Study of the King James Bible | Page 3

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THE GREATEST ENGLISH CLASSIC
A STUDY OF THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE AND
ITS INFLUENCE ON LIFE AND LITERATURE
BY CLELAND BOYD McAFEE, D.D.

CONTENTS
LECTURE PREFACE I. PREPARING THE WAY--THE ENGLISH
BIBLE BEFORE KING JAMES II. THE MAKING OF THE KING
JAMES VERSION; ITS CHARACTERISTICS III. THE KING
JAMES VERSION As ENGLISH LITERATURE IV. THE
INFLUENCE OF THE KING JAMES VERSION ON ENGLISH
LITERATURE V. THE KING JAMES VERSION--ITS INFLUENCE
ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HISTORY VI. THE BIBLE IN
THE LIFE OF TO-DAY

PREFACE
THE lectures included in this volume were prepared at the request of
the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and were delivered in the
early part of 1912, under its auspices. They were suggested by the
tercentenary of the King James version of the Bible. The plan adopted
led to a restatement of the history which prepared for the version, and
of that which produced it. It was natural next to point out its principal
characteristics as a piece of literature. Two lectures followed, noting its
influence on literature and on history. The course closed with a
statement and argument regarding the place of the Bible in the life of
to-day.
The reception accorded the lectures at the time of their public delivery,
and the discussion which ensued upon some of the points raised,
encourage the hope that they may be more widely useful.
It is a pleasure to assign to Dr. Franklin W. Hooper, director of the
Institute, whatever credit the work may merit. Certainly it would not
have been undertaken without his kindly urgency. CLELAND BOYD
McAFEE.
Brooklyn, New York, May, 1912.

THE GREATEST ENGLISH CLASSIC
LECTURE I
PREPARING THE WAY--THE ENGLISH BIBLE BEFORE KING
JAMES
THERE are three great Book-religions-- Judaism, Christianity, and

Mohammedanism. Other religions have their sacred writings, but they
do not hold them in the same regard as do these three. Buddhism and
Confucianism count their books rather records of their faith than rules
for it, history rather than authoritative sources of belief. The three great
Book-religions yield a measure of authority to their sacred books which
would be utterly foreign to the thought of other faiths.
Yet among the three named are two very distinct attitudes. To the
Mohammedan the language as well as the matter of the Koran is sacred.
He will not permit its translation. Its original Arabic is the only
authoritative tongue in which it can speak. It has been translated into
other tongues, but always by adherents of other faiths, never by its own
believers. The Hebrew and the Christian, on the other hand, but notably
the Christian, have persistently sought to make their Bible speak all
languages at all times.
It is a curious fact that a Book written in one tongue should have come
to its largest power in other languages than its own. The Bible means
more to-day in German and French and English than it does in Hebrew
and Chaldaic and Greek-- more even than it ever meant in those
languages. There is nothing just like that in literary history. It is as
though Shakespeare should after a while become negligible for most
readers in English, and be a master of thought in Chinese and
Hindustani, or in some language yet unborn.
We owe this persistent effort to make the Bible speak the language of
the times to a conviction that the particular