BIBLE EXHIBITION ON THE OCCASION OF THE 400TH YEAR CELEBRATION OF THE KING JAMES VERSION
Welcome, If you have ever fallen flat on your face, escaped by the skin of your teeth, or seen the writing on the wall1, you have encountered the King James Bible. 2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of this very significant English translation of the Bible, and its impact on Western culture can hardly be overstated. The KJV has had a special influence in Britain and later in the USA and Australia. 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. It gives us great pleasure to mark this historic event with a national exhibition of 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. We are particularly delighted to include some of the translations of the Bible into indigenous languages, a task that is far from complete. No one ‘owns’ the Bible; we might even say the Bible ‘owns’ us, such has been its remarkable place in shaping Western culture, ethics, laws, philosophy, arts and charities. The saying goes that England gave us Shakespeare, but the Bible gave us England. It gave us much of modern Australia, too. Whatever your understanding of the Bible, we hope you enjoy the exhibition. Putting it together has been “a labour of love”2.
Dr Greg Clarke, CEO Bible Society Australia 1 Find these phrases respectively in the King James Version of the Bible at Numbers 22:31, Job 19:20 and Daniel 5:5. 2
Another Bible quote, this one from 1 Thessalonians 1:3.
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The Latin Bible
c.360 Ulfilas devises an alphabet for the language of the Goths, so that he can translate the Bible into Gothic
382 Pope Damascus commissions Saint Jerome to produce a revised Latin translation of the Bible, which leads to the Vulgate
THE DRAMATIC STORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE
The gripping tale of the English Bible began 1400 years ago and has not yet ended. It is a story of courage and faith, of ordinary people overcoming the abuse of power, the triumph of freedom over oppression.
408 Roman Brits encounter massive attacks from the Picts, Scots and Saxons
The Latin Bible When Christian missionaries like St Augustine first brought the Christian Bible to England, it was the Latin ‘Vulgate’. Hand-written Latin manuscripts were carefully held and copied in monasteries. Printed Scriptures had to await the printing press in the 1400s. Two early printed Latin Vulgates are on display, a rare 1495 edition and a 1537 edition with remarkable earlier hand-written vellum pages bound within it for preservation.
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Saxon Scriptures
c.735 The Venerable St Bede translates the Gospel of John into Old English (Saxon)
c. 900 King Alfred of Wessex had a number of passages of the Bible in Saxon circulated
Originally intended to be read by the ‘common people’, the Latin Vulgate was a foreign book in England. It informed the teaching of the monks but the local people could not read it.
Saxon Scriptures The English or ‘Angle-ish’ are the Anglo-Saxon people. Their ancient language is now generally called ‘Saxon’ or ‘Old English’. The first Saxon translations, perhaps as early as 600 or 700 AD, were ‘glosses’ written between the lines of Latin Bibles as an aid for preaching and teaching.
1066 The Norman conquest of England began
Formal translations soon followed from humble monks to famous figures such as St Bede and King Alfred. All of these were hand written. The year 1571 saw the first ever printing of a Saxon Bible. A volume of the rare and beautiful Fower Gospels is on display. Printed to prove that a thriving English Church with its own Scriptures existed before the Norman invasion, it is the first ever invention and use of Saxon fonts.
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The Tyndale Bible
c.1385 Wycliffe and his associates produce hand-written English translations of the Bible
1453 The city of Constantinople (Istanbul) falls to the Ottoman empire, marking the end of the Christian Byzantine Empire
The Tyndale Bible The first hand-written translations into this early modern English were those of John Wycliffe and his associates, beginning in 1385. Fearing the power of the Bible in the language of the people, Church and State authorities banned Wycliffe’s Scriptures. Wycliffe himself died before he could be captured. The first printed English Scriptures were the work of William Tyndale. In fear of his life, Tyndale fled overseas. His Scriptures were printed from 1526 and smuggled into England.
1517 Martin Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation
Caught and imprisoned, Tyndale was burned at the stake in 1535. Despite the real threat of serious punishment, people secretly bought Tyndale’s translations which reached 40 editions by 1561. The New Testament on display is a 1551 edition. In the year of Tyndale’s martyrdom, King Henry VIII allowed the Bible to be printed in England. However, it was not always safe to own one, especially during the reign of Mary Tudor. A number of translations were undertaken, including the Coverdale Bible and the Bishops Bible.
