The King James Bible Translators [Paperback]

Olga S. Opfell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2001

Among the world's Bibles the King James version is preeminent for its dignity and style. What is amazing is that it was the achievement of an extraordinary, and large, committee of 49 scholar-churchmen working in six companies at Westminster Abbey and the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. This is a well written account of the production of the King James version of the Bible, from the learned eccentric King himself and the factors that set the new translation effort in motion through the revising, editing, printing, reception and influence of the finished work. Emphasis is on the individual scholar-translators who labored in such unprecedented harmony and to such lasting effect. This volume offers line-by-line comparisons of various translations, original documents, list of translators, bibliography and an index. Only a few complete books have been written about the making of the King James Bible. This book will serve as both a useful reference and a pleasurable reading experience for those who treasure this best-loved and most familiar of English Bibles.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great deal of important information...makes for easy reading" -- -The Christian Librarian

"An amazing number of facts about each of the translators...would add lots of detail to the church media library collection" -- -Media Library Services Journal

"Carefully researched and tightly organized" -- -The Christian Science Monitor

"Detailed information. Well documented" -- -The Baptist Sentinel

"Eminently readable...well-assembled data...valuable" -- -Bible Study Monthly

"Extensive" -- -The Alliance Witness

"Scholarly" -- -Askov American

About the Author

Olga S. Opfell is a former college teacher and newspaper reporter. She is also the author of Queens, Empresses, Grand Duchesses and Regents (1989, $39.95), Women Prime Ministers and Presidents (1993, $38.50) and Royalty Who Wait (2001, $39.95). She lives in Torrance, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 179 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786411570
• ISBN-13: 978-0786411573
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,517,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystery Solved, November 24, 2002

By 

Paul Streitz (Darien, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The King James Bible Translators (Paperback)

Ms. Opfell gives a very lucid description of the problem of who wrote the King James Bible. She sides on the idea that the Bible was a collaboration of some fifty men and interprets the evidence in light of that conclusion. Ignoring that issue for a moment, Ms. Opfell gives lucid insights into how the KJV was markedly superior to the previous English versions. Especially usefull are her comparisons of three or more lines of from preceding Bibles that illustrate the advances in poetry and language. However, she is not one-sided in this evaluation, and gives much credit to Coverdale, and his creation of such memorable lines as 'valley of the shadow of death,' which were retained in the King James Bible.

Nevertheless, the problem of whether the KJ was written by a group (seems impossible) or by an unknown literary genius remains.
"Perhaps the greatest of literary mysteries lies in the unanswered question of how fifty-four translators managed to infuse their work with a unity of effect which seems the result of one inspired imagination. The mystery will never be solved; but the perfect choice throughout of current English words, the rhythmic fall of phrase and clause, the unfailing escape from the heavy and sometimes pompous renderings of the older translations, remain." Mary Ellen Chase, The Bible and the Common Reader

Neither have the similarities between the KJV and Shakespeare gone unnoticed:
"How did this come to be? How to explain that sixty or more men, none a genius, none even as great a writer as Marlowe or Ben Jonson, together produced writing to be compared with (and confused with) the words of Shakespeare?" Gustavus S. Paine, The Learned Men

The answer to the mystery is this. Shakespeare did write the King James Version of the Bible, but he was not the man from Stratford-upon-Avon.

For many years there has been a growing faction that are convinced that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is Shakespeare. However, what precludes any contribution of Oxford to the KJV is the supposed fact that Oxford died in 1604, the year the KJV project was begun by King James.

However, Oxford did not die in 1604, there is evidence that he did, including an entry in a church register, but what is totally absent is any notice of the aristocracy of his death. Given that he was in good terms with King James this is strange indeed. Neither were there any eulogies or other literary notice of his death. My hypothesis is that Oxford did not die, he disappeared and wrote the KJV, The Tempest and Shake-speares Sonets between 1604 and 1609, when he eventually died.

Paul Streitz
Author: Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I