Voices of the Past

Historical Romance Author

The Bible Controversy of King James
Monday, December 26, 2022 by Tamera Kraft

In the early 1600s, King James took the throne of England. He wanted to unite the nation under the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, also called The Church of England, sought to join the practices of the protestant reformation and the Catholic Church. At that time, it was a mixture of the two with icons being prayed to and the prayer book, not the Bible being the main source of material being read in church services.

There were two obstacles that thwarted King James’ plans. The first was the Puritans. They wanted to reform the Anglican Church to make it more like the Protestant reformation churches in other nations. Among the beliefs, they had that concerned the king was the belief that Scripture was the final authority, not the king. In their services, they would read Scripture instead of the prayer book.

The second obstacle was the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible, based on translations of William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, included study notes in the margins that helped the common man understand Scripture. The Geneva Bible was the first Bible to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew instead of Latin. It also was the first Bible to divide Scripture into chapters.

Some of the notes seemed to challenge the authority of kings such as the note in Exodus 1:9 that said the midwives were right to defy the orders of the Egyptian King to kill newborn Hebrew males. Because of this, in 1611, King James authorized another version of the Bible, The King James Version translated Scripture from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and removed study notes and illustrations.

The Seasoning of Elizabella: A Jamestown Bride Story mentions some of the controversy surrounding the Puritans. The Geneva Bible was the first Bible brought to Jamestown Colony, but shortly after the King James Bible was released, it made its way to the colony as well. Although the church established in Jamestown was Anglican, we can conjecture that the Puritan movement sweeping England influenced the Jamestown Church as well.

101 men and 4 boys landed in the New World in 1607. They hoped to establish a colony for the British and get rich in a search for gold. They built a fort and named the colony Jamestown. There was no gold, but they did find the land fertile for growing tobacco. After years of hardship and trouble with the natives, they managed to rake out a living. Only one thing was missing. Women. Now that they had a prosperous colony, they needed women to marry and create families.

The Virginia Company of London made arrangements for a ship full of women to travel to Jamestown Colony.

The Seasoning of Elizabella is a novel dedicated to telling the story of these women who suffered hardships, disease, and death to settle a new land.

About the Author: Award-winning author and Mt Zion Ridge Publisher Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures. She loves to write historical fiction set in the United States because there are so many stories in American history. Forks in the Road, Lost in the Storm, and Red Sky Over America, Alice’s Notions, and Resurrection of Hope are among her published works. In her spare time, she loves to watch classic movies, drink quality teas, and ride on roller coasters, but not while drinking tea.