The King James Bible: The Book That Changed the World

Photo: Melvyn Bragg

"The King James Bible came out when the British were already trading with the world and began to accelerate that characteristic. Not only traders but religious groups seeking freedom of worship took the Bible with them. Wherever they travelled and they travelled the globe. The Bible followed and often led the British encirclement of the globe.

So the Bible became the book of the British Empire and the British Empire was succeeded by an American Empire speaking English. Von Bismark said the defining feature of modern history was that the Americans spoke English. It was an English which largely stemmed from the Bible. In both cases, British and American, the King James Bible version swept round the globe in school assemblies, far flung churches, remotely stationed battalions... it was the Book of the community of English speaking peoples.

New words - we use them still: "scapegoat", "let there be light", "the powers that be", "my brother's keeper", "filthy lucre", "fight the good fight", "sick unto death", "flowing with milk and honey", "the apple of his eye", "a man after his own heart", "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak", "signs of the times", "ye of little faith", "eat drink and be merry", "broken hearted", "clear eyed". And hundreds more: "fishermen", "landlady", "sea-shore", "stumbling block", "taskmaster", "two-edged", "viper", "zealous" and even "Jehovah" and "Passover" come into English through Tyndale. "Beautiful", a word which has meant only human beauty, was greatly widened by Tyndale, as were many others..."