The Book of Books

The King James Bible is called the “Book of Books” for good reason. Since its publication in 1611, it has sold more than any other text. It has spread the Protestant faith across the globe. It has also been the greatest influence on the enrichment of the English language and its literature. It has been the Bible of wars from the British Civil War to the American Civil War. Its influence on social movements—particularly involving women in the 19th and 20th centuries—has been profound. It was crucial to the growth of democracy. It was integral to the abolition of slavery and it defined attitudes to modern science, education and sex.

In The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011, Melvyn Bragg tells the story of this seminal work and how it has impacted our world in such profound ways over the last four centuries.

Bragg begins with the Bible’s origins in medieval England. William Tysdale, a scholar and priest, made it his life’s work to translate the Bible—then available only in Latin—into English. While Tysdale’s efforts cost him his life (he was executed for heresy in 1536), eighty percent of what he translated made it into the version adopted in 1611.

Bragg charts the Bible’s spread throughout the world—namely to America. As James and his son and successor, Charles I, began persecuting the Calvinist group known as the Puritans, many of these nonconformists left England to start lives in the New World, and quickly adopted the King James Bible. It informed their names, their parables, provided fodder for their daily conversations and offered proof of their earthly destiny.

In England, the Bible’s widespread adoption coincided with the bloody Civil Wars that rocked the country in the middle of the 17th century. As the King’s Party and Presbyterians vied for power, they used the Bible to claim the religious high ground. In this, Bragg contends, “it was no longer chained to the lectern, it was out in the streets. It was a torch.”

Bragg goes on to chart the myriad ways in which the Bible—once out in the streets—changed the lives of millions. It brought the masses out of illiteracy and repression; fueled The Great Awakening, which laid the groundwork for religious life in America; fostered the thinking of such early modern scientists as Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and later Benjamin Franklin, who forged a new nexus between spirituality and nature; profoundly influenced English-speaking writers, from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot to Toni Morrison; and became the central instrument of Protestant missionaries around the world.

The Book of Books is an enriching testament to a living, breathing work. In Bragg’s words, “Its impact has been immeasurable and it is not over yet.”