In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (Paperback)

~ Alister McGrath (Author) "New technology promises new riches to its pioneers..." (more)
Key Phrases: thy staffe, noblest monument, biblical translation, King James Bible, Geneva Bible, Old Testament (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the Beginning is Alister McGrath's history of the King James Bible, and as the subtitle explains, his explanation of "How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture." McGrath's story begins with the development of the printing press, describes the forces (before, during, and after the Reformation) fueling the demand for English vernacular translations of the Bible, and considers the impact of the King James Version on Western worship and politics. McGrath deftly blends an arch and charming, donnish argot with breezy, tough, brass-tacks directness. Of the ongoing process of creating new biblical translations, he writes, "It has yet to end; indeed, it will not end, until either history is brought to a close or English ceases to be a living language." Elsewhere, describing the cultural influence of the Authorized Version, he explains, "Without the King James Bible, there would have been no Paradise Lost, no Pilgrim's Progress, no Handel's Messiah, no Negro spirituals, and no Gettysburg address.") A professor of historical theology at the University of Oxford, McGrath has written a number of popular books about Christianity (including Theology for Amateurs). In The Beginning continues his work of making complex matters of theological thought and history accessible to a wider audience. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The peculiar history of the King James Bible highlights the power of marginal notations to destabilize a nation and command the anxious attention of a monarch. McGrath, professor of historical theology at Oxford University, recounts the production of this translation, the forces that allowed for its genesis and its influence on modern English, the history of England and the faith of millions since its 1604 publication. Although his "great men" emphasis on "doing" history offers few new insights and is embedded in a narrative that scans in overly broad strokes the intriguing circumstances of the Bible's production, this remains an engaging chronicle. McGrath frames the context for the KJV in phenomena such as the English church during and after Henry VIII's reign, the incendiary creativity of the translation process, the explosive force for change unleashed by the technological breakthrough of the printing press and the rise of nationalism. McGrath also situates the KJV as more immediately provoked by the English-language Geneva Bible, produced by self-exiled "radical" English Protestants in that republican city, during the reign of the Catholic Mary Tudor. As McGrath explains, prefaces to each book of Scripture and extensive interpretive notes offered in "plain English" account largely for the popularity the Bible enjoyed among laypersons hungry to read the word of God. This is a tale ripe for the telling; one wishes the execution were more satisfying. (Apr.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (February 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385722168
• ISBN-13: 978-0385722162
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #147,697 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great review of the history & impact of the Bible in English, May 8, 2001

By	Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: In the Beginning : The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (Hardcover)

"In the Beginning" starts out slowly, giving a potted history of the beginnings of the Reformation. It picks up quickly however once the author gains his familiar territory of the Bible in English. The narrative then clips along at an interesting rate as it describes the history of the Bible both before the King James Version, the great work on the KJV translation itself, and the global impact of the KJV to this day.

Fascinating bits of detail are scattered throughout the text. Eight sheets of Tyndale's original 1525 Cologne printing were discovered in 1834 and show Tyndale's heavy dependence on Luther's German Bible in his first translation attempts. "In the Beginning" does an outstanding job of exploring the creation and influence of the Geneva Bible - the market leader that the King James Version had to overtake. Ever wonder why the Apocrypha was dropped from most Protestant English Bibles? "In the Beginning" explains this post-KJV phenomenon in terms both religious and economic.

A minor annoyance in the book is its tendency to repeat turns of phrase. A statement or quote in one paragraph can be immediately followed by the same statement or quote in a following paragraph. The text could stand a good scrubbing to rationalize these redundant references. Also missing were any biographies on the lesser known contributors to the KJV translation teams. The paucity of our historic knowledge about these translators may explain this omission.

The best part of "In the Beginning" is its exploration of the KJV's impact on our language. Tyndale & the KJV translators did much to preserve the Hebrew phraseology and linguistic cadence of the Old Testament. The work delves into how English took both translated Hebrew phrases but also methods of sentence structure as its own. It explains why the KJV translators adhered to forms of English which were already archaic to them in 1611. The subsequent history of the King James Version's elevation to its consideration as one of the defining works of all English literature is told with both awe and humor. Much is made of the receiving generations' assumption that the KJV was THE Bible rather than a mere translation.

