The King James Version of The Bible
RV Roseville
There are actually two corner-stones,
the one laid for the original Mother Church edifice
on May 21st, 1894, and the second July 16,
(which is Mrs. Eddy's birth date, 73 years later),
1904, wherein another set of books, Science
and Health and the KJV of The Bible were placed.
We can surely surmise it was the KJV inasmuch
as the benediction was from 2 Corinthians 13:14:
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be
with you all. Amen."
This citation for the corner-stone for the Extension
is from the KJV, which our Leader claimed as our
version. Since the benediction was from the KJV
I understand we may feel confident that The Holy
Bible placed in the corner-stone is the KVJ.
On page 18, in his book "The Mother Church",
Joseph Armstrong tells us that The Bible
placed in the corner-stone in the original Mother
Church, "our prayer in stone", along with Science and Health,
had a binding of the "finest morocco". Morocco is a type
of leather. In May of 1894, Mrs. Eddy was still the Pastor
of her church. Robert Peel in his book "Mary Baker Eddy,
Years of Authority", page 72, and Doris Grekel in her book
"The Founding of Christian Science, The Life
of Mary Baker Eddy (1888-1900)", on page 213, tell us
that in mid December, the 18th to be exact, Mrs. Eddy then
ordained The Bible and Science and Health to be "the only
preachers in this house of His", (Grekel). The first service in
the original Mother Church was held December 30, 1894.
To further comprehend that it is The King James Version
that Mary Baker Eddy understood to be *the* version
she intended along with Science and Health, to be our
Pastor we really have to look to Concord and/or the written
Concordance to Mrs. Eddy's writings to hear what Mrs. Eddy
herself tells us. Of course we are given a very large
visual and tactile clue in the fact that all *matched*
copies of our Bible Lesson books, including hard bound
cloth, leather, and paperback have always consisted
of the textbook and The King James Version of The Bible.
We have already considered what Mrs. Eddy said to
Mr. Wiggin in her letter to him telling him that only the
KJV would do since only that version was specifically
"correlative" to her work. In her letter to Wiggin she
used the term, "uniformity".
The Bible citations preceding every chapter in Science
and Health are from the King James Version.
Mrs. Eddy certainly appreciated other Bible versions. The
title for our textbook, "Science and Health", came to our Leader's waiting
thought in the middle of the night - she later learned that this phrase is
present in Wyclif's translation of the New Testament. However,
Mrs. Eddy tells us that in the Authorized Version", [the KJV] , that same
phrase is "knowledge of salvation" (see Message to The Mother
Church for 1902, page 16). Mrs. Eddy tells us she was happy to have a
copy of Wyclif's translation of the New Testament. However she did not
claim it for us, as she did the KJV, as our Pastor. Here is how she
references the KJV.
Science and Health, page 488: 11-13, "Hence the Scriptures
often appear in *our common version* to approve and endorse
belief, when they mean to enforce the necessity of
understanding."
Science and Health, page 523:18-21, "The other document
is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is always called
Jehovah, -- or Lord God, as *our common version* translates
it."
Science and Health, page 576:26-27, "The term Lord, as used
in *our version* of the Old Testament, is often synonymous
with Jehovah, and . . . "
As we can see, this was the version that along with Science
and Health comprises our Pastor, since she uses that
pronoun of warmth and home, "our".
We already are familiar with Annie Knott's words in
the April 12, 1913, Sentinel, "Many years ago Mrs. Eddy
decided that the Authorized version of The Bible, known
as The King James Version, should be used at all our
services."
The following is from The Board of Directors, The Christian
Science Journal, August 1938, p.239, ".Because of the extent
to which the King James Version of the Bible is the basis of
and enters into our Leader’s writings, it is and should be the
accepted *English* translation for Christian Scientists. In our
church services no other *English translation* should be used”
[emphasis added].
Of other Bible translations, sometimes our Leader is quite
critical. In "No and Yes", page 15:7-12, she writes, "Fatiguing
Bible translations and voluminous commentaries are employed
to explain and prop old creeds, and they have the civil and
religious arms in their defense; then why should not these
be equally extended to support the Christianity that heals
the sick?"
And from "Message to The Mother Church, Message for 1901"
p. 34:12, Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Have we misread the
evangelical precepts and the canonical writings of the Fathers,
or must we have a new Bible and a new system of Christianity,
originating not in God, but a creation of the schools - a material
religion, proscriptive, intolerant, wantonly bereft of the Word of
God."
One more offering from Ralph Byron Copper. He states that,
"To replace "our common" version with an "updated" Bible
translation in our church services - whether for partial or
total use on Sunday and Wednesday - does more than
change the uniformity of Mrs. Eddy's wording and meaning;
it opens the door for scholastic theology to impose its
adulterating influence on the thought of the congregation.
Like wolves in sheep's clothing, religious errors can and
do lurk in new Bible translations as surely as in old ones.
[Behold last week's Responsive Reading]. Mrs. Eddy
warned her readers that "a mortal and material sense stole
into the divine record" through the "manifest mistakes"
in ancient versions and through the hundreds of thousands
of Bible renderings (Science and Health, page 139)."
Clearly from what Mary Baker Eddy herself states it is the
King James Version known to so many other Christians
as the Authorized Version that is indeed our own common version
chosen for us by our Leader, and recommended in her last years
here as the version we are to use in our church services. Prior to 1906,
she allowed the Revised King James Version to be sparingly used in the
Golden Text and I believe one Responsive Reading. The last four years
that she was here was when she required that only the King James Version
be utilized in Church services per Annie Knott,.(see above).
To countermand her orders is to take retrograde steps that we need not take.
There are many other Christian Scientists and a group called the Sheep
Mailing group who have devoted hours to help maintain what Mary Baker Eddy
established for our spiritual growth. We ought to be awake not to
dismantle that for which she gave her life by disregarding her requirement to
use only the King James Version in our church services.
Paula