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| Rev Dr John Harris, with South Australia's Governor Rear-Admiral Kevin Scarce and Deputy Lord Mayor David Plumridge AM inspect the 1611 King James Bible at the exhibition launch |
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| Dr John Harris reminded the audience that the democracy they enjoy was secured using the language and ideas conveyed in the KJV |
In a moving oration historian Dr John Harris reminded people that "The King James Bible changed the way people understood their relationship to God. It changed the way they lived their lives and it changed the way they faced death."
Dr Harris noted the role of the KJV in providing the vocabulary for the South Australian Aboriginal search for freedom. "Here in South Australia, in 1895, when the Aboriginal people were unjustly evicted from Poonindie so that white farmers could have their land, some fair-minded South Australians labelled it 'Naboth's Vineyard'. A refugee in his own land, Aboriginal leader, Tom Adams wrote, 'We must through much trial and tribulation enter the Kingdom of heaven... We feel as if we are strangers in a strange land... the times are indeed hard with us but we know that here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come.' "
The exhibition is open until the 28th April at Barr-Smith library, University of Adelaide with free admission. It highlights the historic and ongoing influence of the Bible for Australian society, politics and culture and includes such rare items as a first year of publication 1611 King James Bible; a 1607 Geneva Bible with Shakespeare's notes in the margin; and a Russian Bible personally presented to Governor Macquarie by the Czar of Russia which Macquarie then brought back to Australia and made available to visiting Russian sailors.
