton, John Rainolds Cambridge and Oxford. Each company was given (both of whom represented the Puritan views at a specific portion of the Bible to work on. This the Hampton Court Conference) and Thomas information is summarised in Table 1 overleaf. Holland. It is to be expected that such keen intel- There is no record to indicate how the translators lects with strong viewpoints would be bound to were allocated to each company, although it seems clash, leading to long debate and disagreement. likely that those in the university companies were It is a testimony to their overriding belief that already working in those places or nearby and they were translating the very words of God 13 thus able to travel to them. that such disagreements were resolved through In literature promoting modern versions of the Bible it is usual to find lists of the translators and their qualifications and skills. No such informa- 5. There are various lists, but none of them is definitive. tion was published with the KJV, although the See A. W. Pollard, Records of the English Bible (London, translators were very well qualified. King James’s Oxford University Press, 1911), pp. 49-53. 6. Wilson, op. cit., p. 88. instruction about those to be chosen as translators 7. See the panel on the translators’ Terms of Reference, makes this clear: “. His Highness wished that on p. 136. some especiall pains should be taken in that behalf 8. Adam Nicolson, Power and Glory: Jacobean England and for one uniforme translation . and this to be the making of the King James Bible (London, HarperCol- done by the best learned in both the Universities, lins, 2003) p. 77. after them to be reviewed by the Bishops, and the 9. Cited by Ward Allen in: Translating for King James: Notes made by a translator of King James’s Bible chief learned of the Church.” 9 (Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 1969), p. 4. Without doubt there were many fine scholars 10. Original spelling version, quoted from: The Holy Bible. among the translators; but their own view of Quatercentenary Edition. An exact reprint . of the King themselves was very modest, as set out in the James Version . with an anniversary essay by Gordon KJV preface (The Translators to the Reader): “There Campbell (Oxford, University Press, 2010). were many chosen, that were greater in other 11. For example: Nicolson, op. cit., pp. 251-9 (“The six mens eyes then in their owne, and that sought the companies of translators”), and Laurence M. Vance, “The learned men,” at www.baptistpillar.com/bd0059.htm. truth rather then their own praise. Againe, they 12. Quotations from Vance, King James, op. cit., pp. 24-5. came or were thought to come to the worke, not 13. See the article on pp. 150-3 by John Nicholls (“‘Wholly exercendi causa (as one saith) but exercitati, that is, inspired’: The King James Version translators’ faith in learned, not to learne.” 10 the Bible as the very Word of God”). The Testimony, June 2011 139 Table 1 The translating companies and their tasks Company Text assigned Director Members Westminster I Genesis – 2 Kings Lancelot Andrewes John Overall Adrian à Savaria John Layfield Richard Clark Robert Tighe Francis Burleigh Richard Thomson William Bedwell Geoffrey King Westminster II New Testament Epistles William Barlow Ralph Huchinson John Spencer Roger Fenton Michael Rabbet Thomas Sanderson William Dakins Oxford I Isaiah – Malachi John Harding John Rainolds Thomas Holland Richard Kilbye Miles Smith Richard Brett Richard Fairclough (a.k.a.