Launcelot Andrews (1555-1626)
The Hemyock History and Archiving Association members welcomed the May ‘Speaker of the Month’, Mr James Bradnock.Given its original purpose, the Church Rooms seemed an ever more fitting place for the topic of Mr Bradnock’s talk – The King James Bible.
The informal gathering was entertained with an excellent presentation on how and why the King James Version came in to being. Often, comparisons were made to earlier fore-runners.
The history [of the work] developed alongside the increasing enthusiasm for the Bible to be accessible to the wider population – and in spite of shock and horror from some quarters, this included women too!
The process was very much steered by the ‘King’s Men’, most notable of which was the Dean of Westminster, Lancelot Andrews – fluent speaker of 15 languages.
During this extremely well researched and presented talk, the group learnt the origin of the phrase ‘to drop off to sleep’ and that an estimated 257 similar sayings, now in modern use, can be found in the King James Bible.
Popular local historian, Chris Dracott, quietly informed a few of the gathering that occasionally, there were misprints in some versions – and that he has a copy without the word ‘not’ in the commandment instructing on adultery!
A collection raised
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