I once asked about the King James Version of the Bible in
America and whether or not it was a popular during the commencement of the
American colonial period.
The religion of the actual first settlers, Pilgrims, were very similar to the hard core British Puritans. They actually didn’t have an organized
religious sect of the time, until they settled in the Colonies; but, had the
tendency to be more Calvinist and Lutheran than Catholic or Anglican. The main Bible they had accessed to Geneva Bible in English in 1560 which
they found more trustworthy than the King James Version of 1611. Another of the
more important books of spirituality they used was Book of Psalmes, Henry Ainsworth’s 1612 edition. Besides these two
books, they were very well read on various religious topics. Therefore, we
learn that the religious beliefs in the very early colonial period were more a
Germanic root than anything else.
About ten years later it was noted that John Winthrop
brought the first copy of the King James
Bible to America, a 1614 edition and Henry Dunster, the first president of
Harvard College, owned another early copy however, it still was not a very
popular Bible at the time in Colonial America. By about 1700 as Puritanism
began to fade, Common Book of Prayer,
Geneva Bible, Sauer Bible, Cary Catholic Bible, King James Bible and Common Book of Prayer was more likely to
be found in the colonies. Even though there were some Anglican Churches in
Colonial America, the Anglican’s did not allow ordination of any colonial
ministers. All their ministers were straight from England.
An interesting “tid-bit” the King James Version was suppose
to remove all Calvin connotations yet its translations are about 95% identical
to the Protestant Geneva Bible. All
King James Bibles printed in American
since 1769 is not like the original authorized version of 1611. It uses the
Baskerville spelling and revision of the 1611 version which means it was a
different type setting and spelling than old English which was done in England.
On American soil the actual printed was Algonquin
Indian Language Bible in 1663, and then Robert Aitken printed a King James
Version in 1782. Other Bibles alleged printed earlier or in between these dates
have not been confirmed.
Today there are currently 6,001,500,000 various Bibles in print. In history it is the
highest bestseller; running behind it is Mao’s Little Red Book and then following in third is the Qur’an.
I learned that the King James Bible was not instrument in the
roots of American Colonialism and did not actually become semi-popular until
well after 1800’s and then very popular in the 20th Century. Regardless
which version of Bible that one reads, pray that God’s guides your
understanding and not man.
Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your
own understanding… Proverbs 3:5
Keep in prayer each other.
May God bless you all and keep
you safely in His arms.
Sources:
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