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Tag: Bible
Pen to Paper: The KJV Endureth
Today is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible.
The KJV was created during the Elizabethan era (if, as some scholars do, you stretch the definition a bit), perhaps the greatest moment the English language has known. William Shakespeare was wrapping up his contributions to English and would live only four more years after the KJV was unveiled. (Some people – numerologists and their prey, primarily – believe that Shakespeare wrote or helped to write the KJV and slipped his name into one of the Psalms. History gives no credence to these assertions.)
Quotable 35
Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. The Bible opens with a sentence well within the writing skills of a lively fourteen-year-old: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
Fiction: The Fatted Calf
Long, long ago, a rabbi told a story about a selfish young man who demanded his share of his father’s wealth and spent it in riotous living. When the money was spent and hard times came, the young man went home to beg his father for a place as a hired hand. The father was overjoyed that his son had returned and had a feast prepared in the youth’s honor.
But the rabbi did not tell the whole story, for reasons that will become clear…