Prince of Wales reads from John 14 for YouTube Bible

Prince Charles has read from John chapter 14 as part of an online version of the King James Bible.

Watch Prince Charles reading John 14:1-14

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The idea is the brainchild of the King James Bible Trust and is the latest event to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the translation.

The recordings of all 1,189 chapters from Genesis to Revelation took five days and involved 400 readers, including several well-known names.

Varied archive

The aim of the King James Bible Trust is to encourage people of all ages and walks of life to read passages from the King James Bible (KJB).

The YouTube Bible is intended to create a complete and varied archive of readings from the KJB that are easily accessible online.

The creation of the YouTube Bible was an ambitious project lasting five days, during which 400 actors, writers and volunteers read a passage from the KJB.

Actors like Bill Paterson, Jonathan Pryce and Timothy West and author Alexander McCall Smith all took part, as well as Prince Charles.

Patron

The Prince of Wales is Patron of the Trust and offered to read John chapter 14 verses 1 to 14, which include one of the best known verses in the Bible:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”.

The reading given by Prince Charles was recorded for YouTube in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace.

Quotes

The King James Bible Trust’s website includes a number of quotes from well-known figures about their thoughts on the King James Bible.

Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, said: “To read it is to feel simultaneously at home, a citizen of the world, and a traveller through eternity”.

Melvyn Bragg commented: “There is no doubt in my mind that the King James Bible not Shakespeare set this language on its path to become a universal language on a scale unprecedented before or since.”

And Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, spoke of “the supreme place that it enjoys in our history and our culture”.

Unifying

Neil McGregor, Director of the British Museum, spoke of the King James Bible as being one of the first “British things” to be made, coming as it did in the early years of the reign of James I of England, James VI of Scotland.

“It is I think one of the most unifying texts, probably, that has ever been made”, he added.

“For several hundred years it was the one shared text of English speakers around the whole world and it held that world together, I think, in a way that no other text could have”.

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