New York pays homage to the KJB

Detail from the "Wicked Bible", a version of the King James Bible that contained an unfortunate error in the commandment against committing adultery. (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)

WASHINGTON - The race, we know, is not to the swift. And we are well acquainted with the fate of a kingdom divided against itself. We may tell it not in Gath, and publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, yet that still, small voice will be clearly heard. We reap far more than a whirlwind from the phrases and rhythms left to us by the King James translation of the Bible, whose 400th anniversary is being commemorated this year.

Pay close attention to the major new exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library here, “Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible,” and you will see not only manuscripts going back to the year 1000, an early translation from the 14th century, Queen Elizabeth I’s copy of the Bible, and imposingly bound versions of the King James; you will also sense the gradual birth of the modern English language and the subtle framing of a culture’s patterns of thought.

In honor of the occasion, the Folger joined forces with the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, which mounted its own exhibition earlier this year before lending the Folger important artifacts, and also published an impressive catalog that chronicles the evolution of early Bible translations. The subject also inspired the National Endowment for the Humanities, which became a major sponsor of the enterprise, including a smaller traveling exhibition mounted on 14 textual panels that will be seen at 40 locations in the United States during the next two years...

[Read the full article in The New York Times "400 Years Old and Ageless" by Edward Rothstein]