king james returns, new and improved

Partner and I laughed the other day when we heard some reference on television to the New King James Version of the Bible.

New Shakespeare, anybody?

The older I get, and here I sound like dear cradle Episcopalians who talk about the 1928 Prayer Book in reverent tones, the more I fondly I think of the KJV.

It's the Bible that is in my head. I grew up Southern Baptist in Waco. We memorized the Bible. We carried it to church for every service. I was quite good at the Sunday School game of Sword Drill where a scripture verse number is given and the first person who finds it in the Bible steps forward and wins.

Partner, who grew up in a wonderful Methodist household, knows the RSV. KJV is unreadable to him, and if I had not had the experiences I had, it probably would be to me, too.

Yet, when I think about scriptures, I almost always think of them in the language of the KJV. Toiling lilies. Suffering children. Naked, hungry and in prison.

One of the benefits of singing in English cathedrals is to hear CoE priests read the language we play down in our Rite II liturgies. They make it sing.

Governor Richards used to tell the apocryphal story of Ma Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas, who said during a debate over whether foreign languages should be taught in Texas:

If English is good enough for Jesus Christ, it is good enough for the schoolchildren of Texas.