This is an outstanding and very readable work of popular history. You will never hear or read the English language the same way after reading "In the Beginning".

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite a fascinating book!, June 22, 2001

By	Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: In the Beginning : The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (Hardcover)

This book is the story of the King James Version of the Bible. Beginning with the origin of printing in the Fifteenth Century with Johannes Gutenberg, the author then launches into an in-depth history of English-language translations of the Bible, from Wycliffe through to the Geneva Bible of 1560. Along the way, the reader is given a thorough understanding of the politics of translations, along with the technical problems of translating and printing a Bible. Then, the KJV is dealt with, including information on the translation and problems encountered. (Did you know that the 1631 edition included a typographic error that resulted in the commandment, "Thou shalt commit adultery"?)

Finally, there are extensive notes on the problems with acceptance of the new Bible, and its eventual triumph and effects on the English Language. As an added bonus, one appendix includes a fascinating comparison of nine different versions of the Bible, in the form of reproducing their translation of the 23rd Psalm. I found this addition quite enlightening to read, and am glad that it is included.

This is quite a fascinating book! Somehow, the author succeeds in being both thorough, and yet not the least boring. (Quite the opposite!) The chapters are broken down into small sections, which are nice for readers who need convenient places to put the book down for the night. Overall, I thought that this is a great read, and quite worth the money. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, informative and important, August 26, 2001

By	Lee Gruenfeld "www-leegruenfeld-com" (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: In the Beginning : The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (Hardcover)

Although it's the most widely-read and best-selling book in history, surprisingly little is known about the King James Version of the bible by most of those who read it on a daily basis. As it turns out, millions of people who consider it to be the very word of God don't even realize that it's a translation rather than an original.

Many of those who are familiar with its origins, and who heap praise on it as a peerless literary gem, are not aware that the original bible was written in the everyday language of the common working man, and that the elegance of the prose in the KJV was essentially a fortuitous accident rather than the intent of its translators. The translation was carried out at a crucial turning point in the English language, and the committees established by James I struggled continuously with which words they should use: those of the current day, even though they knew those words would soon be passé and possibly unintelligible to future generations, or the newer usages, which they couldn't be sure would last? As an example, the early 17th century word for the neuter possessive we know as "its" was "his." This has led not only to a number of puzzling passages but also to many that are tortured attempts to get around the problem: Rather than "Its height was twenty cubits," we get "The height was twenty cubits thereof," which we may think is elegant but not when that awkward construction appears three times in a single sentence describing the proper construction of an ark.

IN THE BEGINNING, a splendidly readable account of how the KJV came to be, is filled with such fascinating tidbits, as well as more substantive and disturbing ones. Church authorities were bound and determined that bibles only be available in Latin, feeling (correctly) that their power arose at least to some extent from the inability of their congregations to understand the Book without assistance from clergy. But the Reformation that was sweeping Europe at the time was based in part on the belief that the bible should be available to all the people, in their own language (hence the term "vernacular bible"), just as the original was. (The Old Testament was in the Hebrew and Aramaic of farmers and laborers; same for the Greek of the New Testament.) This was no scholarly debate, either; William Tyndale was publicly strangled for writing an English version of the bible.

One of the strengths of IN THE BEGINNING is how well it acquaints us with the power of the ruthless Middle Ages church and its inseparability from government. The role of politics in the structure of the KJV is explored, too, such as in the decision-making that led to the inclusion of the Gospel of John and the Apocrypha, neither of which was universally viewed as the word of God as were the other sections. Despite a good deal of maddening repetition that often makes the book sound like a committee report ("Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them"), it's a compelling and intriguing read, its scholarship exemplary and its conclusions well-grounded. Especially revealing are the comparisons among several translations of well-known passages, which demonstrate the extraordinary degree to which all-too-human, seemingly arbitrary decisions (the Greek word ekklesia was translated as "church" but was more closely akin to "congregation") crept into a work which, more than any other, shaped our language and culture. Because of that undeniable influence, IN THE BEGINNING is a must-read for anybody who thinks, even if they're non-Christians or non-believers altogether.