1601: King James VI was to attend a General Assembly of the Protestant Church of Scotland. As there was plague in Edinburgh, the GA was to be held in St. Andrews. On his way there, after crossing the Forth, King James VI broke his journey to stay over in Burntisland Castle. However, he had a riding accident here and was unable to travel on to St. Andrews. It was decided to hold the GA in the relatively new church at Burntisland instead. At the GA, the King, a keen scholar, agreed a new English translation of the Bible suitable for everyone. This was eventually published in 1611 and is world famous today as the King James Version – KJV. This world changing Bible had its conception here in Burntisland
Bibles: The Bible is a collection of books written over a period of hundreds of years. It is divided into the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) collections. The first five books of the OT are also known as the Pentateuch. They were written in Hebrew and form the Jewish Torah. The New Testament includes the four Gospels, or stories of Jesus, and many letters or epistles written by his followers. Jesus spoke a language called Aramaic, but most of the NT was written in Greek, and subsequently translated into Latin. Before the Reformation, Bibles in Scotland were written in Latin and could only be read by those trained in Latin i.e. clergy, scholars, and some educated people.
