One more thought on Dr. King

Still thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr., this week...
Dr. King was a powerful example of how the KJV can shape us. As he knew very well, nearly every time that the word “servant” appears in the Old or New Testaments of the KJV it means “slave.” It’s a confusing blessing. On the one hand, there are numerous slaves spoken of in Scripture in ways that clearly condones the practice of keeping humans in servitude to a master; on the other hand, Jesus speaks of himself as a servant/slave (see Matthew 12:18) and he praises the lowliness of the servant/slave as the prime example of one his followers (Matthew 23:11). What to do with these contradictions?
The prophetic language of the KJV helped spur on the Civil Rights Movement. The words and cadences of the original translation entered American living rooms for two decades in one of the most tumultuous periods of the twentieth century. King James’s old Bible has the power to affect us still today, put to work in the life of someone like Dr. King, but perhaps even more broadly, in the lives of all of us.

Dr. King and the KJV

In Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, on the Mall in Washington, he said: “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” The reference is to the King James Bible’s Amos 5:24: “But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Dr. King always quoted from the KJV.
He also rang out with “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” He was quoting Isaiah 40:4, which then continues, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”