There are probably still a lots of homes, maybe mostly those of elderly people, with a King James Version bible gathering dust somewhere. I have my grandfather's KJV which he delved into daily for devotional reading and preparation for Sundays as a Salvation Army. The King James Version was the English bible for generations, well into the 20th century, until the Revised Standard Version was developed in the 1940s and into the 1950s. A virtual tsunami of translations and paraphrases ensued.
Lots of people have erroneously referred to it as the Saint James Bible but British King James I was no saint. He did want a standardized English language bible with minimal references to tyrants so he commissioned six committees of scholars and theologians to get to work creating a version which was both readable and speak-able in places of worship. The result changed the English language and opened the way to literacy.
I've written about the KJV a number of times through the years but I just found out that a Canadian playwright, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman has written The King James Version Bible Play. Corbeil-Coleman grew up in a decidedly non-religious family but she was given her grandmother's KJV. Then a friend of her late mother gave her a copy of God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicholson and the notion for a play was sparked. Yes, I have noted this 2003 book along the way.
No one would go to a play about a 400-year-old version of Holy Scripture, would they? It turns out that they already have with a sold-out run at Stratford in August. Another run is underway in Ottawa at the moment. The National Arts Centre describes the two-acts this way:
A sacred story, a secular reckoning
A gripping and humorous portrait of the men behind the monumental translation of the King James Bible and a group of modern women creating a play about that process, this world première is a fascinating interrogation of translation in all its forms.
Gripping? Humorous? Well done, Charlotte. Here is a link to an interview on CBC Radio Q with Corbeil-Coleman.
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