The impact of one book

The significance of May 2nd, 2011

Three days ago Britain marked what most believe to have been the publication date of one of the most important volumes in the English Language.

On May 2nd, 1611, the ‘Authorised’ or King James Bible rolled off the press and was circulated to every church in the United Kingdom. Not only did it become the ‘official’ Bible of Great Britain, but it was taken even further:

> by early colonisers to North America and Canada
> by traders to India and Africa
> by mission societies to Asia
> by emigrants to Australasia.

It encouraged the spread of the English language around the world, because non English speakers needed to get to grips with the Bible of the traders, colonisers, emigrants and mission societies. Thus the KJB is in part responsible for the fact that the dominant international language of the physical and electronic world today is English.

In Britain it became familiar to everyone in the land:

• through their schooling
• through their weekly religious attendance
• and ultimately through what they read.

From the era of the Metaphysical poets in the seventeenth century to that of D.H. Lawrence in the twentieth, the King James Bible has been imbibed by authors, poets and dramatists. It has shaped their thought and language, to then be shared with their readers.

More important than Shakespeare

There were other translations before it, on which the KJB drew, and there have been many since, which echo its poetry in more modern idioms. But for sheer literary dominance, the KJB cannot be touched.

According to Melvyn Bragg, the KJB has been more influential on English society than Shakespeare. Whilst culturally Shakespeare has often been the preserve of the educated, the KJB was a text for everyone, found in almost every home, sometimes as the only book people owned. And because it was a book of faith, its messages were repeated and learnt, day by day, then re-enforced by weekly readings and sermons in church and chapel. Authors knew that their readers would pick up every reference.

Today many of us do not recognise the impact of the KJB on literature, because we are not familiar with the original. That’s why Crossref-it.info materials explain every Bible reference encountered. They show users where each allusion comes from and thus how authors have created a subtext to their work.

Text / subtext / inter-textuality – these are all terms a student of English needs to get the most from what they are reading. Crossref-it.info is here to help.