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The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV) is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I.
- King James Version (Disambiguation)
The King James Version is an English translation of the...
- William Tyndale
William Tyndale (/ ˈ t ɪ n d əl /; sometimes spelled...
- Lollards
In this 19th-century illustration, John Wycliffe is shown...
- English Translations of The Bible
A study published in 2014 by The Center for the Study of...
- Byzantine Text-Type
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- King James Version (Disambiguation)
- Overview
- Background
- Preparation and early editions
- Reputation since the early 20th century
King James Version (KJV), English translation of the Bible, published in 1611 under the auspices of King James I of England. The translation had a marked influence on English literary style and was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the mid-17th to the early 20th century.
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) succeeded in imposing a high degree of uniformity upon the Church of England. Protestantism was reinstated as the official religion of England after the short reign of Mary I (1553–58), who had attempted to restore Roman Catholicism in the country. In 1604, soon after James’s coronation as king of England,...
Given the perceived need for a new authorized translation, James was quick to appreciate the broader value of the proposal and at once made the project his own. By June 30, 1604, James had approved a list of 54 revisers, although extant records show that 47 scholars actually participated. They were organized into six companies, two each working separately at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge on sections of the Bible assigned to them. Richard Bancroft (1544–1610), archbishop of Canterbury, served as overseer and established doctrinal conventions for the translators. The new Bible was published in 1611.
Not since the Septuagint—the Greek-language version of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) produced between the 3rd and the 2nd centuries bce—had a translation of the Bible been undertaken under royal sponsorship as a cooperative venture on so grandiose a scale. An elaborate set of rules was contrived to curb individual proclivities and to ensure the translation’s scholarly and nonpartisan character. In contrast to earlier practice, the new version was to use vulgar forms of proper names (e.g., “Jonas” or “Jonah” for the Hebrew “Yonah”), in keeping with its aim to make the Scriptures popular and familiar. The translators used not only extant English-language translations, including the partial translation by William Tyndale (c. 1490–1536), but also Jewish commentaries to guide their work. The wealth of scholarly tools available to the translators made their final choice of rendering an exercise in originality and independent judgment. For this reason, the new version was more faithful to the original languages of the Bible and more scholarly than any of its predecessors. The impact of the original Hebrew upon the revisers was so pronounced that they seem to have made a conscious effort to imitate its rhythm and style in their translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. The literary style of the English New Testament actually turned out to be superior to that of its Greek original.
In the early 20th century the King James Version fell into disfavour among many mainstream Protestant churches, which viewed it as antiquated. Beginning in the middle of the century, they increasingly turned to more-modern translations, such as the Revised Standard Version (1952), the New International Version (1978), and the New Revised Standard Version (1989). The King James Version, however, remained a popular source for the more famous Psalms and for the Gospels.
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English-speaking Roman Catholics used an authorized English Bible, the Douai-Reims (1609), which was produced from the Latin Vulgate by English Catholic exiles in France, who also worked from many of the same English sources used by translators of the King James Version. Yet among English Catholics the King James Version was widely accepted from the 18th century; moreover, when the Douai-Reims Bible was updated in the mid-18th century, the translator, Richard Challoner (1691–1781), a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, largely worked from the King James Version. Both the King James Version and the Douai-Reims Bible were finally supplanted in popularity by the Jerusalem Bible (1966).
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Sep 26, 2023 · KJV Pressroom Study Bibles. September 26, 2023. Thomas Nelson, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, announces the release of the Woman’s Study Bible in the King James Version. This new full-color edition joins those previously published in the NIV and NKJV translations.
Oct 28, 2010 · Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611–2011. Gordon Campbell. Published: 28 October 2010. Cite. Permissions. Share. Abstract. Produced during the lifetime of William Shakespeare and John Donne, the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible has long been viewed as the most elegantly written and poetic of the many English translations.
These King James Version Bibles are thoughtfully compiled especially for a woman’s distinctive lifestyle and needs—Bibles for study, devotional reading, and artful journaling—Bibles encouraging her to understand and apply God’s Word in the unique challenges she faces.
The King James Version, completed in 1611, was the most influential English translation of the Bible for centuries. Consider this history and these words of praise for the King James Version from the preface to the Revised Standard Version. After outlining the earlier English translations of William Tyndale and others, the RSV preface says:
The King James Version was the most widespread English Bible of all time, but it has largely been superseded by modern translations. Some New Testaments verses found to be later additions to the text are not included in modern English translations , despite appearing in older English translations such as the King James Version.