King James Sundays: An introduction
Trying a new weekly series; and a selection from the lectionary, Proper 28.B
I’d like to share some of my devotional practice with you all by posting a piece of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) in KJV every week with a modern translation.
Allow me to tell a story.
The year was 2011. I was an undergraduate in Washington D.C. I had only been a believer for four years. And I was becoming a little obsessed with researching Bible translations. Before, the only Bible I used was the Teen Life Application NLT I bought for $5 from my Young Life chapter. But learning about academic biblical studies as a new Religious Studies major in tandem with getting a dusty New Oxford Annotated RSV at a bookstore in Alexandria opened up new worlds for me. That year I also could not help but notice many publications and bloggers celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Version.
My interest in Ye Olde Bible was finally awakened. I wanted to be connected. I wanted to experience the Bible the way most English-speaking Christians did before the mid-20th century.1 However, I was a little intimidated. I am not terribly lettered in early modern English literature, so I didn’t think I could stomach the archaic language of the KJV. I developed a strategy.
I resolved to read the lectionary lessons in KJV every Sunday morning in church and then hear them in service in the modern NRSV. That way, I would be exposed to the KJV organically, a little piece at a time. I believed the exposure to two translations would settle in my soul too and deepen my reception of Scripture. I had been attending Episcopal churches for a few months and had gained an interest in the idea of a lectionary, a tradition unknown to me in my Evangelical Covenant Church in high school. Reading the lectionary in KJV every Sunday meant that I had to find out what was assigned. So I also became comfortable checking the Sunday lectionary and understanding what was assigned on a season-by-season basis.
Years later, this practice remains with me. When I pray the Daily Office on Sundays and the Book of Common Prayer’s “red letter days,”2 I read the lessons in KJV.
I love the KJV now. I do not think it is a perfect translation like some fundamentalists do (and it always seems to be a certain kind of Baptist),3 but I enjoy the language and feeling connected to the past. Reading KJV does not just connect me to layers and layers of past devotional habits, but to the form biblical allusions in English literature.4 And sometimes I learn a bit of early modern English vocabulary too.
The KJV is a sheer pleasure to read out loud, either because of its eloquence, or because it’s awkward, or some combination thereof. Its prose and poetry remains stately, warts and all, four hundred years later. Most importantly, the KJV also expands how I understand the Bible.5 It gives me a frame of reference to receive Scripture that is outside the cornucopia of contemporary translations. Sometimes the KJV translates something very literally compared to modern translations, so I get a peek into the Greek or Hebrew.6 Other times I learn that the KJV’s wording has truly lasted through the centuries in contemporary translations. And at other times I get a peek into textual criticism by noticing how the KJV includes verses or phrases from manuscripts that are not in the so-called “eclectic/critical texts” of updated versions.7
I will usually pick NRSV as the contemporary translation to pair with KJV, since that’s used by mainline Protestants the most, but I may use the NIV or another one if I’m feeling frisky. Who knows, I may even use The Message. I might comment on the Scripture, like I did this week, or I might not.
If I continue this series long enough, I also might venture beyond the RCL and use the Episcopal Daily Office Lectionary, or another lectionary. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Enjoy the Gospel lesson from this week. I pray this series may help you “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest”8 Scripture and find in its pages a loving and compassionate Savior, Who cares for you deeply and works marvels beyond what you can ask or imagine.
