The story of how it came into being has been told many times - told, that is, to such extent as it can be told. Translated from the Hebrew and Greek in the early 17th century by order of the newly crowned James I, it is a work of such majesty, passion and literary power that even the greatest of Shakespeare's tragedies must bow before it. Too many cooks made it the most splendid broth imaginable.
The King James Bible is not the work of a single inspired genius - a Shakespeare, a Milton, a Dickens - but of a committee. That alone is quite enough to inspire awe, but there is more.
The King James Bible is the greatest work ever written in English, period. The King James Bible, Adam Nicolson writes, "can lay claim to be the greatest work in prose ever written in English." True enough, so far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough.
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