Posts Tagged King James Bible
My new book on the Ten Commandments
Posted by simon peter sutherland in Christianity, The Bible, Theology on May 10, 2025
For many years I have been writing a number of books and wanting to release them. Books can take a long time to put together and they won’t write or publish themselves, so I have decided it is now time to put them out there.
As a Christian I have very deep convictions about holy living and obedience to Scripture and I am constantly writing about them. Some of these writings are reflections and others are yet to be published. One of these books includes my present discourse on the Ten Commandments and their relationship to the Christian life. This work began many years ago and I have rewritten and revised it many times. When I first wrote it, the book began as a somewhat puritanical discourse and over time, I have improved the book while remaining true to the original concept.
In “From Obedience To Freedom” I have used the King James Version and I argue there is a place of freedom in obeying the Ten Commandments in simplicity and in faith.
In our world we are caught up in society and day to day life, in doing the law of man. Our culture is constantly trying to remove us further and further away from Christ and closer to the world. Sin is forever trying to cause the Christian to obey it. But no Christian is obliged to obey the laws of sin and for this reason the Ten Commandments are very helpful in bringing us closer to God. I argue there is much more to the Ten Commandments than mere rules and regulations, there is a place of inner freedom where the human soul can find liberty in law and within ourselves.
In Christ and His commandments we can be free from this world and that freedom can be found in obedience to our Lord. This is what my book is essentially about and I have now released it through Amazon and I hope my readers find it helpful.
The 500th Anniversary of the Tyndale New Testament
Posted by simon peter sutherland in Church of England, The Bible on March 10, 2025
2025 marks the 500th Anniversary of the very first Tyndale New Testament to have ever been published.
In 1524 William Tyndale had been self exiled from England where he headed for Germany and began translating his New Testament into English. It was there where Peter Quentell published his groundbreaking and monumental New Testament.
For those who may not know, William Tyndale (c 1494-1536) was an English priest and scholar and the very first person to translate the New Testament into English from the original Greek. Tyndale was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and became a chaplain in Little Sudbury. There he ran into conflict with a Roman Catholic priest and Tyndale left for London and eventually for Europe and Cologne. His aim of translating the New Testament into English was fulfilled in 1525 and 1526, and his greatest revision was accomplished in 1534. In 1536 he was executed for his faith in Vilvoorde. But his work did not end there. His translation became the bedrock of all English Bibles from the 16th century and even to the present day.
The Tyndale New Testament would impact, influence and formulate the English language more than any works of English literature apart from Shakespeare.
It is still quoted even today, and for many Christians around the world his work can be appreciated through his undeniable influence in the pages of the King James Bible. A staggering 93 per cent of the New Testament (in the KJV) is the work of Tyndale. The Old Testament is about 85 per cent.
Melvyn Bragg writes, “Shakespeare quotes from the Bible about 1,350 times. These quotations are from the Bibles he heard and read – the Great Bible, the Matthew Bible and probably the Geneva Bible – all of which were Tyndale in disguise.” (William Tyndale A very brief history. Melvyn Bragg. P. 89).
In 2017 I had the pleasure of meeting Melvyn Bragg and as he handed me a copy of his biography on William Tyndale I thanked him for his documentary on “The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England”. This was an excellent film and the BBC would do well to broadcast it again this year for the anniversary.
Likewise churches up and down the country would do well to remember Tyndale this year and start using either his New Testament or the King James Version once again.
I am not a King James onlyist but I believe the Church of England made a big mistake when it removed the King James Version from all services. It makes no sense to me that such a great and monumental translation should be abandoned and replaced with the extremely inferior NIV translation. I believe the King James Version should be regularly used, even if for special occasions or seasons. And where has the abandonment of old English translations got the Church? It has fallen into disrepair and apostasy and utter chaos, and her identity is lost. No wonder, it is because they removed the great translation.
But let us ask, what version has translated Genesis 1: 1 better than Tyndale? Read for yourselves his opening lines,
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The world was void and empty; and darkness was upon the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the water.”
And who can forget the beauty of the Lords Prayer.
Simon Peter Sutherland
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Simon Peter Sutherland 