10 May 2008

#22

Last night sometime after 10 but before 10:46pm (the time I retired for the evening) I finished book #22: God's Secretaries: The Making of The King James Bible by Adam Nicolson.  I purchased the book several years ago when Building 19 was in Cumberland for the grand price of $3.98 - yeah, I miss the store being in the next town over, big time!

I can not tell you why I purchased the book when I did, at the time I did not place a premium on the KJV, did not have the idea of the possibility of language and only had the embryonic ideas of being an anglophile.  But I bought it nonetheless, for $3.98 who wouldn't?  

The book: a slow read at first - took awhile for the story to develop.  I doubt it would have read as slow as it did if I had brushed up on Jacobean or Tudor history before reading it.  Also, if I did not have to pause many atime to look up a word in the dictionary.  Furthermore, the author chose to quote large portions in 17th century English which took some time to understand.

--Bill Clinton just called, apparently someone signed us up for the West Virginians for Hillary campaign, I have my suspects--

The book gave me a deeper appreciation for the creative possibility of the written word, primarily the possibility of the written word heard.  The book also reenforced some of my anti-religious heirarchical sentiments, to read of the tortures, executions, and rooting out of Nonconformist was most displeasing.   Nevertheless I will go on reading the KJV and, thanks to this book, the Geneva Bible as well. 

As the book drew to a close I kept thinking of the tremendous irony of the KJV.  In the bible belt you can easily find churches that proudly proclaim to be KJV Only churches.  I find it ironic that a bible produced by the Anglican Church, the same church that would have hunted down the KJV only folk - if they had been around, you get the point.

While reading yesterday I decided to have a KJV inspired snack.  Scones (Scottish, for King James), Tea (English of course) and Damson Jam (Damson plums were the delight of Jacobean England).

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