Conscience of the King, By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

January 5, 2011 Whitney Farmer 19 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A.. She has an M.B.A., and likes studying history – except her own.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here…”

Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” was produced and staged in the court of King James I of England for the first time. 1611 was also the year that saw Jamestown acquire the name of ‘First Permanent English Settlement’ when John Rolfe introduced tobacco which would be harvested in 1612 and provide the New World’s first cash crop. And it was the year that saw the publishing of the King James Bible.

For a monarch who had earned the description ‘wisest fool in all Christendom’, the Scottish king who went on to sit on the throne of the Queen who had decapitated his mother accomplished some world-changing effects. These accomplishments were sealed in a dark and difficult time. The Renaissance was fully manifesting, and it must be noted that it was in many ways truly a rebirth of civilization that had died in the world previously ruled by Rome. The climate shifted, causing the mini-ice age that had descended to retreat and leaving more hours of sunshine and warmth. The threats of famine and disease began to slowly release their grip on the land because of this, and people began to dream and create again prolifically. There was time again for art and the first tendrils of leisure, but an illiterate populous hungered to learn more than the pretty picture windows in the Gothic cathedrals could provide.

The King James Bible was the third time that the Old and New Testaments, and the Apocrypha had been authorized to be translated into English. The first two translations, the Great Bible and the Bishop’s Bible, were based substantially on the Latin Vulgate and German translations, the quality of which was several iterations removed from the original texts of Hebrew (with some Chaldean influence) and Greek. The effect was often inaccuracy similar to what is seen when children play “Telephone”. Hilarious results, unless the conversation is about immortal truth and eternal life…The most accurate portions of the Great Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, and the King James Bible had been translated directly from the original Hebrew and Greek texts by a man named William Tyndale. Some estimates are that greater than 80% of the KJV’s New Testament and greater than 75% of its Old Testament came from William Tyndale’s work. A cause for humble celebration by an individual scholar, and honor from a country for his efforts, except that he wasn’t around for it. He had been strangled and burned at the stake via royal decree for his work some years before.

“…if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the scriptures than thou dost!…” William Tyndale uttered this quote while in dispute with corrupted clergy who fought against commoners learning what was written in the scriptures. The organized Church had established impenetrable barriers to entry by forbidding translation of sacred texts from the Latin which was the language known only by the educated. Since education was tightly controlled by the Church, both messages and messengers could be controlled and filtered for less than holy purposes. Illuminated manuscripts and art conveyed the messages of the gospel, but these were subjected to the interpretations and corruptions of the priestly class who were solely responsible for crafting the messages to laymen. Ironically, it was less-than-good King Henry VIII who began to shatter this gauntlet via tacit royal turning-of-the-head in order to divorce one faithful wife in favor of a newer model who he would eventually decapitate. The King wanted scripture to be made widely available by translating it directly from the original texts into the language of the day. He believed that knowledge of scriptures through individual study would dismantle the spiritual monopoly held by the Church which was opposing his royal will. If more of his subjects could learn how to read, and then be able to read scripture in their everyday language, the Church would lose power.

What Henry VIII didn’t count on was William Tyndale having enough conscience to not only stand against the Church hierarchy for what he believed was righteous, but also standing against the King. When he made a public declaration against the King’s divorce, he earned Henry’s wrath and enmity. It took time to get him, but Henry got him. Tyndale was finally betrayed while in exile in Antwerp and publicly executed. His last words were a prayer for Henry.

“Good wombs have borne bad seeds…” as was written in The Tempest. But as William Tyndale translated and then lived, the reverse can be true. Our good choices can outlive us, even if our lives are shortened by them. From KJV 1 Chronicles 4:10 “…And Jabez [named ‘born of sorrow’ by his mother] called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.”

O brave new world that has such people in it! That’s Shakespeare.

Quote of the Blog, from Ed, Dude of Light and Fog: “Charm is a superpower. I was born with it, got it from my dad. But I need to choose to use it for good rather than for evil.”