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CARTHAGE?Among all the English translations of the Bible, the King James Version has stood the test of time and influenced Western literature, culture and Christianity like no other.
To mark the 400th birthday of King James’ 1611 translation of the Bible, the Greater East Texas Baptist Association is sponsoring a week-long celebration, culminating with a two-day event at Southside Baptist Church in Carthage March 11-12.
Carson C. Joines, mayor of Carthage, issued a proclamation declaring the week of March 7-12 as “Celebrating 400 Years of the King James Version.”
Kicking off the celebration will be the Panola County Ministerial Alliance, whose president, Wade Harmon, is coordinating a public reading of the Psalms and New Testament in the local courthouse, Monday through Thursday, March 7-10. Members from several churches will serve as readers.
Numerous scholars of world renown and noted pastors will cap the KJV celebration at Southside Baptist Church in Carthage, where Kirby Hill is pastor, with a dinner and conference on Friday, March 11 from 1-9 p.m., and with lectures on Saturday, March 12 from 9 a.m. till noon.
Keynoting the Friday dinner at 5 p.m. is James O. Combs, longtime editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune, and later, the National Liberty Journal. Reservations for the dinner are required through Southside’s church office at 903-693-6397, or online at southsidecarthage.com. Cost for the dinner is $10.
“Anyone, no matter what version of the Bible they use, will benefit from this celebration,” Hill told the TEXAN. “This event will be informative as well as inspiring.”
The celebration of the KJV is more than just birthday homage, Hill said. The historical background of the Bible will be examined as lectures will highlight “the road we have traveled, and the sacrifices that were made to get the Bible into English?the blood that was shed, the cost that was paid from Wycliffe to Tyndale,” he said.
John Hellstern?retired pastor and co-founder of The Living Word National Bible Museum?will bring a first-edition King James Bible, and will lecture regarding the KJV’s reliance on William Tyndale. Hellstern’s remarks will entail Tyndale’s linguistic expertise, Greek scholarship and translation skills.
From his Living Word Museum, Hellstern recently placed under the curation of the Dunham Bible Museum at Houston Baptist University some 3,000 biblical texts that span hundreds of years. The documents trace the development of the Bible from some of its earliest maunscripts to ancient KJV editions and beyond.
Harold Rawlings, noted author and Bible collector, will lecture from his book, “Trial By Fire: The Struggle to Get the Bible into English.” Rawlings’ lecture details the early history of the English Bible from John Wycliffe’s version in 1382 to the KJV in 1611.
Rawlings’ lecture will answer such questions as:
- Why was it once a capital offense in England to own or read an English Bible?
- Which translators were burned at the stake for their efforts?
- Why were John Wycliffe’s bones exhumed and burned 44 years post-mortem?; and,
- Why did all early English Bibles, including the 1611 KJV, have 80 books, not 66?
Among items for display by Rawlings is a Dead Sea Scrolls fragment, a 13th-century Latin Bible, an Erasmus Greek/Latin New Testament, a 1563 First Edition of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, and the world’s smallest printed Bible.
Hill, the host pastor, will speak regarding the KJV’s preface. “Hardly any reader of the King James Version today even knows that it has a preface,” he said. “The preface is important because many of the same controversies surrounding modern translations were also faced by the translators of the KJV. Whenever the question of Bible translations come up, other questions are still going to be asked today, just as in 1611.”
Eric Greene, pastor of Thomson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Centreville, Miss., will address the theological art in the original print of the KJV, which Greene says was used “as a tool to communicate and teach biblical doctrine. Pastors and parents will see various applications from a few drawings that are each worth a thousand words.”
Greene will also show the use of art from ancient mythology, “which should stir some thoughts on how Christians should relate to a pagan culture,” he added.
Other event speakers for the weekend include Criswell College President Jerry Johnson; and Jay McCasland, the Greater East Texas Baptist Association’s director of missions.
