Bible Question: I am just wondering who wrote the "King James Version" of the bible? Who wrote the Old and the New testament? Are the authors of the different books for example Genesis, Exodus, the first four Gospels are all different? |
Bible Answer: Dear Confused Catholic, In 1525 an earlier English translation of the Bible was made called the "Tyndale Bible." It was a good translation as it was translated directly from the original Greek and Hebrew into English. Some others had been translated from the original Greek and Hebrew into Latin and then into English. In the year 1611, King James of England ordered an updated version be translated from the Tyndale...but in such a way as to unify the Presbyterian (Scottish) version and the Episcopal (English) version. It is a good translation but now that the English (as it was then) is not used in the same way today, it is difficult for some readers today to understand it. The King James Bible is just our translation of what God gave to many men in the past as I see others in this forum have explained to you. God inspired the Bible to many individuals through the years and actually the Bible is made up of 66 books. The Roman Catholic version has a few more added to these 66, which are a few more books known collectively as the "apocrypha." All of these extra books are from the Old Testament. Somewhere in the year 300-, the Emperor Constantine called a church council and all the Bishops at the time came together and decided on the Canon for all Christians to decide which would be the books of our Bible today. This incorporated all of the Books of the Old Testament (which Jesus would have been familiar with) plus which New Testament writings should be incorporated in the Canon. It resulted in the Bible we have today. You know the Apostles did not have the Gospels we have today. They had not yet been written. Two of the Apostles (Matthew and John) wrote Gospels and two others (Mark and Luke) wrote the other two. Luke also wrote the Book of Acts and Paul, Peter, John, Jude, and others wrote the epistles, which were letters to the Churches. To get a good handle on the development of the church and the Bible, I suggest a book called "The Bible in Plain Language," by B.Shelley for a fair rendition of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, which is clear and easy to understand and also "Halley's Bible Handbook" by Henry H. Halley, which explains each book of the Bible (whatever version you may use) and has archaeological and historical information even concerning modern versions of the Bible and which are good translations etc. I hope this is helpful to you Sincerely, Itiswritten |