Words To Original Lords Prayer

King James Bible anniversary celebrated at Lambeth Palace exhibition

The Great Hall of the Archbishop of Canterbury's home may seem an apt venue as it is also a place known to those who were involved in translating what we also call the Authorised Version of the Bible.

The translation originated with a conference in 1604 upstream at Hampton Court. The chairman of the Westminster group responsible for the first twelve books of the Bible was Bishop Lancelot Andrewes who a year later preached at downstream Southwark Cathedral . He spent the last eight years of his life living in Clink Street and is now buried in the cathedral.

The exhibition also looks at earlier translations including William Tyndale's which was printed in Borough High Street as recorded on the front of the London Bridge Post Office.

It had first appeared in Cologne as most translators in earlier years had to live in exile. There is mention of Tyndale's friend and collaborator John Rogers who was burnt at the stake for his involvement. He is depicted on the great screen near Lancelot Andrewes' tomb.

The climax of the exhibition is a display devoted to the New English Bible which was published in 1961 on the 350th anniversary of the King James Version. The translators may not have been forced abroad but at home they faced huge criticism.

The use of modern words such as 'pregnant' and 'homosexual' caused consternation. The Lord's Prayer was said to have beeen reduced to a shopping list. Again there is a Southwark involvement for one of the translators was suffragan bishop John Robinson.

Humanities weaves a beautiful tapestry humanity

In using fewer words we send the mind to explore giving way to imagination beyond mere reason. Brevity is the framework of the mind, the heart and spirit in the Lord’s Prayer and the Gettysburg Address of America’s most loved leader, Abraham Lincoln. It is also a path to humility in greatness, a union of the classical and the contemporary. In an anecdote, about Lincoln, perhaps Edward Everett talked a bit too long at Gettysburg, but he was an old man then, by the standards of his day – within a few months of his seventieth birthday. And this was the culminating glory of a long career. But Everett was among those who perfected the classic qualities of the Lincoln address. In a note to the President the following day he said: “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.” If the story of the Creation can be told in 400 words, if the Ten Commandments contain 297 words, if Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address was only 266 words, if an entire concept of freedom was set in the Declaration of Independence in about 1,300 words – it is up to some of us to use fewer words, and thus save the time energy, vitality, and nerves of those who must read or listen. (Jerome P Fleishman) Similarly, in an earlier era, our own hero Juan Luna painted Spolarium, (now at the National Museum), a mural depicting the Filipinos under Spanish rule suffering like the gladiators during the Roman times, a visual message for the people to realize their plight. Later Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, one of the greatest books ever written in the category of War and Peace by Tolstoy, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, brought forth a new world order – post-colonialism and the birth of new nations. It may be strange to know that Winston Churchill, the great English hero of WWII, still found time to paint by the bank of the Thames. The arts - painting as in the case of Churchill – bring tranquility in times of crisis, and elevate the senses on a higher vantage plane to plan, decide and act. Putting down his easel and brush, he would then face the gargantuan task on how to save Great Britain from the ravaging war led by Nazi Germany. And to a greater surprise, what was it that Churchill painted? Peace.

The Words of Jesus in the Original Aramaic

The Lord's Prayer, A Survey Theological and Literary

The Sermon on the Mount, The Message of the Kingdom

The Illustrated Guide to the Bible

Authenticating the words of Jesus