--- product_id: 22932396 title: "God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible ― A Narrative History of a Famous Bible Translation" price: "17671CFA" currency: XOF in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sn/products/22932396-gods-secretaries-the-making-of-the-king-james-bible-narrative store_origin: SN region: Senegal --- # God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible ― A Narrative History of a Famous Bible Translation **Price:** 17671CFA **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible ― A Narrative History of a Famous Bible Translation - **How much does it cost?** 17671CFA with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sn](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/22932396-gods-secretaries-the-making-of-the-king-james-bible-narrative) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “This scrupulously elegant account of the creation of what four centuries of history has confirmed is the finest English-language work of all time, is entirely true to its subject: Adam Nicolson’s lapidary prose is masterly, his measured account both as readable as the curious demand and as dignified as the story deserves.” — Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa In God's Secretaries , Adam Nicolson gives a fascinating and dramatic account of the era of the King James Bible and its translation, immersing us in an age whose greatest monument is not a painting or a building but a book. A network of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. Review: History at its finest: informative, efficiently edited, fervently written, remarkably moving. - Information on the version I bought and read follows: Version: Kindle ASIN: B000FC11ZG Page Numbers: No English Style: Contemporary with numerous excerpts from 16th century Jacobean English presented in its original form. Table of Contents. Yes and linked for use in Kindle Length: 336 pages in book form X-Ray: No Review begins here: An excellent overview of the remarkable sequence of events in both the church and the state that came together to produce the beloved King James Bible. This is history at its finest – fervently written, efficiently edited, remarkably moving. A finely balanced work. Despite what follows in my review, this book as indicated above is first and foremost history, a point not to be lost. The story is told both through narrative history that introduces the extraordinary (yet quirky and flawed) men and events who brought this work together (not the least of which was King James himself), and Nicolson’s own insightful analysis sprinkled throughout the book which explains why this bible has reigned for over four centuries as the centerpiece of literary achievement in the English speaking world. This second part, the analysis, for me at least was the centerpiece of the book. While not overtly polemic in nature, Nicolson nonetheless makes a convincing case that this bible forever has a place in the English speaking church despite recent trends to more modern (or worse PC) tones because it makes no excuses about the fact that the language of majesty is neither common nor natural. To the contrary, in Nicolson’s own words: “This is about more than mere sonority or the beeswaxed heritage-appeal of antique vocabulary and grammar. The flattening of language is a flattening of meaning. Language which is not taut with a sense of its own significance, which is apologetic in its desire to be acceptable to a modern consciousness, language in other words which submits to its audience, rather than instructing, informing, moving, challenging and even entertaining them, is no longer a language which can carry the freight the Bible requires. It has, in short, lost all authority. “ Nicolson, Adam (2009-10-13). God's Secretaries (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2382-2387). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. I especially appreciate the author’s insinuation that to those who are willing to acquaint themselves with the rhythms of the King James Bible, a rich poetry awaits that can stir a soul to passionate response in a way that is difficult to imagine in the more recent, “common language”, translations. This rang especially true for me as I set aside my NKJV this year and bought an English Standard Version for my annual reading through the bible. I am now nearly two months into my reading and while feeling adequately “informed”, something of the magnificence, the deep splendor, has been likewise set aside (apologies to the ESV loyalists). I will finish my reading in the ESV this year, mostly out of curiosity, but judging from what I have seen so far as I close the last pages of Malachi and Revelation at year’s end I won’t be going back, except for an occasional cross reference. Do I hear the mental gears of the critics whirring ? Did I happen to notice the “N” in front of the KJV above? Yes…, I did. I don’t require (but also don’t mind) the “thee’s” or “thou’s” of forgotten Jacobean English, but even after a short two month absence I very much miss the gracefully expressive rhythm and sense of majesty by which it connects at the deepest levels and which seem to be absent from the other “modern” translations I have tried (NIV, ESV, RSV (better), and worst of all – the wooden NASB). I think Nicolson’s book has captured why (and I am paraphrasing as I truly believe the authors intent here was to write good history and then provide some insightful analysis into it rather than convert the English speaking world to the KJV): Do you want to read an informative “memo from God” or be ushered into his throne room,….. where the rich grandeur of his voice fills to overflowing the chambers of a heart,…. stirring it’s soul to single-minded passionate response ? If it is the latter, then I highly recommend Nicolson's book for some additional perspective. Needless to say, the book is a 5 star for me as is the King James Bible and its modern follow-up the NKJV. Review: Well-written Overview of the Jacobean Age - A brisk, engrossing look at the circumstances surrounding the birth of the King James Bible. Readers expecting the inside story on the translation may be disappointed; "God's