The king James Bible is Alive and Well

he King James Bible is recognised as a text for performance. It was written four hundred years ago to be read aloud to the illiterate. Today there are still readings – in churches, on radio, and, in its entirety, at the Globe Theatre, starting on Palm Sunday, concluding on Easter Monday.

The text was spoken, a few books at a time, by teams of four, who read a chapter each. There are obvious problems. Some parts are full of dramatic and narrative interest, but many bits of the bible can be very boring: lists of names and ‘begats’, injunctions, detailed specifications for the building of a tabernacle. These passages are not familiar, because they are not often appropriate as readings in church services. Variety was created by pace, tone, movement and gesture. One list of names was delivered at such great speed that it was acclaimed with applause. A list of ‘begats’ was enlivened by bonding with the audience; the reader moved downstage, established eye contact, slowed down and bowed his head as if reaching a climax, then looked up, grinned, and burst into a continuation of the family tree, acknowledged by appreciative applause for the fake ending. Some passages benefited from familiarity; the text of Isaiah 40 is full of phrases from Messiah which call up musical memories of Handel.

On Good Friday the book of Proverbs was given a different reading structure; pairs of men and women spoke in unison and debated ideas. This added dramatic contrast and conflict but slowed down the pace, so that the programme for the day ran much longer than scheduled and concluded not at midnight but at two o’ clock the next morning - though there were enough people still there, presumably not dependent on public transport, to justify continuing.

Humour was created by situation and character conflict, by styles of dialogue, and occasionally by the audience. Adam’s attribution of blame to Eve and other examples of gender conflict were greeted by ironic laughter, as though such attitudes were inevitable and familiar. An unusual example of humour in dialogue came in John’s Gospel 9: a blind man is cured, but throughout the chapter doubts are expressed by reluctant believers, as one group after another queries the evidence, some motivated by general scepticism, others by particular motives such as fear of rulers’ reactions; the dialogue could be developed into a Pinteresque play. One example of gender conflict from Proverbs 21 concerned the modesty that should be shown by women, who are advised not to adopt unnatural means of adornment. The attention of the audience turned to one young woman who was conspicuous by her bright pink hair.

It might have been forecast that the audience would tail off towards the end of the week, but the opposite happened. For Revelations the auditorium filled up, and the structure of the reading changed; every reader was on stage, taking one verse each. The last verses were read by Dominic Dromgoole, the artistic director of the Globe, who then paid tribute to all those who had contributed to a project which had originally seemed a dream but which had become a memorable achievement.

[Editor’s Note: Kathleen has suggested that bible readings in church for the remainder of this 400th anniversary year should be from the King James’ version: what do YOU think?? Please let me know.]