Origin of the
English Bibles

"The Crown Jewel"

Oh, no!

Errors are bound to creep into anything printed, often with funny (though embarrassing or mortifying) results. Several King James editions belong to this ignoble lot:

• "Printers Bible" 1612: In some copies Psalm 119:161 reads "Printers have persecuted me without a cause" rather than "Princes have persecuted me..."

• "The Blasphemous Comma" (several editions): Luke 23:32 reads "And there were also two other malefactors. [crucified with Jesus]" It should have read "And there were also two other, malefactors."

• "Wicked Bible", "Adulterous Bible" or "Sinner's Bible" 1631: Barker and Lucas: Omits an important "not" from Exodus 20:14, making the seventh commandment read "Thou shalt commit adultery." The printers were fined £300 and most of the copies were recalled immediately. Only 11 copies are known to exist today.

See other errata here.

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The 1911 King James Bible

Queen Elizabeth died childless, so the English throne went to James VI of Scotland. Unlike his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, James was brought up with strong Protestant convictions. Coming from John Knox's Presbysterian Scotland, James brought a new day to England.

Eight hundred Puritan clergy had petitioned their new king to abolish confirmation, to end the use of the sign of the cross in baptism, end the use of the ring in marriage, and stop using the terms "absolution" and "priest" in the Prayer Book. This led to a conference in Hampton Court in 1604. The leader of Puritan group, Dr. John Reynolds, an influencial educator (president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford), presented a multi-pronged argument:

• the bishops considered the Bishops' Bible inferior for general use

• the Great Bible was cumbersome

• the Geneva Bible, though best, was spoiled by Calvinist notes

  ...therefore either make the Geneva Bible the authorized version of England or create a better translation

The latter proposal appealed to the king's vanity, so on July 22, 1604 he announced that he had appointed fifty men to work under Richard Bancroft, soon to become Archbishop of Canterbury. Because Bancroft was not the least sympathetic to Puritan objectives, nearly three years were wasted before work was begun.

Once underway, the remaining forty-seven elite scholars followed these rules:

• the Bishop's Bible was to be the primary source

• other translations only if they were more accurate

• chapter divisions were not to be altered unless absolutely necessary

• old ecclesiastical terms to be preserved (e.g., "church" not "congregation")

• no marginal notes except to explain Hebrew/Greek usage (these marginal notes numbered about 9,000 initially, over 60,000 finally!)

The revisers, some proficient in Hebrew, some in Greek, were divided into six committees. Two each at Oxford, Cambridge andWestminster, each committee responsible for a section of the Bible. Two scholars from each of the six committees then reviewed the results. Lastly, two men, Thomas Bilson and Miles Smith performed the final redaction for the printer.

The King James turned out to be a superb piece for several reasons: 1) knowledge of Greek and Hebrew had increase considerably over the forty years' time since the last translation, 2) the literature and poetry of this generation had reached its prime, and 3) rather than the potential bias of a single man, this was a broad-spectrum of knowledge, skill, and insight.

In the end, the works of Tyndale, Matthew, Coverdale -- including the Geneva Bible and the Coverdale Bible where they contained a greater degree of accuracy -- were used. The result was a superb document, the epitome of the notion of being greater than the sum of the parts. The men were not paid directly, but it was made known to the bishops that these men should be considered for "livings" i.e., appointments to various offices and positions through royal patronage.

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The non-Protestant Bible loved by Protestants!

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The King James translation, often known (since 1814) as the Authorized Version—especially in England because it was developed under the authority of the king (though never specifically authorized!), has been through many, many printings and quite a few editions.

English-language Protestant Bibles in the 16th Century included the books of the Apocrypha—generally in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments—and there is evidence that these were widely read as popular literature, especially in Puritan circles. These are books which are included in some version of the canonical Bible, but which have been excluded at one time or another, for textual or doctrinal issues. These are called 'Deuterocanonical', which literally means 'the secondary canon.' In 1644 the Long Parliament forbade the reading of the Apocrypha in church; in 1666 the first editions of the King James Bible without Apocrypha were printed.

The Authorized Version of 1769 marked the first standardization of wording, punctuation and spelling. The Authorized Version has remained largely unchanged since then, due to stereotype printing leading to mass production and lowered costs.

While there are those of the "King James Only" persuasion that insist that the 1611 King James Bible is their only authority, they would be hard-pressed to even be able to read from its pages! The spelling and the blackletter type were fine for people of that day, but the replacing by Roman type and conventional spelling in more recent editions make for better readability. What we see today is basically updates of the Fourth Edition (1769)

"The consequent publication of the standard text in the Oxford reprint of 1833, which we have found so useful, virtually settled the whole debate, by shewing to the general reader the obvious impossibility of returning to the Bible of 1611, with all the defects which those who superintended the press had been engaged, for more than two centuries, in reducing to a more consistent and presentable shape."

~Scrivener, The Authorized Ed. of the Bible, p. 35

Errors are bound to creep in, as can be seen in the sidebar, but in its recent editions it is characterized by gracious style, poetic rhythm and magestic language. English literature and the lives of many generations have been touched and changed in a unique way by this translation, though the Geneva Bible out-sold the KVJ until the cessation of printing of the Geneva Bible in 1644.

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Modern Versions

King James 2000 (KJV2000) vs New King James Version

The KJV2000) revision by Robert E. Couric mainly updates the language. Here are some differences:

NKJV uses all modern vocabulary (examples: begat to begot; unto to to; ointment to fragrant oil.) KJ2000 keeps all KJV vocabulary the same unless it causes a mistake in meaning (examples: prevent to precede, suffer to allow) or has lost meaning for today (wist, wot, aforetime, haply, paps, superfluity of naughtiness).

1. NKJV uses all modern word order/sentence structure.
   KJ2000 keeps KJV word order/sentence structure.

2. NKJV uses all modern punctuation.
   KJ2000 keeps KJV punctuation to look like the KJV.

3. NKJV uses all modern poetic form.
   KJ2000 keeps poetry in KJV form (prose) to look like the KJV.

4. The KJ2000 changes KJV words only to avert gross errors.

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Bishops'		Darby