AS Christian Scientists we treasure the Bible and especially the English Authorized Version, which was so reverently studied, quoted, and explained by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, and today is read in our churches each Sunday and Wednesday. Mrs. Eddy writes in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 320), "In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said: 'The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest upon both the literal and moral;'" and lower down on the same page, "The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual." However much we read and study the Bible, we need constantly to keep these words of our Leader's to the forefront in order that we may not allow other aspects, such as the historical or textual, to diminish in any sense this spiritual interpretation.
It is, however, right that we should be intelligently interested in finding the answers to such questions as: What constitute the canonical writings and why? What are the sources upon which our translations are based? What were the circumstances associated with the English translations? What are the geographical and historical conditions associated with the Bible narratives?
The King James Version of 1611 has behind it several centuries of effort and struggle, setback and progress—years which were illumined with the records of Christian martyrs and scholars, men who consecrated their lives to the attainment of an ideal. The book is the product of both the Renaissance and the Reformation in Europe, for these movements intensified the demand for translations into the language of the common people and at the same time provided the scholarship to satisfy that demand.