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The Geneva Bible
1534 The Church of England separates from the Roman Catholic Church during the reign of King Henry VIII
1558 Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England, succeeding Queen Mary
The Geneva Bible The most successful 16th Century Bible was the Geneva Bible, translated in Geneva by escaped Protestant scholars during the reign of Queen Mary. By its publication in 1560, Elizabeth I was Queen and the Bible could be freely circulated. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of the English reformation. Widely used for private reading, it ran to 150 editions between 1560 and 1644 until replaced in people’s affections by the King James Version. It is sometimes called the ‘Breeches Bible’ because of the quaint wording of Genesis 3:7,
1585 William Shakespeare begins his career as an actor and writer
where Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to make themselves ‘breeches’. The 1607 edition of the Geneva Bible on display belonged to William Shakespeare, donated to the Bible Society in the 1960s. The initials WS appear against many verses, particularly about women. (The possibility has been raised that this may be a clever forgery by the 18th century handwriting forger, William Ireland. The evidence, however, strongly suggests that this Bible was given to William Lea by one of the last descendants of Shakespeare’s sister, Joan.)
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The King James Version
1604 King James I commissions a new translation of the English Bible, leading to the King James Version
1620 The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, with English Pilgrims, bound for America
The King James Version When James VI of Scotland became James I of England, he instigated an entirely new translation of the English Bible. It would forever bear his name. The Geneva Bible had become a vehicle for political comment with contentious notes in the margins. James wanted a new Bible, accurately translated from the original languages, clearly understood and without the marginal invective. King James set up the world’s greatest translation project, with 54 scholars in 4 teams reporting to an overall editorial
1685 The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born
committee. They cared about accuracy, about readability and about the English language. Between them they produced a remarkable book. Preserving the best of Tyndale, Coverdale and the Geneva translators, it went beyond them all, producing a text which would become revered for its beauty, dignity and charm. While never actually ‘Authorised’, its influence on the English Church, the English language and English-speaking culture everywhere is incalculable. It lies at the basis of freedom and democracy and has influenced the world for ever.
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Captain John Hunter’s Bible
1688 William Dampier, an English explorer, landed on the northwest coast of Australia
1770 James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales
1780 William Wilberforce began his political career, later heading the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade
Captain John Hunter’s Bible
HISTORIC AUSTRALIAN BIBLES
A small number of Bibles came to Australia with the first Europeans colonists and in increasing numbers with many of those who arrived here since. Whether in English or in other languages, the Bible has played a profound and lasting role in Australian society.
John Hunter’s Bible came to Australia with him on the First Convict Fleet in 1788. Born into a seafaring family, Hunter initially studied for the Christian ministry but the call of the sea proved too strong. He captained HMS Sirius, the naval convoy warship accompanying the first fleet. Hunter’s Bible was a typical 18th century family Bible, with commentary and illustrations. The leather cover was carved by E. Allen Kelly, believed to have been a convict. John Hunter’s name can be seen inscribed at the very bottom of the carving.
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Bibles for Convicts
1788 Captain Arthur Phillip led the First Fleet to Port Jackson, forming the British Colony of New South Wales
1804 The British & Foreign Bible Society formed, addressing the problem of a lack of affordable Bibles in Welsh
Bibles for Convicts The Bible Society, founded in London in 1804, sent Bibles to Tasmania in 1807 and NSW in 1808. But the shortage of Bibles in early Sydney worried Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. She was particularly concerned about people who could not read or speak English, convicts sentenced to ‘transportation beyond the seas’ from elsewhere in the British Empire. Helped by Rev William Cowper, Elizabeth set up a lending library. This eventually led to the founding
1851 The Victorian gold rush starts when gold is found at Summerhill Creek and Ballarat
of a the NSW Auxiliary of the Bible Society at a meeting chaired by Governor Macquarie in 1817. Two of the Bibles Elizabeth obtained are on display, an Assam Bible from India and a Welsh Bible, both inscribed in her own hand. Also displayed is a Russian Bible donated to the Library by Lachlan Macquarie who had taken a particular interest in the welfare of Russian sailors in the port of Sydney. An historically significant book, it had been given to Macquarie by the Czar of Russia.
