More Sensuousness -- "He stinketh"

Some of the humor in the KJV comes from what I’d call its earthiness—what Ann Wroe (see my post from two days ago) calls its sensuousness. Sometimes those divines and Puritans knew how to paint a picture just right. They sometimes told it straight and bluntly about matters that we have sanitized today.

I’m thinking of the occasion in John’s gospel when Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus has been lying dead in the tomb—“a cave, and a stone lay upon it”—for four days by the time Jesus arrives. That’s a long time … so long that the guys on CSI would don serious masks before sneaking a peek.

But Jesus says to the people gathered nearby, “Take ye away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of Lazarus, steps forward and offers a mild protest. Imagine what she must have been thinking. Without missing a beat, Martha interjects: “Lord, by this time he stinketh” (John 11:39).

Stinketh indeed! We have no trouble imagining the truth her words represented. The only other time the word “stinketh” occurs in the KJV comes in Isaiah 50:2 and it refers to fish. Lots of today’s translations are more sanitized and, as a result, are less interesting. The NIV accounts for a “bad odor” around Lazarus’s tomb, which is pretty good, but the NRSV only has Martha offering that “there is a stench.” Much of the frankness and earthiness are missing.

Ann Wroe on the sensuousness of the KJB

This is extracted from her excellent essay in Intelligent Life magazine:

"In the King James, people are aggressively physical. They shoot out their lips, stretch forth their necks and wink with their eyes; they open their mouths wide and say 'Aha, aha,' wagging their heads, in ways that would get them arrested in Wal-Mart. They do not simply refuse to listen, but pull away their shoulders and stop their ears; they do not merely trip, but dash their feet against stones. Sex is peremptory: men 'know' women, lie with them, 'go in unto' them, as brisk as the women are available. 'Begat' is perhaps the word the King James is best known for, list after list of begetting. The curt efficiency of the word (did no one suggest 'fathered'?) makes the erotic languor of the Song of Solomon, with its lilies and heaps of wheat, shine out like a jewel."

For the complete piece, click here.

Philip Hensher in The Spectator

I have a good friend in London who saves his copies of The Spectator and mails them to me in the States. So every six weeks or so I receive a bundle of recent issues. I especially love their book review section. One of the best around.

Well, as is sometimes the case, the book reviewer is more interesting than the book being reviewed. That is so with Philip Hensher in his review from April 9, 2011 of The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible, 1611-2011. Check it out, here; the whole review is now online.

I especially appreciated these three bits:

1) "Sometimes [the KJV is] frankly a bit vulgar, with a sort of anti-talent for metaphor, as in the Song of Solomon: ‘Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing.’"

2) "The dialogue can be sharp and snappy — ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’"

3) "Or the very opposite, as in Satan’s camp response when God asks him, in Job, what he’s been up to: ‘Going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it’ (my absolute favourite line in the entire Bible)."

PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly

This weekend's show leads off with a feature on the 400th anniversary of the great Bible, plus lots of interview with yours truly. What more could one want?! Seriously, here it is. I hope you like it.

English royalty love their KJV

English monarchs still hold their greatest textual achievement in high esteem, as they should. As Gordon Campbell points out in Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011 (Oxford University Press, hardcover, $24.95), England’s current monarch, Elizabeth II, sent a King James Bible to every child born in the realm in 1953, the year of her coronation. More recently, in this anniversary year, Prince Charles II has captured England’s attention around the KJV in this anniversary year as the patron of the King James Bible Trust (kingjamesbibletrust.org), a series of exhibits, celebrations, educational events, and lectures throughout the UK.

Verily, Verily to be featured on PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly

A week from today, on Good Friday, the story about Verily, Verily and the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible will go live on the PBS website. Check it out here on Friday, April 22. It then airs throughout the U.S. on PBS affiliates over Easter weekend. The good folks from Religion and Ethics Newsweekly interviewed me at Park Street Church in Boston last week.

Everyone but Catholics

Everyone is getting into the act in 2011—talking about the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. There are conferences, television programs, websites, blogs, videos, and traveling exhibits. Most notable of the latter are the rare biblical treasures and artifacts of the privately-owned Green Collection, named for the Oklahoma City family behind it, traveling the U.S. throughout 2011. On March 31 at The Embassy of the Holy See in Washington, D.C. the exhibit went on display. Sitting beside fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, rare Roman papyrus, priceless medieval editions of the Vulgate, and a first edition of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, were a variety of the first printings of the 1611 KJV. The program notes read: “The King James Bible is more often seen merely as a Protestant enterprise while, in fact, it represented the earliest attempt in English to provide what we may call today ‘an interfaith’ Bible translation that borrowed from the best that previous translations had to offer.” An odd claim.

Catholics had nothing to do with the translation and producing of the KJV. Still, it was the most ecumenical option of its day in England. James I called for the new Bible at the Hampton Court Conference in January 1604, seeing the work as a means of bringing Puritans and Anglicans together. There was no attempt to include Catholics, however. The Reformation and Counter-Reformation were at their highest point, the Catholics had their own translation in Rheims beginning in 1582, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 effectively convinced all that reconciliation was impossible.

The flow of ancient, startling words

The KJV translators weren’t always interested in creating smooth, easy phrasings. Not like today’s Bible translations. Sometimes they opted for older forms of speech, “classic” sounding words, and cadence, rather than what was smooth. I like that. The result is memorable language. I cannot imagine memorizing Psalm 23, for instance, in any other translation.
The same sort of strategy works in other aspects of life. For instance, have you ever noticed that some of the most memorable radio voices aren’t smooth? A couple of the most frequent on National Public Radio even have lisps and distinct regional accents. Others have quirky cadences and pronunciations—so that I know who is talking the moment that I hear their voice come over the airwaves. They are like celery to my ears! I seem to hear what they are saying better than what the smoother and easily digestible voices of other radio personalities are saying.

Monday, April 11

Come join us Monday Noon-1:30 p.m. at Park Street Church in Boston to celebrate the birthday of the KJV. PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly will be there!

History and Poetry Combined

"The King James Bible is a cornerstone of our culture and our language. Whatever our faith, whatever we believe, we have to recognise that the rhetorical power of this book, and in particular its power to fuse history with poetry, connects at the most fundamental level with our own history and poetry."
- Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate 1999-2009

Guardian newspaper list of KJV phrases

A great list of phrases from the KJV, here, and of all places--from the Guardian in the UK.

Jabal-e-Noor-ul-Quran Quetta

I know that some of you who have read my HuffPo piece in the last couple of days on "How to Properly Dispose of Unwanted Holy Books," are interested in more information about the group that overseas Qur'an burials in the Chiltan Hills of Pakistan.

This Muslim group is a registered charity with the Pakistani government called Jabal-e-Noor-ul-Quran Quetta. As of April 4, 2011 they had an active Facebook page and a registered website (www.jnqqta.org) that wasn’t working.

King James Bible documentary

The producers of this new documentary have sent me a copy. I have mixed reactions to KJB: The Book that Changed the World.

At the outset, some may find the lengthy ads for two videos of Christian apologetics disappointing. Also, the professorial experts who are interviewed throughout the video are of mixed quality. Third, it takes a full 35 minutes before King James I ascends the throne of England following Elizabeth I's death. That is more than one third of the total film! But if you desire a video biography of James I, including how his religious education may have influenced his desires to call for a new Bible, this is your video.