![Title: Christ Triumphant
[Click for larger image view]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fYT2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e673116-a31c-41fa-96eb-67107b9ab082_583x539.jpeg "Title: Christ Triumphant
[Click for larger image view]")
Revised Common Lectionary
Proper XXVIII After Pentecost, Year B
MARK 13.1-8
KJV
And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
NRSV
As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’* and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
* 13.6. Gk. I am
I chose the Mark lesson today because of a parallel. An interesting thing about this Sunday in Year B is that it is from the same chapter of Mark assigned at the very beginning of this lectionary year: in Advent I. That Sunday assigned Mark 13.24-37.9 This is also the very last Sunday in Year B that has a passage from Mark; a passage from John will cap things off next week with Christ the King (“Reign of Christ”). So, weirdly enough, Year B’s first and last assignments from its signature Gospel proceeds backwards in the chapter: from vv. 24-37 to vv. 1-8. Here’s both passages in KJV placed together:
Mark 13.1-8, 24-37 KJV (Proper XXVIII.B & Advent I.B)
And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!10 And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
…
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: so ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
I’m guessing the Revised Standard Version (NT 1946, OT & NT 1952, Apocrypha 1959, 2nd ed. NT 1971) was the first version to become as mainstream as KJV and make a dent in its popularity. The KJV was revised into the Revised Version (1880s–90s) and the American Standard Version (1901), but they weren’t popular. Catholics often used the Douay-Rheims (1582; 1610), a translation of the Vulgate that has a similar cultural-devotional reputation as KJV for Protestants. Other attempts at contemporary English translations before the RSV were “An American Translation” by J. Edgar Goodspeed and others (1923–59) and James Moffat’s New Translation (1920s). For Catholics, the English priest and author Ronald Knox translated the Vulgate in the 1940s, and the Confraternity Bible was released in stages beginning in 1941.
This is a nickname for the Anglican major feasts/saints’ days assigned by the Prayer Book, because books used to print them in red. The next one coming up is Nov. 30, St. Andrew the Apostle. I also include the Episcopal Church’s so-called “Principal Feasts,” the highest class of worship observance: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and All Saints’ Day. Sometimes my KJV practice includes the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday and Holy Week’s concluding “Triduum” of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
One of my strangest experiences in ministry was serving the children’s ministry of a Chinese evangelical church plant. The head honcho of this network of churches had become convinced of the KJV Only position and ordered all his churches to use it. I was required to read KJV to these kids–more than a few of whom spoke English as a second or third language–before I could ever use a contemporary version. The KJV editions used were from a KJV Only ministry, which included an appendix explaining that Westcott and Hort, the 19th century British scholars who created one of the first critical scholarly versions of the New Testament, were agents of Satan.
One of the best study Bibles out there is the Norton Critical Edition of the English Bible (2 vols; eds. Herbert Marks, Gerald Hammond, and Austin Busch; Norton, 2012), which uses KJV for this very reason. Robert Alter has a wonderful review of it in The New Republic.
The Jewish biblical scholar and translator Robert Alter has high respect (though not unqualified) for the KJV because he believes it is more willing to render Hebrew idiom and syntax literally and thus represent the power of biblical Hebrew better. See “The Bible in English and the Heresy of Explanation,” in Introduction to The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, 3 vols. (New York: Norton, 2019). You can find it in all three volumes of the translation. This essay was originally from his 1996 translation of Genesis.
E.g., “redeeming the time” in Ephesians 5.16 vs. “making the most of the time” (RSV/NRSV; ESV “the best use of the time”) or “making the most of every opportunity” (NIV).
Easy examples are John 5.4 and the “Johannine Comma” in I John 5.7. This is the main reason academic biblical scholars do not recommend the KJV for students: textual scholarship and translation methods have advanced in the last four centuries! However, I personally believe KJV would be more than appropriate for English literature classes about the Bible.
One inspiration for starting this series is today’s Episcopal “Collect of the Day” (it’s not pronounced the normal way, but as “KALL-ekt”), a formal prayer of the week that changes from Sunday to Sunday:
Blessed Lord,
who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant that we may in such wise hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them;
that, by patience and comfort of thy holy Word,
we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
– “Collects: Traditional – Proper 28 [After Pentecost],” in Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 184
Last year, I reflected briefly on this Advent passage of Mark in relation to the beginning of the Gospel.
KJV italicizes words to indicate if they’re not found in the manuscripts and were added by the translators based on inference and for the sake of reader comprehension. The NKJV and NASB also does this.