The Twisted Fate of the King James Version and the Black Religious Experience in America

The only version of the Bible African slaves in the English colonies known to exist was the King James Version (KJV). In reflecting on the 400th centennial of the arrival of African captives to America and the 1611 King James Version, African American church scholars do well to mark this occasion, not so much for what the biblical text did to reform the church in Europe, but to commemorate its role in forming a people. When they published the King James Scripture, those 54 language scholars of 1611 no doubt understood the impact they would make as reformers of European Christianity. They may not have imagined their work would have such a profound impact on the formation of a community of abducted Africans. Their fellow brothers and sisters in captivity would teach the purveyors of the King James Version how subversive their text is to human political, economic, and religious institutions.