Type of bind: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: August 01, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 975496
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Product Description:
A net of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson and Bacon; of the Gunpowder Plot; the worst outbreak of the plague England had ever seen; Arcadian landscapes; murderous, toxic slums; and, above all, of sometimes overwhelming religious passion. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than it had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between the polarities.
This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment “Englishness” and the English language had come into its very first passionate maturity. Boisterous, elegant, subtle, majestic, finely nuanced, sonorous and musical, the English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own reach and scope than any before or since. It is a form of the language that drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.
The sponsor and guide of the whole Bible project was the King himself, the brilliant, ugly and profoundly peace-loving James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England. Trained almost from birth to manage the rivalries of political factions at home, James saw in England the chance for a sort of irenic Eden over which the new translation of the Bible was to preside. It was to be a Bible for everyone, and as God's lieutenant on earth, he would use it to unify his kingdom. The dream of Jacobean peace, guaranteed by an elision of royal power and divine glory, lies behind a Bible of extraordinary grace and everlasting literary power.
About fifty scholars from Cambridge, Oxford and London did the work, drawing on many previous versions, and created a text which, for all its failings, has never been equaled. That is the central question of this book: How did this group of near-anonymous divines, muddled, drunk, self-serving, ambitious, ruthless, obsequious, pedantic and flawed as they were, manage to bring off this astonishing translation? How did such ordinary men make such extraordinary prose? In God's Secretaries, Adam Nicolson gives a fascinating and dramatic account of the accession and ambition of the very first Stuart king; of the scholars who labored for seven years to create his Bible; of the influences that shaped their work and of the beliefs that colored their world, immersing us in an age whose greatest monument is not a painting or a building, but a book.
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Rated by buyers 
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The book is interesting. It spends more time on the politics of writing the King James Bible, than on what manuscripts were used in writing the Bible.
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Nicolson provides an interesting and full picture of the people and politics that brought about the King James Version of the Bible. His writing is lovely, but at times is overly verbose and descriptive. Although I kept wanting to read about the actual translation of the KJV, I found the context he gave helpful and worthwhile.
Unfortunately, I found the very small portion of his book dedicated to the actual translation deficient. Rather than showing how the context he so carefully provided has affected the language with any specific examples, he time and again applauds the King James Version as superior to modern ones. His reasoning is, again and again, due to the beautiful language of the KJV. Unfortunately he does not spend sufficient time defending his view that beautiful language and majestic tone equate superior translation. It is a well-known fact that the New Testament is written in common Greek and not the exalted language that Nicolson loves. Why is this change valid, and more importantly, why is it superior?
I see nowhere in this book any reason to believe that Nicolson has ever done any translation work or knows either Greek or Hebrew. In fact, the deplorable rendition of Greek on page 166, with only one accent (and one apostrophe to signify an accent) and no final sigmas, shows me that no one involved with the book knew Greek well or at all. (Unless this Greek phrase is given in the exact form Savile wrote it, which I do not have the ability to determine for myself.)
In short--as far as his description of the political and historical background of the King James Version, Nicolson does a nice job. However, he would do well to keep his praise for the language of the KJV but lose the criticisms of how translation ought to be done which he does not appear to have the background or knowledge to develop or defend.
Rated by buyers -
Adam Nicholson tells an interesting story in God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. There were several points made that bear repeating.
First, Nicholson points out that there were Many versions of the Bible,including Latin, German, and English versions. The German Bible is attributed to Martin Luther. There were several English language Bibles that influenced the King James Bible. These included the Bible translated and written during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, and the Geneva Bible, written in Switzerland by Englishmen escaping from the religious tyrany of Queen Mary. There was also a Bible written during the reign of Elizabeth and widely used through the Church of England, which was called the Bishop's Bible.
Second, Nicholson points out that King James I had a hand in the final versions of the Bible. James was reared by devoute Scottish Calvinists and he was extremely knowledgeable about scripture. He was not pleased with the Geneva Bible that used the term tyrant repeatedly. James insisted that the King James Bible not use this word. He also was not pleased with the running commentary that was included with the Geneva Bible. The King James Bible does not have a third column on each page offering a commentary as to the meaning of the text. James I was an interesting fellow, probably gay, and certainly not overpowered by religious types who had tried to dominate him since he was a child left an orphan when his mother, Mary Queen of Scotts, was beheaded by Elizabeth I.
Third, Nicholson sensitizes us to the fact that the King James Bible was written by a committee, an miracle in itself. The learned scholars however who translated and coallated the Bible however we also enforcers of a central state religion and therefore there is much history offered as to their treatment of Catholics, Calvinists, and Puritans.
Fourth, the historic characters of the times, such as Sir Thomas More and others are revealed to have had multiple sympathies and prejudices and competitions, some of which were deadly.
Fifth, the central theme that controlled much of the translation was reaction to the Roman Catholic beliefs that the word of God must be mediated and moderated by the Catholic Church. The Church of England did not hold to this belief and the Bible relfects language that would emphasize that the Bible is accessible unto all and is not a secret document that must be translated by an elite priesthood.
Of course more could have been written about the political and theological context of the writing of the King James Bible, as well as comparisons in passages from Bible to Bible. There was one comparison that was both interesting and critical to interpretation, which had to do with whether Ecclesiasties refers to the word 'church' or 'congregation'. This is critical in that the Church of England sees the church as both a hierarhy and a following whereas the Calvinists and Puritans would discount the hierarchy and emphasize the congregation of believers.
This is a well written good read that made me want to learn more.
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This book covers an interesting period of time, when King James of England decided on his version of the Bible--what he wanted in it, what he didn't--and how he and his fellow Christians defined their beliefs in this version of the Bible. The account is well written and keeps your attention well!
Rated by buyers 
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I am enjoying, and I think you would as well, my current read-for-pleasure book, God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. It is everything a non-academic non-fiction book should be: a compelling choice of subject, well written, accurate historically, full of enlivening incidental facts, undidactic but informative, and just discursive enough to bring in interesting side aspects that contribute to giving one an over-all picture of the period and the people who made it, and the King James Bible, the way it was.
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