Verily, Verily

My Amazon review of Verily, Verily by Jon Sweeney:

For many Christians and non-Christians alike, the King James Version of the Bible--also known as the Authorized Version for reasons you'll find outlined in good detail--is a work of art, a work of immense social and cultural influence and, not least, a work of beauty.
So says author Jon Sweeney in Verily, Verily and I believe he does a convincing job of it. In fact, so convinced was I that it was only after a few chapters that I ventured out to my local used bookstore to find a copy. This was a step I'd never taken before because, like many, I didn't grow up reading that particular translation, preferring instead the modern--more understandable--ones like the New International Version among others. Like Sweeney, I now this is a mistake and, also like Sweeney, I urge others so inclined to get one and see again (or maybe for the first time) what an astounding piece of work was the KJV.
After opening with a sad tale of this translation's neglect, the reader gets introduced to what I've come to understand is the unseen hand of the KJV influencing everyday language ("in the twinkling of an eye" comes from 1 Corinthians 15:52; "seek and ye shall find" Matthew 7:7) and, in its role as a religious book of course, we see it influencing the law, politics, science, and philosophy.
So why isn't the KJV read more these days? Sweeney believes that it is because slowness is required, just as in the reading of poetry, yet another discarded staple of yesteryear. "Our time and attention is splintered in ways that Benjamin Franklin never could have imagined possible. As a result, few of us practice the discipline of reading slowly, and the KJV demands the slowest, most careful reading of any translation."
After a chapter detailing the history of the process by which the KJV became both the King James Version and the Authorized Version, in itself a resoundingly fascinating tale of Kings James and Henry, and the English Civil war, the reader begins to understand the travails a lot of devout people went through to bring this translation of the Bible to us. If Henry VIII hadn't wanted out of the Catholic church, it isn't a lie to say that the Latin Vulgate Bible, which only the most educated (among which were priests) would have been able to read much less understand, would have been the only Bible for millennia.
In essence, and ironically since it was authorized by a King, the KJV is the symptom of a democratization of religion, bringing God to the common people as it were. Sweeney continues on to show how the KJV affected the work of literary luminaries such as Charles Dickens and Emily Dickinson, but also people like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. and even "African-American" spirituals.
It was right around here that I began to sense a slightly defeatist tone to Sweeney: he starts alluding to the Bible's generally "difficult past" with respect to its seeming condolence of slavery and "the contradictions of the Bible on matters of justice" which "have been evident ..." While he does make some attempts at explaining and justifying certain parts of the Bible, I felt he could have done a bit more scholarship. Paul Copan's new book, Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God is the type of work that tackles and resolves a lot of what Jon Sweeney was to ready to throw up his hands on. I suggest those interested pick that up.
Such illustrious atheists as Christopher Hitchens will readily admit that the King James Version is a masterpiece of English literature (irrespective of its content, of course, in Hitchens' case) and more care should be allotted to its study. Sweeney responds in chapters seven and eight by quoting and explaning at length different verses from the KJV. He recounts that one of the aims of the translation committee was to translate in such a way as to provide an easy oratory: the King James Version was meant to be read aloud and these verses show that up to good effect.
If you enjoy history, language, or British history for that matter, or are a curious and studious Christian, "Verily, Verily" will draw you in and thoroughly entertain. I recommend this despite some misgivings about strictly, overly pedantic theological matters. Let's not let this wonderful book die out; after all, it has provided four centuries of tutelage and wonder to humanity.

Hope you get it, it’s a great read.