Of Bishops, Churches, and the King James Bible

Looks like it's worse than I thought.

Of late I have been reading about the formation of the King James Bible in a book called 'God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible' by Adam Nicolson. I found this listed on the Georgia PINES network library system and had to wait several weeks for them to get it into our local library so I could read it. To be honest I am not 100% certain just what to make of the author. He does not seem to have a high view of scripture, although he does seems to have a very warm and positive view of the Bible's place in history and particularly of the King James Bible's place in English history – a bit perhaps like one who has a very warm and appreciative view of his grandfather, while not necessarily believing that his grandfather's beliefs and decisions are binding on his own life today. He does seem to deal very even-handed with the Puritans, and the Anglicans who persecuted them, alternatively showing the failings and virtues of each in turn without any strong sense that either was right. Certainly Nicolson approaches the subject from a secular perspective. 'Caveat Emptor'.

Notwithstanding the previous notes, two things are very clear. One is that James and the entire Jacobean power structure – including the 'Church' of England that James was the 'head' of– was more corrupt and debauched than I had imagined. The other is that the situation concerning the terms 'bishop' and 'church' used in the King James Bible is actually worse than I had supposed.

Previously I have written about the fact the terms 'bishop' and 'church' were very poor choices to translate the Greek 'episkopos' and 'ekklesia', and that no end of mischief has been done by the enemy from those minor and relatively subtle changes. In that posting I pointed out that, "We may live in an age where you can turn on the TV and see 'Bishop' Eddie Long, or 'Bishop' Clarence McClendon (neither of which do I recommend), but the plain, straightforward fact of the matter is that the King James Translators knew first-hand exactly what a real live bishop really was. You can try to fool yourself about the meaning and intent of the inclusion of this word in the King James Translation, but those translators lived in the days of real-life, funny hat wearin', unbiblical, persecuting-the-true-believers Bishops (some of the translators apparently went on to be bishops), and this was precisely what they knew by experience and had in mind and yet purposefully included in the King James Bible. You cannot get around that. They knew what a Bishop was, and that was how they chose to translate the word 'episkopos'."

Turns out that the leadership of the translation 'companies' as they were called actually were real live bishops. In fact, they included real live, persecuting the true church bishops. The very men put appointed by James as the chief men over the translation were debauched Anglican bishops who had themselves sought out, spied upon, arrested, persecuted, tortured, and murdered Puritans, Separatists, and Presbyterians to maintain their positions of power – and who publicly maintained that the blood-stained, half-catholic, ritualistic Anglican Church was in fact identical to the original apostolic body of Christ. Along with these bloody clerics James also appointed some 'moderate' Puritans who did not necessarily deny the propriety of the King of England to be the head of the Church of England or the unbiblical structure of the Anglican Church.

To ensure that the translation process did nothing that might disturb the existing – brutally enforced – power structure (like convey the truth of scripture) James commanded the translators that they were to rely primarily on the 'Bishops Bible' (poorly produced by the Anglican bishops during the reign of Elizabeth to oppose the more accurate Tyndale and Geneva Bibles) and that they were to retain the current 'ecclesiastical words' – which meant that they had to use 'bishop' for 'episkopos' instead of 'elder', and that they had to use 'church' for 'ekklesia' instead of 'assembly' or 'congregation'.

I maintain that 'assembly' and 'congregation', though superior to 'church', are still insufficient to translate 'ekklesia' and that the best route by far is to teach the word 'ekklesia' itself and drop all others. No word in English conveys the meaning of 'ekklesia'.

The continued use of the term 'bishop' among bible-believers is absolutely unconscionable. There is simply no excuse for it. Whatever translation you use, get out your pen and get that foolish word out of your Bible.

While you are at it, strike that 'pastors and teachers' at Ephesians 4:11 and replace it with 'shepherd-teachers'.