How the King James Version was Translated

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How the King James Version was Translated

The colorful sixteenth century came to an end with the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603.1 England was now a power in Europe; the Spanish Armada had been defeated; Drake had sailed around the world and Raleigh had tried to establish colonies in America; the English Church was now definitely separated from the Church of Rome; England and Scotland were united under one crown; English literature was bursting into full flower with Shakespeare, Bacon, Spenser and--The King James Bible.

One of the first tasks which King James I faced was the reconciliation of various religious parties; one of their more serious differences of opinion was over the Bible versions. The Bishops' Bible and the Great Bible were in the churches, but the people were buying the editions of the Geneva Bible that poured from the presses of England and the Netherlands. No one knew just which faction James would uphold. To investigate these and other difficulties he called a conference at Hampton Court in January 1604, which was to issue in the preparation of the version now bearing his name. At the conference the translation of the Scripture passages in the Book of Common Prayer was criticized. Dr. John Reynolds, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and spokesman for the Puritan group, proposed a new translation that would have had the approval of the whole Church. The king at once fell in with the idea and proposed "this bee done by the best learned in both Vniuersities, after them to bee reuiewed by the Bishops, and the chiefe learned of the Church; from them to bee presented to the Priuie-Councell; and lastly to bee ratified by his Royall authoritie, and so this whole Church to be bound vnto it, and none other."

During the summer a list of fifty-four learned men was approved, and the king requested that livings be secured to finance them while at work, a further circular coming from Bancroft, representing the then-vacant see of Canterbury. It appears that these requests had meager results; the king contributed nothing and the revisers seem to have received only their entertainment while at the colleges. One of the most valuable Hebrew scholars, Mr. Lively, died before the work was actually begun, and there were other delays. 2

The group of scholars secured was notably competent, but they were also to be guided by a definite set of rules. The Bishops' Bible was to be the basis. Proper names were to be preserved as nearly as possible in the original; old ecclesiastical words such as "church" were to be retained; in cases of words of "divers significations," that most commonly used by the "Ancient Fathers" was to be kept.

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 express'd in the Text.

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.

As any one Company hath dispatched any one book in this Manner they shall send it to the rest, to be consider'd of seriously and judiciously, for his Majesty is very careful in this Point.

If any Company, upon 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.

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 Judgement of such a Place.

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.

These Translations to be used when they agree better with the Text than the Bishops' Bible: Tindoll's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's, Geneva.

There was to be only a minimum number of marginal references; all learned clergy were to be instructed by the bishops to send in suggestions, and any "ancient and grave Divines" in either University, not engaged on the translation, were to be assigned overseers of the translation, particularly for obscure words from Hebrew and Greek.

Dr. Anthony Walker, the biographer of Dr. John Bois, tells how Bois worked at St. John's College all week, returning on Saturday to his parish to preach on Sunday; and when he had done his own section he did another's, "but I forbear to name both the person and the house." Dr. Walker infers that some university men did not take with particularly good grace the appointment of this country preacher to so scholarly a task. After four years three copies of the whole Bible were sent from Cambridge, Oxford and Westminster to London, and two out of each company were chosen to review the whole and prepare one copy for the press. Dr. Bois was sent with Mr. Downes, and daily they met with two others each, from Oxford and Westminster, in Stationers' Hall for three-quarters of a year. The Company of Stationers paid them each three shillings a week. Bois was, according to Dr. Walker, the only one to take notes. These notes, which provide an intimate account of how the translators proceeded in their work, remained undiscovered since 1688 until 1964 when Professor Ward Allen successfully traced a hand-written copy of them to the Corpus Christi College Library at Oxford University among the papers of William Fulman, a seventeenth-century antiquarian and collector. The final Committee consisted of twelve from Westminster, Cambridge and Oxford, and the actual translation occupied about two years and nine months--nine months more being spent in the final preparation for the press. The printer, Robert Barker, later stated that he had paid L3,500 toward this revision. The work was finally overseen by Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and Miles Smith, afterwards Dean of Gloucester.

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