King James Bible 400th Anniversary

King James came into power over a sea of turmoil. He was the protestant son of Mary, Queen of Scots who had been seen as a dangerous enemy due to her strong catholic faith. The people were scared, anxious and unknowing what this new King would bring to their country. Would he keep it Protestant or Catholic? Across the sea in England Queen Elizabeth, the second cousin to Mary, contemplated along side her people this fearful situation. When Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, died childless it was King James who would become King over England. What would happen to her protestant kingdom she had worked so hard to preserve?

King James was aware of this storm when he became King; the waves of rebellion were ready to crash down upon him if he did not govern his people well, or threatened the Protestant Church.  So King James decided to do something that would most definitely appease his restless people and assure them of his Protestantism. He had the Bible translated into English, and he called it: The King James Bible. Luther had done this same thing not too long ago during the first reformation. This was against Catholic ways, as the Bible was only to be read in Latin; in this way only clergy could read and decipher it. So the act of translating a Bible and creating a new one was highly Protestant.

The King James Bible was a success, who wouldn’t want a readable copy of the Bible when you live in a strongly Christian nation? It is also rumored that King James might have had Shakespeare help with the word arrangement and English language for he was very gifted with English but also he had done the King a great favor. He had written Macbeth, and anyone who has read it can read between the lines and see the parallel between the King in Shakespeare’s play and King James.

This year celebrates the 400^th anniversary of the publishing of the King James Bible, and to celebrate Dr. Scott Carroll combined his biblical antiquity tour with the anniversary of the King James Bible. He worked together with the Bible Society of Nigeria, the Bible Society of Sierra Leone and Liberia West Africa Theological Seminary. It just so happened that this amazing tour was going to be in free Town for a short period of time, and they kindly offered to come to the ship and display their collection.