Literary prose of the King James Bible

The KJV was penned at the pinnacle of English writing style, and it served as a common fount of influence for classic authors for over three hundred years. For this and other reasons we'll explore , the KJV stands alone as being uniquely suited to serve as our "prime spine" in classic literary curriculum. The way children encounter information today is changing. As image-based information becomes more prevalent, our cultural mastery of language is eroding. In response, modern schools move toward materials and methods that are more image-based, and less language-based, than those used in the past.

But the great teachers of the past knew something so simple it's profound: wrestling with rich language develops a strong, agile mind. Their master tool was a literary curriculum, which is inherently language-based. Studies now confirm what they knew by instinct: whereas images are largely passively received and require minimal exercise of the brain, grappling with languag requires the mind to work, flex, expand, and make connections.

However, the watered-down English that modern children typically encounter is by no means a worthy wrestling partner.

On our way toward understanding why the KFV is a primary foundation for modern readers of great literature, we must first note that the master tool of a literary education, the English language, has become peculiarly fluid in our day. English has always been remarkable among languages for its flexibility - its capacity to evolve over centuries according to need. However, this new millennium finds the language in rapid flux. Technology, the mass media and other influences force newly-morphed words upon the language at warp-speed, while various fields and interests, ever multiplying, continuously spawn their own specialized vocabularies.

At the same time, as our hurried postmodern ears grow more itchy for sound-bites than for rich, exact language, we've gradually lost thousands of precise and useful words from common use. Dictionaries require revision with increasing frequency, as publishers find that trying to define what has perhaps become undefinable - "standard" English - is rather like trying to paint the definitive portrait of a chameleon.

Which brings us back to the matter at hand...In sharp contrast to the slippery state of language in our day, the King James Bible was translated during the singular window of time when the English language was at its zenith in terms of stability, as well as eloquence. Scholars and writers of that era possessed deft command of the nuances of grammar and syntax, because their educations were rooted firmly in the study of the static ancient languages of Latin and Greek. This served to standardize and inform elements of style and usage in their writings, to broaden and elevate content, and to produce a rich, colorful tapestry of vocabulary in their works. Their prose and poetry is agile, expansive, exacting, lyrical, bracing. English in the days of King James and Shakespeare was high art, in both product and form.

And so it happened that the King James Bible was translated by scholars of a uniquely verbal, word-dependent age. We can scarcely imagine such an age nowadays, utterly devoid as it was of our modern dependence on image-based informations. Absent our unbiquitous glut of flickering screens, visual media and instantly available music, we sense that mere words in that day more truly tickled the eye and ear. A fresh page of written words commanded eager, vigorous attention, being the sole cultural transport of news and ideas aside from word-of-mouth. Vocabulary was a craft; more lithe, richer in breadth and depth, more colorful. Sentence construction was an art form in itself!

This richly verbal culture sparkled fro a moment on the timeline of civilization, and flung forth a galaxy of literary minds the caliber of which the world will not likely produce again. The crumbs that fell from their tables have sustained every subsequent generation of authors.

So why is this important to you and me, all these centuries later?

The King James Bible is uniquely foundational to Western literature. Take a quick glance through those lists of "Great Books" we all stew over when planning school terms, and mentally highlight the titles written between roughly 1611 and 1930 (which will be the vast majority!) Can you think of one thing most of those books have in common? It's this: most of their authors were intimately familiar with the King James Bible. The result? Its influence is inextricably woven into their works, informing their phrasings, illuminating their expression, and burying treasure chests of meaning beneath the surface of their words.

Those great minds of that halcyon era are the backbone, breath and muscle of the books employed in advanced literary curriculums such as Ambleside Online and House of Education Online. These are the minds daily appealing to your child's mind, whose great thoughts and ideas your child is continuously narrating and absorbing. And the majority of those authors share the KJV as a common fount of though, tone, ideas, construction, phrasings, and references. Therefore, as your children become more familiar with the KFV, they will also become increasingly more as ease with an expansive body of great literary works. It's like having the map to buried treasure.

Classic books are steadily moving beyond the grasp of modern readers. A widening language chasm cruelly threatens to separate us from our own cultural treasures. By choosing the KJV, we bridge that chasm, and in crossing over find ourselves strolling amidst wise and benevolent giants.

And yet, despite the sure benefits, perhaps you still fear the KJV will be unapproachable for you and your children. After all, we've been barraged by publishing marketers with the notion that the KJV is just too hard for us (despite the fact that it was originally purposed as a Bible for the common man?)

Do you note the curious double standard afoot here? It seems we do not hesitate to set our children upon a daunting course of Latin to expand their vocabulary and grasp of great literature; we enthusiastically endorse a steady course of 'real' Shakespeare; we hand our children old, weighty volumes such as Bulfinch's Mythology and Plutarch's Lives because they are bedrock foundations of Western literature. Why, then, do we look upon the King James Bible, which offers similar language experience as well as unexcelled, broadening literary enrichment, with fear and hesitancy?

No need to keep you distance: the KJV is a truly accessible work. After all, it was the Bible of common folk for over three hundred years, read by peasant and scholar alike. And its effect was powerful - the church in that period flourished. Here we have the most universally beloved and captivating book in Western history, and we should be reassured to note that if all those legions of readers could handle it, surely we may expect to as well.

Charlotte Mason also preferred the use of the King James for teaching, and encourages us that children can indeed adapt to its style: "It is a mistake to use paraphrases of the text; the fine roll of Bible English appeals to children with a compelling music, and they will probably retain through life their first conception of Bible scenes, and also, the very words in which these scenes are portrayed." (Mason, Vol. 1 p. 249)

Every little effort you make will strengthen your children toward a comfortable familiarity with King James English. It may not happen overnight, but be encouraged that the human mind is

adaptable and can rise to most challenges. You'll soon find great pleasure in that "fine roll of Bible English," and find the KJV a familiar friend who unlocks many once-mysterious literary passageways for you. Your children will begin making those delightful "Aha!" connections with KJV allusions in their books (indeed, everywhere!)...buried treasure which otherwise would have passed by unclaimed.~~Lynn Bruce

So...Why the KJV? "Because when you walk among giants, it's good to keep up."