History of the King James Bible

[KiwiChristian]

History of the King James Bible

 

Before the Reformation, a number of translations were made of the Latin Vulgate into Anglo-
Saxon English. Bede (672-735 AD) translated John's Gospel into Anglo-Saxon.
King Alfred (848-901 AD) translated the 10 Commandments and Psalms into Anglo Saxon.
1) John Wycliff (1329-1384) translated the entire Latin Bible into English.
2) William Tyndale (1494-1536) made the first printed English Bible version in 1525.
He studied at Oxford and Cambridge. Around 1520 he became convinced of Reformation
truths and saw the need of translating the Bible into English. Unable to do so in England due to
Roman Catholic persecution, he set out for Europe in 1524, where in that same year at
Wittenberg he translated the New Testament from Greek into English. About 18,000 copies of
his New Testament were printed in Europe between 1525 and 1528 and shipped secretly to
England. After this, Tyndale continued to live in Europe as a fugitive from English authorities.
In 1530-31 he translated and published parts of the Old Testament from Hebrew to English.
In 1534 he left his hiding place in Antwerp, but a `friend' betrayed him to the English
authorities, leading to his imprisonment in 1535. The English Catholic authorities executed him
in 1536 for the "crime" of publishing the Bible. His dying prayer was, `Lord, open the eyes of
the King of England'. His life's work had been completed. He had securely laid the foundations
of the English Bible. About 90% of the KJV is derived from the martyred Tyndale's version.
3) In 1535, Miles Coverdale translated an English version from the Latin Vulgate and from
the Latin and German versions. He also relied heavily on Tyndale's version.
4) In 1537, John Rogers, a close friend of Tyndale, produced the `Matthew Bible' named
after Thomas Matthew, a pseudonym for Rogers himself. This Bible contained Tyndale's OT
and NT, and Coverdale's Old Testament not covered by Tyndale's.
5) In 1539, Coverdale revised the Matthew Bible which, because of its size, became
known as the Great Bible. This became the official Bible of the English Church.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, two revisions were made of the Great Bible.
These were the Geneva Bible and the Bishop's Bible, as mentioned below:
6) The Geneva Bible was published in 1560 by English Protestants in exile in Geneva,
fleeing from Roman Catholic Bloody Mary's persecutions. It had some anti Catholic footnotes.
7) The Bishops' Bible was published in 1568.
When King James I came to the English throne in 1603, there existed in the Church of
England a large party of reformers called `Puritans' whose aim was to purify the English
church by removing from it all remnants of Roman Catholicism. They called for a new version
of the English Scriptures, and it was the Puritan leader, John Reynolds, who first suggested
this to King James at a church conference called by the King at Hampton Court in 1604. The
King, being a keen Bible student, accepted the suggestion and in six months a complete list of
scholars and procedures had been drawn up to complete the work. The translators included
Anglicans, Puritans, clergymen and laymen, each having proven ability as a Biblical scholar.
They were organised into 6 groups: 2 at Oxford, 2 at Westminster and 2 at Cambridge. Each
group was assigned separate sections of Scripture to translate. Their work was then sent to a
committee of 6 men for final correction and preparation for printing. It was printed in 1611 in
loose leaf form so that people could buy it with or without the Apocrypha which was only
regarded as a commentary on the period between the OT and NT, not as part of scripture. They
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listed 7 reasons why the Apocryphal books were to be categorically rejected as part of the inspired
canon. 1) None were written in Hebrew. 2) No writer claimed inspiration. 3) They were never
acknowledged as Scripture by OT Jews or Jesus, 4) or NT Christians up to 500AD. 5) They have
contradictions. 6) They teach false doctrines such as prayers for the dead and sinless perfection. 7)
They teach immoral practices, such as lying, suicide, assassination, magical incantation. (Answers
book, S.Gipp, p.99-100). Aleph and B have apocryphal books included throughout the inspired
text. Horrors! The KJV is mainly a revision of the Bishops' Bible, which in turn was a revision of
Tyndale's Bible. It soon became the standard Bible of the English speaking world, so that it
became known as the Authorised Version. It was subject to 2 minor revisions in 1629 and 1638.
In 1762, the spelling and punctuation of words were changed to their modern equivalents. None of
the translators were Jews or Catholics. Compare this with the United States Congressional Record
