King James Bible Translators

Ms. Opfell gives a very lucid description of the problem of who wrote the King James Bible. She sides on the idea that the Bible was a collaboration of some fifty men and interprets the evidence in light of that conclusion. Ignoring that issue for a moment, Ms. Opfell gives lucid insights into how the KJV was markedly superior to the previous English versions. Especially usefull are her comparisons of three or more lines of from preceding Bibles that illustrate the advances in poetry and language. However, she is not one-sided in this evaluation, and gives much credit to Coverdale, and his creation of such memorable lines as 'valley of the shadow of death,' which were retained in the King James Bible.Nevertheless, the problem of whether the KJ was written by a group (seems impossible) or by an unknown literary genius remains."Perhaps the greatest of literary mysteries lies in the unanswered question of how fifty-four translators managed to infuse their work with a unity of effect which seems the result of one inspired imagination. The mystery will never be solved; but the perfect choice throughout of current English words, the rhythmic fall of phrase and clause, the unfailing escape from the heavy and sometimes pompous renderings of the older translations, remain." Mary Ellen Chase, The Bible and the Common Reader Neither have the similarities between the KJV and Shakespeare gone unnoticed:"How did this come to be? How to explain that sixty or more men, none a genius, none even as great a writer as Marlowe or Ben Jonson, together produced writing to be compared with (and confused with) the words of Shakespeare?" Gustavus S. Paine, The Learned MenThe answer to the mystery is this. Shakespeare did write the King James Version of the Bible, but he was not the man from Stratford-upon-Avon.For many years there has been a growing faction that are convinced that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is Shakespeare. However, what precludes any contribution of Oxford to the KJV is the supposed fact that Oxford died in 1604, the year the KJV project was begun by King James. However, Oxford did not die in 1604, there is evidence that he did, including an entry in a church register, but what is totally absent is any notice of the aristocracy of his death. Given that he was in good terms with King James this is strange indeed. Neither were there any eulogies or other literary notice of his death. My hypothesis is that Oxford did not die, he disappeared and wrote the KJV, The Tempest and Shake-speares Sonets between 1604 and 1609, when he eventually died.Paul StreitzAuthor: Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I