Bible: The Story of the King James Version - Softcover

Campbell, Gordon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199693013 ISBN 13: 9780199693016

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Produced during the lifetime of Shakespeare and Donne, the King James Version of the Bible has long been viewed as the most elegantly written and poetic of the many English translations. Now reaching its four hundredth anniversary, it remains one of the most frequently used Bibles in the English-speaking world, especially in America.

Lavishly illustrated with reproductions from early editions of the KJB, Bible: The Story of the King James Version offers a vivid and authoritative history of this renowned translation, ranging from the Bible's inception to the present day. Gordon Campbell, a leading authority on Renaissance literatures, tells the engaging and complex story of how this translation came to be commissioned, who the translators were, and how the translation was accomplished. Campbell does not end with the printing of that first edition, but also traces the textual history from 1611 to the establishment of the modern text by Oxford University Press in 1769, shedding light on the subsequent generations who edited and interacted with the text and bringing to life the controversies surrounding later revisions. In addition, the author examines the reception of the King James Version, showing how its popularity has shifted through time and territory, ranging from adulation to deprecation and attracting the attention of a wide variety of adherents. Since the KJB is more widely read in America today than in any other country, Campbell pays particular attention to the history of the KJB in the United States. Finally, the volume includes appendices that contain short biographies of the translators and a guide to the 74-page preliminaries of the 1611 edition.

A fitting tribute to the enduring popularity of the King James Version, Bible offers an illuminating history of this most esteemed of biblical translations.

About this title

About the Author:

Gordon Campbell is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Leicester University. An authority on Renaissance literature, he is the co-author of John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought (with Thomas N. Corns).

Review:

Gordon Campbell's BIBLE received a review in the August 2011 issue of CHOICE, where the reviewer said, "All told, Campbell's flair for the interesting anecdote and careful painting of context makes this an informative, compelling biography for both scholars and general readers of the premiere English Bible."

". . . an informative, compelling, biography for both scholars and general readers of the premierer English Bible. . . Highly Recommended."--Choice

"...Campbell's flair for the interesting anecdote amd careful painting of context makes this an informative, compelling biography for both scholars and general readers of the premiere English Bible"--S. Young, McHenry Country College

"Campbell does a great job thoughout the book showing how the KJV is the most important book in the English. I highly recomment Bible, THe Story of the King James Version by Gordon Campbell from Oxford University Press."-- Randy A. Brown

"...KJV is the translation that is a building block of our collective cultural heritage."--Jon Sweeney

"Campell has set out to write a historically accurate and scholarly informaed account of the origins development, and reception of this most famous of English Bibles, and has succeeded admirably in that task."--Alister E. McGrath. Kings College London

"...intensely political story detailed so well by Norton and Campbell...."---Mark Noll, Books Culture

"Valuable and enlightening."--Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0199693013
• ISBN 13: 9780199693016
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 354