Secretaries" is more of a general overview of the period, with deft character sketches of the principal translators. This is unavoidable, since most of the documents relating to the day-to-day work of the translators have been lost. What the book lacks in detail, it compensates for with strong storytelling and a fine sense of history. Even though I enjoyed the book, Nicolson did not convince me that the translators added very much to the work of William Tyndale, the martyred 16th-century translator; nor did he convince me that the King James Bible remains the best available translation. At the end of the book, Nicolson quotes a few beautiful verses from Psalm 77 to demonstrate the superiority of the KJV. But other lines from the same psalm are either mistranslated or obscure. Here they are, with comparisons from more recent translations: KJV - my sore ran in the night and ceased not NEW KING JAMES VERSION - my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing KJV - thou holdest mine eyes waking NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION - you keep my eyelids from closing KJV - I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High NEW AMERICAN BIBLE - my sorrow is this, the right hand of the Most High has left us The King James Bible was great in its day, but newer translations are more accurate and more intelligible. Nevertheless, "God's Secretaries" shines a vivid light on a passionate, contradictory age. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #157,030 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #104 in British & Irish Literary Criticism (Books) #128 in Historical British Biographies #145 in Renaissance Literary Criticism (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 678 Reviews | ## Images ![God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible ― A Narrative History of a Famous Bible Translation - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71FvwLYjQKL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ History at its finest: informative, efficiently edited, fervently written, remarkably moving. *by T***T on February 23, 2014* Information on the version I bought and read follows: Version: Kindle ASIN: B000FC11ZG Page Numbers: No English Style: Contemporary with numerous excerpts from 16th century Jacobean English presented in its original form. Table of Contents. Yes and linked for use in Kindle Length: 336 pages in book form X-Ray: No Review begins here: An excellent overview of the remarkable sequence of events in both the church and the state that came together to produce the beloved King James Bible. This is history at its finest – fervently written, efficiently edited, remarkably moving. A finely balanced work. Despite what follows in my review, this book as indicated above is first and foremost history, a point not to be lost. The story is told both through narrative history that introduces the extraordinary (yet quirky and flawed) men and events who brought this work together (not the least of which was King James himself), and Nicolson’s own insightful analysis sprinkled throughout the book which explains why this bible has reigned for over four centuries as the centerpiece of literary achievement in the English speaking world. This second part, the analysis, for me at least was the centerpiece of the book. While not overtly polemic in nature, Nicolson nonetheless makes a convincing case that this bible forever has a place in the English speaking church despite recent trends to more modern (or worse PC) tones because it makes no excuses about the fact that the language of majesty is neither common nor natural. To the contrary, in Nicolson’s own words: “This is about more than mere sonority or the beeswaxed heritage-appeal of antique vocabulary and grammar. The flattening of language is a flattening of meaning. Language which is not taut with a sense of its own significance, which is apologetic in its desire to be acceptable to a modern consciousness, language in other words which submits to its audience, rather than instructing, informing, moving, challenging and even entertaining them, is no longer a language which can carry the freight the Bible requires. It has, in short, lost all authority. “ Nicolson, Adam (2009-10-13). God's Secretaries (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2382-2387). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. I especially appreciate the author’s insinuation that to those who are willing to acquaint themselves with the rhythms of the King James Bible, a rich poetry awaits that can stir a soul to passionate response in a way that is difficult to imagine in the more recent, “common language”, translations. This rang especially true for me as I set aside my NKJV this year and bought an English Standard Version for my annual reading through the bible. I am now nearly two months into my reading and while feeling adequately “informed”, something of the magnificence, the deep splendor, has been likewise set aside (apologies to the ESV loyalists). I will finish my reading in the ESV this year, mostly out of curiosity, but judging from what I have seen so far as I close the last pages of Malachi and Revelation at year’s end I won’t be going back, except for an occasional cross reference. Do I hear the mental gears of the critics whirring ? Did I happen to notice the “N” in front of the KJV above? Yes…, I did. I don’t require (but also don’t mind) the “thee’s” or “thou’s” of forgotten Jacobean English, but even after a short two month absence I very much miss the gracefully expressive rhythm and sense of majesty by which it connects at the deepest levels and which seem to be absent from the other “modern” translations I have tried (NIV, ESV, RSV (better), and worst of all – the wooden NASB). I think Nicolson’s book has captured why (and I am paraphrasing as I truly believe the authors intent here was to write good history and then provide some insightful analysis into it rather than convert the English speaking world to the KJV): Do you want to read an informative “memo from God” or be ushered into his throne room,….. where the rich grandeur of his voice fills to overflowing the chambers of a heart,…. stirring it’s soul to single-minded passionate response ? If it is the latter, then I highly recommend Nicolson's book for some additional perspective. Needless to say, the book is a 5 star for me as is the King James Bible and its modern follow-up the NKJV. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Well-written Overview of the Jacobean Age *by S***D on April 6, 2004* A brisk, engrossing look at the circumstances surrounding the birth of the King James Bible. Readers expecting the inside story on the translation may be disappointed; "God's Secretaries" is more of a general overview of the period, with deft character sketches of the principal translators. This is unavoidable, since most of the documents relating to the day-to-day work of the translators have been lost. What the book lacks in detail, it compensates for with strong storytelling and a fine sense of history. Even though I enjoyed the book, Nicolson did not convince me that the translators added very much to the work of William Tyndale, the martyred 16th-century translator; nor did he convince me that the King James Bible remains the best available translation. At the end of the book, Nicolson quotes a few beautiful verses from Psalm 77 to demonstrate the superiority of the KJV. But other lines from the same psalm are either mistranslated or obscure. Here they are, with comparisons from more recent translations: KJV - my sore ran in the night and ceased not NEW KING JAMES VERSION - my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing KJV - thou holdest mine eyes waking NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION - you keep my eyelids from closing KJV - I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High NEW AMERICAN BIBLE - my sorrow is this, the right hand of the Most High has left us The King James Bible was great in its day, but newer translations are more accurate and more intelligible. Nevertheless, "God's Secretaries" shines a vivid light on a passionate, contradictory age. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Stunning Book *by R***Z on October 12, 2017* This is a splendid book on a subject of vast religious, aesthetic and cultural importance. Nicolson has produced a lovely study, particularly in light of the fact that there are few materials at hand. We know that there were approximately 50 translators divided into six companies. While some remain relatively shadowy figures, a number are very well known, particularly Lancelot Andrewes, the great sermon writer and one of T.S. Eliot’s favorite writers. We know a bit about the review process in which individual translations were subject to a hierarchical form of peer review, with one ultimate committee holding responsibility for final decisions. We know that the text from which the companies worked was the Bishops’ Bible and we know that William Tyndale’s words had a particularly strong influence on the translators. What we lack is documentary evidence. Only a few pieces survive, in part because of a great fire in Whitehall shortly after the publication of the KJB. What we have, however, is Adam Nicolson, who is able to look at the sparse collection of extant documents and draw conclusions based on trenchant analysis. The translators were very, very conscientious, debating over the structures of sentences and the appropriateness of each word therein. They were attuned to the sounds of those sentences, reading them aloud (as they would be read aloud in churches) and paying close attention to the rhythm, clarity and gravity of each. Hence (lacking a vast amount of documentary evidence), Nicolson comes at this from a different direction. He looks, in depth, at the individual experience of individual translators and demonstrates the manner in which those experiences participated in the contemporary zeitgeist and formed the basis for the final results, in English biblical prose. For example, he will talk about gardens and men who loved them, of plants, flowers, vegetables and all that Shakespeare described as ‘great creating Nature’. He will then take the individual experiences, form them into a Jacobean perspective and then demonstrate how that perspective played out in individual passages of the KJB. He then reinforces the point by contrasting the dramatic, magic, nearly mystic power of the Jacobean voice with the flat, uninspired banalities of modern translations. Ben Jonson once said that Spenser ‘writ no language’, that the language of the Faerie Queene was a Spenserian construct, studiedly archaic but aesthetically appropriate. Nicolson sees the language of the KJB as, in some ways, similar; it is like the language of the mid-16th century, not the language of 1611, and it is designed to be both clear and also commensurate with the grandeur and importance of its subject. It is poetic, lapidary, unforgettable and the result, in its totality, is the greatest monument of English prose. It should also be noted that the KJB was printed in incredibly sloppy fashion and that one cannot really talk about ‘editions’, ‘issues’, etc. in the manner of standard bibliographical analysis; each volume is ‘unique’ (in a bad sense); hence another layer of difficulty for modern students to penetrate. Adam Nicolson is a very special writer—a learned and erudite individual who has also immersed himself in the realities of the material world. He is a farmer; he is a sailor, e.g. This helps equip him for the challenges of writing this book. In writing it he has also demonstrated that he is an exceptional literary critic, one who is capable of analyzing prose (for which we have the most limited academic vocabulary) and finding unexpected but apt words to describe the aesthetic phenomena that have had a profound effect on all KJB readers (and listeners). Bottom line: a most impressive book, fascinating in its details and strategies. Highly recommended. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sn/products/22932396-gods-secretaries-the-making-of-the-king-james-bible-narrative](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/22932396-gods-secretaries-the-making-of-the-king-james-bible-narrative) --- *Product available on Desertcart Senegal* *Store origin: SN* *Last updated: 2026-11-12*