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Chinese Scriptures in Australian History
The Bible at Federation
1858 Sydney and Melbourne linked by electric telegraph
1887 An Australian cricket team is established, defeating England in the first Ashes series
The Bible at Federation In 1901, this Bible was presented by the Bible Society to Lord Hopetoun, first Governor-General of the new Commonwealth of Australia, to mark the inauguration of our new nation. Lord Hopetoun returned to Scotland in 1902, taking his Bible with him to the small chapel on his estates. In time the chapel became a suburban Presbyterian church, where an Australian tourist came across Lord Hopetoun’s Bible. A group of Australians then arranged for its purchase and return to Australia. A national treasure, this Bible has been
1901 The Federation of Australia, when all the colonies collectively become states of the Commonwealth of Australia
used for the swearing in of many recent Governors-General.
Chinese Scriptures in Australian History The first large group of non-European Australian settlers were Chinese. Displayed here is a New Testament, printed in 1856 in Ningpo and brought to the Victorian Goldfields by a Chinese Christian. When the demand for Bibles was high, Chinese printers economically printed sections of the Bible on cheap paper, bound them separately with paper covers, sewed with string, and sold them in cases containing several
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The Bible in Times of War
1914 Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I, at battles along the Western Front including Gallipoli
1939 Australia entered World War II shortly after the invasion of Poland, declaring war on Germany
different volumes. One such set is on display, a Classical Chinese or High Wenli Bible printed in Shanghai in 1855.
The Bible in Times of War Displayed are Bibles which are linked Australians who have served in the Armed Forces. The large Dutch Bible was brought back to Australia with soldiers returning from the Boer War (1899-1902). It had been carried by an old Afrikaaner sergeant who was fatally injured, and entrusted to a young Australian sergeant who had collected the old man’s rifle as he lay dying, clinging to his Bible. As the Australian tried to make the dying man
1942 Australian forces played a key role in the Pacific War, making up the majority of Allied strength in the South West Pacific
comfortable, he surrendered his Bible with the plea that it not be destroyed. The worn old Dutch Bible was given to the Bible Society in 1911 for safe keeping and some time later rebound. Other Scriptures in the display are examples of those given freely by the Bible Society to all Australian Defence Force personnel who would like them. They have been taken everywhere Australian Forces have served. The small New Testaments from the First and Second World Wars were typically carried in a shirt pocket ‘over the heart’. Below them is a modern Camouflage Bible.
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Indigenous Australian Scriptures
1953 Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira awarded the Queen’s Coronation medal
1997 As a reconciliation gift, Christians in Newcastle printed Luke in Awabakal & English to present to the local Aboriginal people
Indigenous Australian Scriptures As a reconciliation gift in 1997, Christian churches in Newcastle printed Threkeld’s translation of Luke in Awabakal and English to present to the local Aboriginal people. This was the first Christian Scripture translated into an Indigenous Language, in 1831. In 1864, Aboriginal people living in the lower Murray River area of South Australia who spoke Ngarrindjeri were the recipients of the first printed Indigenous Language Scriptures. Scriptures were also published in Torres Strait languages in the late 1800s,
2007 The first complete edition of the Kriol language Bible was officially launched at Katherine in the Northern Territory
including this 1885 Gospel of Mark in Mer (Miriam Mir). These portions of the Bible in Wubuy (the language of the Nunggubuyu people of Eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory) were translated in the early 1940s, by Len Harris with two remarkable Aboriginal women, Bidigainj and Grace Yimambu. The Nunggubuyu people continued to work, often totally unaided, and slowly and painstakingly translated the Bible into their language, releasing the New Testament with some Old Testament portions in the Nunggubuyu lands late in 2010.
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THANK YOU FOR VISITING
For nearly 200 years, the Bible Society has existed to translate, publish, distribute and engage people with the Bible, in a language they understand, in a format they can use, and at a price they can afford. Some of the Bibles in this exhibition are priceless, but the Bible can also be found for free on websites and smart phones, or in churches around the country. To find out more visit us at www.biblesociety.com.au
This exhibition is mounted in collaboration with St Mark’s National Theological Centre Canberra, custodians of the Bible Society Rare Bible Collection. The assistance of St Mark’s staff is gratefully acknowledged.
Bible Society Australia tel (02) 9870-5641 fax (02) 9888-7820 www.biblesociety.com.au