As the King James Version of the Bible celebrates 400 years, scholars hope for a renaissance

PROVO — Coolio rapped with it, Milton wrote about it and Bosch painted from it. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., relied on its calls for charity and civility, and the first time men saw the earth from space they quoted from its opening lines.

For 400 years, the King James Version of the Bible has inspired and instructed painters and poets, peasants and presidents with its vivid descriptions of plagues and miracles and elegant resuscitations of Christian beliefs.

Along the way, hundreds of additional translations have aimed to shed light on the early Christian record, yet none has left a legacy like the KJV.

Yet despite its pivotal role in language, literature and religious culture, the thick book is often forgotten about or relegated to a dusty library shelf.

But not this year.

As the KJV celebrates its 400th anniversary in 2011, groups nationwide plan to celebrate the top-selling book of all time and the literary centerpiece of the Christian world.

"Everyone seems to have woken up," said Tim Brearley, director of the King James Bible Trust. "This is an amazing thing we've got to celebrate."

Impact

"I can't imagine the world without the KJV or the language of it," said Jan James, an LDS doctoral student at the University of York whose dissertation focuses on the history of the English Bible. "So many of our common phrases have come from there and our language would not be the same."

The familiar phrases, "my brother's keeper," and "the kiss of death," have their origins in the King James Bible. So too do, "An eye for an eye," "the powers that be," and "signs of the times."

Despite the old Jacobean English, scholars say the King James text carries timeless power, especially read aloud.

"The King James is poetry," said Brearley, director of the King James Bible Trust, a group established in England to commemorate the 400th anniversary through conferences, performances, celebrations and publications. "You find that as soon as you start saying it out loud, it helps you. The words start to carry you along and it's got that resonance to it."