Fifteen general rules were advanced for the guidance of the King James
translators:
1. The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops
Bible,
to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the original will
permit.
2. The names of the Prophets, and the Holy Writers, with the other Names
of
the Text, to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were
vulgarly used.
3. The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the Word Church not to be
translated Congregation &c.
4. When a Word hath divers Significations, that to be kept which hath been
most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers, being agreeable to
the
Propriety of the Place, and the Analogy of the Faith.
5. The Division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as
little as may be, if Necessity so require.
6. No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of
the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so
briefly and fitly be expressed in the Text.
7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down as shall serve for
the
fit Reference of one Scripture to another.
8. Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or
Chapters, and having translated or amended them severally by himself,
where
he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and
agree
for their Parts what shall stand.
9. As any one Company hath dispatched any one Book in this Manner they
shall
send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously, for
His
Majesty is very careful in this Point.
10. If any Company, upon the Review of the Book so sent, doubt or differ
upon
any Place, to send them Word thereof; note the Place, and withal send the
Reasons, to which if they consent not, the Difference to be compounded at
the
general Meeting, which is to be of the chief Persons of each Company, at
the
end of the Work.
11. When any Place of special Obscurity is doubted of, Letters to be
directed
by Authority, to send to any Learned Man in the Land, for his Judgement of
such a Place.
12. Letters to be sent from every Bishop to the rest of his Clergy,
admoni****ng them of this Translation in hand; and to move and charge as
many
skilful in the Tongues; and having taken pains in that kind, to send his
particular Observations to the Company, either at Westminster, Cambridge,
or
Oxford.
13. The Directors in each Company, to be the Deans of Westminster, and
Chester for that Place; and the King's Professors in the Hebrew or Greek
in
either University.
14. These translations to be used when they agree better with the Text
than
the Bishops Bible: Tyndale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's,
Geneva.
15. Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most
Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the Universities, not employed in
Translating, to be assigned by the vice-Chancellor, upon Conference with
the
rest of the Heads, to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew as
Greek, for the better observation of the 4th Rule above specified.
The work began to take shape in 1604 and progressed steadily. The
translators
expressed their early thoughts in their preface as: "Truly (good Christian
Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a
new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one,...but to make a
good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not
justly
to be excepted against, that hath been our endeavor."
They had at their disposal all the previous English translations to which
they did not disdain:
"We are so far off from condemning any of their labors that travailed
before
us in this kind, either in this land or beyond sea, either in King Henry's
time, or King Edward's...or Queen Elizabeth's of ever renowned memory,
that
we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God, for the building and
furni****ng of his Church, and that they deserve to be had of us and of
posterity in everlasting remembrance."
And, as the translators themselves also acknowledged, they had a multitude
of
sources from which to draw from: "Neither did we think much to consult the
Translators or Commentators, CHaldee, Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Latin, no
nor
the Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch." The Greek editions of Erasmus,
Stephanus, and Beza were all accessible, as were the COmplutensian and
Antwerp Polyglots, and the Latin translations of Pagninus, Termellius, and
Beza.
Four years were spent on the preliminary translation by the six groups.
The
translators were exacting and particular in their work, as related in
their
preface:
Neither did we disdain to revise that which we had done, and to bring back
to
the anvil that which we had hammered: but having and using as great helps
as
were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise
for
expedition, we have at the length, through the good hand of the Lord upon
us,
brought the work to that pass that you see.
The conferences of each of the six being ended, nine months were spent at
Stationers' Hall in London for review and revision of the work by two men
each from the Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford companies. The final
revision was then completed by Myles Smith and Thomas Bilson, with a
preface
supplied by Smith.
The completed work was issued in 1611, the complete title page reading:
"THE HOLY BIBLE, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly
Translated
out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently
compared and revised, by his Majesties Special Commandment. Appointed to
be
read in Churches. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the
Kings
most Excellent Majestie. ANNO DOM. 1611."
The New Testament had a separate title page, the whole of it reading:
"THE NEWE Testament of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. Newly Translated
out of the Originall Greeke: and with the former Translations diligently
compared and revised, by his Majesties speciall Commandment. IMPRINTED at
London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie.
ANNO
DOM. 1611. Cum Privilegio."
The King James Bible was, in its first editions, even larger than the
Great
Bible. It was printed in black letter with small italicized Roman type to
represent those words not in the original languages.
A dedicatory epistle to King James, which also enhanced the completed
work,
recalled the King's desire that "there should be onemore exact Translation
of
the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue." The translators expressed
that
they were "poor instruments to make GOD'S holy Truth to be yet more and
more
known" while at the same time recognizing that "Popish persons" sought to
keep the people "in ignorance and darkness."
The Authorized Version, as it came to be called, went through several
editions and revisions. Two notable editions were that of 1629, the first
ever printed at Cambridge, and that of 1638, also at Cambridge, which was
assisted by John Bois and Samuel Ward, two of the original translators. In
1657, the Parliament considered another revision, but it came to naught.
The
most im****tant editions were those of the 1762 Cambridge revision by
Thomas
Paris, and the 1769 Oxford revision by Benjamin Blayney. One of the
earliest
concrdances was A Concordance to the Bible of the Last Translation, by
John
Down-ham, affixed to a printing of 1632. The Authorized Version eclipsed
all
previous versions of the Bible. The Geneva Bible was last printed in 1644,
but the notes continued to be published with the King James text.
Subsequent
versions of the Bible were likewise eclipsed, for theAuthorized Version
was
the Bible until the advent of the Revised Version and ensuing modern
translations. It is still accepted as such by its defenders, and
recognized
as so by its detractors.
Alexander Geddes (d. 1802), a Roman Catholic priest, who in 1792 issued
the
first colume of his own translation of the Bible, accordingly paid tribute
to
the Bible of his time:
"The highest eulogiums have been made on the translation of James the
First,
both by our own writers and by foreigners. And, indeed, if accuracy,
fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be
supposed
to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions,
must, in general, be accounted the most excellent. Every sentence, every
work, every syllable, every letter and point, seem to have been weighed
with
the nicest exactitude; and expressed, either in the text, or margin, with
the
greatest precision."
As to whether the Authorized Version was ever officially "authorized,"
Brooke
Westcott, one of the members of the committee that produced the Revised
Version, and the editor, with Fenton Hort, of an edition of the Greek New
Testament, stated that:
>From the middle of the seventeenth century, the King's Bible has been the
acknowledged Bible of the English-speaking nations throughout the world
simply because it is the best. A revision which embodied the ripe fruits
of
nearly a century of labour, and appealed to the religious instinct of a
great
Christian people, gained by its own internal character a vital authority
which could never have been secured by any edict of sovereign rulers.
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