Did you know that the King James Version of the Bible was conceived to do away with much confusion and dissension from users of the earliest Bible versions among the Church of England, Protestants, and the Roman Catholic Church?

The King James Version, abbreviated as KJV, also known as 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. 

The 80 books of the KJV include 39 books of the Old Testament, 14 books of Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. Noted for its "majesty of style", the KJV has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world.

The KJV of the Bible was not the first English language version of the Bible, but the culmination of extensive translation activity (some illegal!) in the 1500s. This began with the work of William Tyndale and the printing of the first English New Testament in 1526.

Following a tumultuous 75 years, King James I came to power in 1603, unifying a divided England. Three main English Bibles were in use: the Bishops’ Bible (Church of England), the Geneva Bible (Protestants), and the Rheims New Testament (Roman Catholic Church), causing much confusion and dissension. To settle disagreements over reforms in the Church of England and respond to pressure from the Puritans, King James in 1604 approved a new translation of the Bible, primarily because he knew that it would reinforce his image as a political and spiritual leader. He appointed six committees, totaling 54 scholars, to prepare the new translation, using previous English Bible translation work, and using the best Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts and manuscripts. 

The KJV was first printed by John Norton and Robert Barker, who both held the post of the King's Printer, and was the third translation into the English language approved by the English Church authorities: The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second had been the Bishops' Bible, commissioned in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1568).

In Geneva, Switzerland, the first generation of Protestant Reformers had produced the Geneva Bible, which was published in 1560 by Sir Rowland Hill having referred to the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures, which was influential in the writing of the Authorized KJV. The English Church initially used the officially sanctioned "Bishops' Bible", which, however, was hardly used by the population. More popular was the named "Geneva Bible", which was created on the basis of the Tyndale translation in Geneva under the direct successor of the reformer John Calvin for his English followers. However, their footnotes represented a Calvinistic Puritanism that was too radical for King James. 

In particular, the decidedly anti-royalist tone of the Geneva Bible was unbearable for King James I, for he was a strict advocate of divine right. The translators of the Geneva Bible had translated the word king as tyrant about four hundred times—the word tyrant does not appear once in the KJB. Because of this, it has been assumed that King James purposely had the translators of the KJV mistranslate the word "tyrant" as either "troubling", "oppressor," or some other word to avoid people being critical of his monarchy, though there is no evidence to back up that claim.

For his project, King James convened the Hampton Court Conference in January 1604, where a new English version was conceived in response to the problems of the earlier translations perceived by the Puritans, a faction of the Church of England. James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology, and reflect the episcopal structure, of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.

The translation was done by six panels of translators (47 men in all, most of whom were leading biblical scholars in England) who had the work divided up between them: the Old Testament was entrusted to three panels, the New Testament to two, and the Apocrypha to one. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. 

The completed KJV was first published in 1611. These first editions were large pulpit Bibles (folios) to be read in churches, but were followed within a year by the printing of smaller versions (quartos) for personal use. Though slow to be adopted in the English-speaking world and to replace the more popular Geneva Bible, from the mid-1600s to the late 20th century, the KJV was the Bible of the English-speaking church.

By the first half of the 18th century, the AV had become effectively unchallenged as the only English translation used in Anglican and other English Protestant churches, except for the Psalms and some short passages in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Over the course of the 18th century, the AV supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English-speaking scholars. With the development of stereotype printing at the beginning of the 19th century, this version of the Bible had become the most widely printed book in history, almost all such printings presenting the standard text of 1769 extensively re-edited by Benjamin Blayney at Oxford, and nearly always omitting the books of the Apocrypha. Today the unqualified title "King James Version" usually indicates this Oxford standard text. 

Though many recent modern translations have gained in popularity at the expense of the KJV, it remains the standard of measure for all new translations, and it still stands as the outstanding masterpiece of the English language.

Sources: Digital Commons | Wikipedia

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