Thread by @AuthorConnorP

Here it is, as promised:

How King James Learned to Stop Worrying and Kept the Church Away From His Bisexual Lifestyle.
(And other historical notes behind the KJV of the Bible)

This is going to be a long thread. Mute as needed.

Before I begin, the reason I chose to do this stems from the more vitriolic, Westboro-esque Christian groups. They have been really loud in my community lately, and the KJV of the Bible is their hallowed, go-to translation.

I might use jargon. Please feel free to ask questions.

These groups believe in something called 'double inspiration'. It takes the Protestant concept of divine inspiration (i.e.: the Bible in its original form was handed down through the Holy Spirit's inspiration) and limits it to ONE translation: the 1611 King James Version.

Here's the first place where their belief system gets a hit.

The current KJV Bible is not the 1611 version. It's undergone revisions since its inception and our current version comes from the year 1769. It's easy to see why:

This is THE NEWE TEFTAMENT front page for the 1611.

The 1611 also contained the books of the Apocrypha. Protestant Christianity currently rejects the Apocrypha as being extraneous and lacking in Divine Inspiration. The Westboro types are especially critical of it, as the Catholic Church accepts the Apocrypha as part of its canon.

Benjamin Blayney removed the Apocrypha for the 1769 version and did extensive editing of the text, but the heart of the KJV Bible is still heavily influenced by the Catholic church.

(Keep in mind: Catholics, according to the Westboro types, are burning in hell with us heathens.)

You see, the KJV is a compilation of a variety of texts. The Masoretic Text, for the Old Testament, and the Textus Receptus (compiled by Erasmus in the 1500s) for the New Testament. The other underlying text is something called the Latin Vulgate.

The Vulgate is the oldest, non-rabbinical contribution. It was written by Jerome in 382, commissioned by Pope Damasus I and used by the Catholic Church for a long time.

But even the Textus Receptus is just an updated Latin version, polished by Erasmus for the Catholic Church.

There's nothing wrong with that, btw!

Translations of the Bible have depended, through the years, on what papyri and collected scholarly works are at our disposal, and that's simply what they had in 1611.

But a group of people bigoted against Catholics lean on their work.

So, this is the scholarly end of things.

And what the Church of England had in 1604 when they approached King James about creating an official, English translation of the Bible. Others had existed, but the Church took exception with the translators, for ideological reasons.

James himself wanted a Bible that more heavily emphasized the clergy, because keep in mind, the Church of England itself is a compromise between Rome and Luther, birthed during the Reformation.

But that's a thread for another day.

Back to James.

James was also a bit of a hypocrite.

Like a lot of Republican politicians these days, he had a vehemently anti-sodomy stance on the outside, listing it as a "horrible crime(s) which ye are bound in conscience never to forgive."

Two centuries later, however, Jeremy Bentham calls him on his hypocrisy:

"[James]... if he be the author of that first article of the works which bear his name... reckons this practise among the few offences which no Sovereign ever ought to pardon..." (cont)

"This must... seem rather extraordinary to those who have a notion that a pardon in this case is what he himself, had he been a subject, might have stood in need of."

This is because James himself was bisexual.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_…

He married Anne of Denmark and fathered children with her, but had a list of favorite male courtiers who influenced his political opinions throughout his tenure as king.

This included Robert Carr and George Villiers.

According to Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, James fell in love Robert Carr after a jousting accident and later made Carr a gentleman of the bedchamber. He was later named Earl of Somerset as a wedding present when he married Frances Howard, but that's another sordid story.

As for James, though, he later felt Carr had been "creeping back and withdrawing yourself from lying in my chamber, notwithstanding my many hundred times earnest soliciting you to the contrary"

Carr later blackmailed the King, threatening to reveal that they had slept together.

George Villiers came around this time, first being made a knight and then later, the 1st Duke of Buckingham. James was so enraptured by him, that he compared his love for George to the love Jesus had for John the Apostle.

George got along with Anne, and when James died, he was at the king's bed side.

James once wrote to him, "I desire only to live in this world for your sake... I had rather live banished in any part of the Earth with you than live a sorrowful widow's life without you."

It's often speculated that one of the reasons James spearheaded the King James Version was to direct attention away from his private affairs. And it's unknown if he ever repented of his apparent, hypocritical stance against the relationships he himself entertained.

But the very long story short:
There is nothing wrong with favoring a Biblical translation... unless you use it to hate.

And when that happens, beware the skeletons in your own closet.

[/end thread]