The Queen and the Bible

Queen Elizabeth had a deep knowledge of the Bible from reading it regularly and hearing countless sermons based on it. For her, as for all Christians, the Bible is a key source not only of doctrine but of comfort, hope and inspiration.

It's also been woven into the fabric of her reign from the very beginning. Apart from her personal attachment to it, the Bible was at the heart of her coronation service, which she always regarded as the sacred moment when she was set aside for the service of her country. 

Aside from Handel's anthem Zadok the Priest, based on verses from 1 Kings 1 – forever emblematic of the occasion – she was greeted at the door of Westminster Abbey with an anthem from Psalm 122, and Bible readings punctuated the rest of the service. After her Coronation Oath she was presented with a Bible, with the words: ‘Our gracious Queen: to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords.

‘Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.’

When she quoted the Bible, she was likely to be using the words of the Authorized or King James version, the one she grew up with and whose memorable phrases were fixed in her mind. 

Begun in 1604, it was undertaken at the command of King James I and VI following a conference at Hampton Court and completed in 1611. While it drew heavily on the work of earlier translators – notably William Tyndale – it was a work of great scholarship in its own right, and is still regarded as a wonderfully eloquent and powerful piece of writing.

Speaking to the General Synod of the Church of England in November 2010, the Queen referred to the following year's celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Authorized Version's publication, calling it ‘one of the defining elements of our heritage’.

When she gave her Christmas address from Hampton Court that year, she recalled the origins of the Authorized Version there. 

‘Acknowledged as a masterpiece of English prose and the most vivid translation of the Scriptures, the glorious language of this Bible has survived the turbulence of history and given many of us the most widely-recognised and beautiful descriptions of the birth of Jesus Christ which we celebrate today,’ she said.

Reflecting on the need for communities to work together for the common good, she said: ‘The King James Bible was a major cooperative endeavour that required the efforts of dozens of the day’s leading scholars. The whole enterprise was guided by an interest in reaching agreement for the wider benefit of the Christian Church, and to bring harmony to the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.’

The Authorized Version remains widely popular, though scholarship has moved on and English-speaking Christians today have the option of many different translations aimed at different readerships.