Café

The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have To Preach
Reviewed by Hans Kristensen
Little Black Books: Science and God
Reviewed by Andrew Laird
Making the Most of the Cross
Reviewed by Lesley Hicks
Higher Ground
Reviewed by Andrew Laird

Bible arrives in Sydney

12:11am Saturday, 2nd July 2011

The King James Bible has arrived in Sydney after a short stay at the Parliament House Canberra. The Exhibition of historic Bibles touring Australia called " the Book that Changed the World" is touring several Sydney venues, beginning at Annandale's Village Church, in the most atheistic suburb in Australia. Its a good place to send a consignment of Bibles. Not just a collection of books. This is the Good Book" said the SMH. The exhibition celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible, and makes the case that this book really did change the world.

Even non-‘Bible bashers’ are likely to have used words and phrases that come straight from the KJV. First published in England in 1611 the KJV put, for the first time, the Bible into the hands of the common people.

Dr. Greg Clarke, CEO of Bible Society Australia, the group hosting the national exhibition, said, “The King James Bible may not be universally admired (it was a cause of division in its time, and still separates some religious communities today), but its impact on Western culture and language can hardly be overstated,” Dr. Clarke said.

“Indeed, if you have ever ‘fallen flat on your face,’ ‘escaped by the skin of your teeth’, had the ‘scales fall from your eyes’ or ‘seen the writing on the wall’, you have encountered the King James Bible.”

Our history and our future

Over the next twelve months, the exhibition entitled, The Book That Changed the World, will travel to every state and territory, featuring an original edition of the KJV as well as other documents relating to this key English text, and subsequent translations into other tongues.

Dr. Clarke said, “It’s a privilege to mark this historic anniversary, allowing people to see not only an original King James Bible from 1611, but a carefully selected display of significant Bibles in the life of Australia since the early days of the British colony.

“Among the exhibits will be the beautifully-bound and embellished Bible presented in 1901 to Lord Hopetoun, Australia’s first Governor-General, at the time of Federation. Every Governor-General of Australia has since sworn on that Bible when they came to office.”

Vulgar is good

There have been many Bible translations since 1611, but the KJV represents a special influence in the development of Christianity in Britain and later in the USA and Australia, because of the effort the translators took to produce a ‘Bible of the people’.

The original Preface to the KJV shows that the translators wanted this Bible to be understood “even of the very vulgar”. This ‘vulgar’ (or ‘common’) translation is now, ironically, often referred to as the pinnacle of English literature and is frequently studied as an academic text quite separate to its sacred origins.

Ther exhibition comes with its own app (tap bible exhibit into itunes oir the Android store), that gives you a tour, with pictures and a soundtrack of Dr John Harris the Bible Transalator and Historian describing each Bible.

You can read what the SMH said at

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/not-just-a-collection-of-good-books-this-is-the-good-book-20110630-1gt64.html#ixzz1Qra8O1aQ