Today in 1611, the The King James, or Authorised, Version of the Bible was published.

Charles McGrath in the New York Times: “Not everyone prefers a God who talks like a pal or a guidance counselor. Even some of us who are nonbelievers want a God who speaketh like — well, God. The great achievement of the King James translators is to have arrived at a language that is both ordinary and heightened, that rings in the ear and lingers in the mind. And that all 54 of them were able to agree on every phrase, every comma, without sounding as gassy and evasive as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, is little short of amazing, in itself proof of something like divine inspiration.”

From the Lost and Found Files: Last month, a first edition King James Bible has been discovered hidden away and forgotten in a church in Cambridge, England”

“Phil Gorman, the pastoral assistant for Great St Mary’s, rediscovered the ancient book. To celebrate the King James Bible’s original publication in 1611, church staff decided to organise a public reading of the whole book… As a result Mr Gorman needed to find a King James edition, and rummaged through an old chest towards the back of the church. ‘I came across a very large package covered in acid-proof paper,’ Mr Gorman explained. ‘As I lifted it out and opened the wrappers the first thing that caught my eye was Barker 1611 on the spine. I opened it and it was a first edition King James.'”