Brooks Sponsors House Resolution on Bible
Tennessee State House Representative Kevin Brooks, a member of the communications department of the Church of God, recently introduced a resolution recognizing the first printing of the King James Version of the Bible.
Tennessee House Resolution 0043 honors the 400th Anniversary of the King James Version. It was passed on the House Consent Calendar on March 3, 2011.
“We are told that State Houses all across the country are passing similar resolutions to honor this important anniversary,” Brooks stated. “It is truly an honor to be the primary sponsor of this Resolution in Tennessee.”
Brooks was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives to represent district 24 in 2006. He was re-elected in 2008 and 2010 and is a leader with several House committees and was elected this year by his colleagues as assistant majority leader.
The resolution was presented as follows:
A RESOLUTION recognizing the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.
WHEREAS, at the Hampton Court Conference, convened in January of 1604 by the newly-crowned King James I, a new English translation of the Bible was commissioned, andthus began a tremendous collaborative effort between a large group of learned translators; and
WHEREAS, over the next seven years, forty-seven translators, each of whom were members of the Church of England, transcribed the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha into English, a feat which required fluency in the Greek, Hebrew, and Latin languages; and
WHEREAS, upon the completion of the translation, the original printing of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible was published by Robert Barker, the King’s Printer, in 1611; and
WHEREAS, the King James Version of the Bible rapidly became the predominant translation used throughout the world, a position it maintained through the first half of the Twentieth Century; and
WHEREAS, in its four hundred years of continuous publication, the King James Version of the Bible has greatly impacted the world. It was the first Bible to become largely available to the masses, it has influenced the world’s language, it has been used to swear many into positions of great power, and it has influenced so many people, from poets to painters, from songwriters to scientists, from the clergy to the laity; and
WHEREAS, the Authorized King James Version of the Bible has been of great importance in the shaping of our world’s cultures and customs, and copies of the publication have served to inspire many to achieve great and wonderful accomplishments; and WHEREAS, it is fitting that the members of this body recognize this momentous occasion in the history of this publication; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, that we hereby recognize the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.
