Counting the cost - six

who dunnit?

There has been a great deal of hoo-rah-rah concerning the changing of the name of the book currently called James in your English Bible from the name Jacob as it first appeared. King James of the King James version published in 1611 has taken the fall for this modification. Turns out this is a lot of hot air.


Here is a chronological list of uses:  
Vulgate 405 Iakobus  
Wycliffe 1382-1395 James, the seruaunt of God, and of oure Lord Jhesu Crist, to the twelue kinredis, that ben in scatering abrood, helthe.  [my guess is this spelling has been modified to add the J]

Tyndale 1525  Iames the seruaut of God and of the Lorde Iesus Christ sendeth gretinge to ye .xii. trybes which are scattered here and there.
Coverdell 1528 – 1535 Iames the seruaunt of God and of the LORDE Iesus Christ, sendeth gretinge to the xij. trybes which are scatered here & there. [look, a little j at the end of the roman numeral :) it began as a swash (left hand serif) on the bottom of the i]
Luther 1545 Jakobus

Stephanus NT 1550 Iakobou

Bishops Bible 1568 Iames a seruaunt of God, and of the lorde Iesus Christ, to ye twelue tribes which are scattred abroade, greetyng.

Geneva 1599 James a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve Tribes, which are scattered abroad, salutation.

KJV 1611 James

Westcott Hort NT 1881 Iakobou

So what happened?  It had nothing to do with the King.  The history of the name James shows that it is actually derived from the name Jacob.

English form of the Late Latin (late 12c. Middle English vernacular form)  name Iacomus which was derived from Ιακωβος (Iakobos), the New Testament Greek form of the Hebrew name Ya'aqov. This was the name of two apostles in the New Testament. The first was Saint James the Greater, the apostle John's brother, who was beheaded under Herod Agrippa in the Book of Acts. The second was James the Lesser, son of Alphaeus. Another James (known as James the Just) is also mentioned in the Bible as being the brother of Jesus.

Since the 13th century this form of the name has been used in England, though it became more common in Scotland, where it was borne by several kings.  First Scottish King James was born in 1394. In the 17th century the Scottish king James VI inherited the English throne, becoming the first ruler of all Britain, and the name grew much more popular.  http://www.behindthename.com/name/james

I had myself a multilingual party at www.biblegateway.com and checked every language whose script I could read.  What we see now is that the preponderance of foreign language Bibles maintain some form of Jacob, including the old Reina-Valera (Spanish) of about 1602-ish.


The later Spanish and current Italian and Portuguese use a form of Santiago, meaning Saint Iago, the modern equivalent of James.


But it's really the same name, and King Jimmy didn't do it.  Although I'm sure it made His Nibs feel good about himself.

Lamed to the rescue

Wow, have I been gone that long?
The famine in Amos is =not= a famine for bread, the thirst is =not= a thirst for water.  But the grammar still stands.

Back to the spring feasts

Enjoy!!

Pardes - the Fall Feasts

highly recommended

Hat tip to livnbygrac--Mark Biltz gives a clear and direct presentation of replacement theology. Start here for this 8 part series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDsKr3L9nVA

Back to the aleph-bet bet

Back to the series on the use of the letters as grammatical units and not just phonemes....Presenting the bet.