(March 3, 1960, p.3981) stating that "of the 95 people.who translated the RSV, 25 had records of
support for Communist causes." Modern versions being translated from the UBS critical text, are
using a Greek text prepared by the Jesuit Roman Catholic Cardinal Carlo Martini of Rome. Jesuits
are dedicated to ecumenism and to the destruction of Protestantism and the Received Text.
The 17th Century was a time of Reformation with many people fleeing from the false doctrines
and persecutions of Roman Catholicism. The 20th Century on the other hand was a century of
tolerance, ecumenism and a return to Roman Catholicism. These differences are seen in modern
versions deleting or softening many anti-Catholic verses.
Lancelot Andrews, one of the KJV translators was conversant in 15 languages.
John Bois, at age 6, could read and write Hebrew. (McClure, Translators Reviewed, p.206).
John Reynolds was known as a living library, and a third university.
The KJV is the result of a 229 year process of scrutinising revision from Wycliff, not just of 4
years of translation. Some alleged mistakes in the KJV were typographical or spelling errors,
because in 1611 there was no such thing as correct spelling, eg "ran" was also spelt "rann","dark"
as "darke". Other authorities were consulted when needed in translation. God has blessed and used
the KJV to bring great revivals and to inspire missionary activity when the KJV reigned supreme
in the land. The Revised Version (1881) and ASV (1901), signalled a clear rejection of final
authority of the Bible and introduced a new era of spiritual deterioration and apostasy as seen this
century. 900 million copies of the KJV have been printed in over 300 languages.
Question: Why are there over 100 Bible versions in print? Answer: Because of MONEY.
If the publishers can get 500 million Christians to buy a new version at $20 each, they have a
turnover of $10 billion. Two years later the publisher brings out another version, claiming that this
new version is better than previous ones. 500 million Christians buy another corrupt, everchanging
modern version at $20 each and the publisher makes another $10 billion. The same
happens again in a few years time. It pays publishers to have a changing Bible. God disapproves.
Question: What do you say to criticism that the KJV has supposedly wrongly translated a word?
Answer: A little learning is a dangerous thing. One translator, Dr Richard Kilby, professor of
Hebrew and Greek at Oxford University, visited a church with Bishop Sanderson one Sunday, and
heard a young preacher claiming that several words were incorrectly translated in the KJV. Later
that evening, the young preacher was invited to dinner with Kilby and Sanderson. Kilby explained
to the young preacher that the translators had very carefully considered the "3 reasons" the young
preacher gave, but they had found another 13 stronger reasons for translating it as they did.
Lesson: Don't complain about how the KJV translated words, because they had much more
knowledge than critics of today. It's easy to complain when you don't have all the facts.

 

reprinted with permission from Pastor Keith Piper. https://www.libertybaptistchurch.org.au/
 

[Mike 2]

I found this an enjoyable and informative read 

Thanks for the history lesson and the lesson on how the bible has been translated into English.

I understand the challenge in translating into different languages is in not losing the meaning of the original text, particularly when the original language may be written in a way that the culture of the time would easily understand.

I do think though that there is a place for bible translations other than the King James version. I can remember having a conversation with someone once along the lines of how the only valid, true and correct translation is the KJV and no other bible version should be used. I asked if he had kids bibles for his children........hmmm.

My wife would not read a bible for years because she had understood all bibles to be written in KJV language which needs to be translated and understood in modern English before trying to understand what the writer is saying. I gave her a copy of the Message, something I consider to be an adult version of a child's bible. That enabled her to engage the messages in the writings, develop a reading habit and then understand in general the topic being discussed.  She is now using a number of different bibles and comparing texts to gain a better understanding.

I believe the only way to truly understand the bible is beyond how it is written or that it is just a person interacting with some writings, I believe it can only be truly understood when a person is honestly seeking God and invites him into their thinking, through the text. When that happens, I don't think the version being used at the time will stop that.

Thanks again for posting this I really enjoyed reading it.