Bible Translation Part 3: Journey to the KJV

The history of English Bible translation is long and somewhat rocky. England was one of the last European countries to have any printed Scripture. Most steps faced opposition, but the work of successive translators benefited those who followed them. Gradually, improvements were made in both accuracy and readability.

Although portions of the Bible were translated into English as early as the 600s,  the first complete English translation was not produced until the 1380s. John Wycliffe did the bulk of the work, and his translation was actually completed by others after his death. The Catholic church banned his Bible, and laws made it illegal to own or read an English Bible. Because it was hand-written, this Bible was not readily affordable.

The first printed English New Testament was translated by William Tyndale in 1526. Because of a law against translating the Bible into English, Tyndale was severely persecuted and fled to Germany, where he continued his translation work. Even in Germany, he had to print his New Testament secretly; it was then smuggled into England. He continued to face opposition, but also translated much of the Old Testament before being burned at the stake.

In 1535, Miles Coverdale was the first to produce a complete printed English Bible. Not knowing Hebrew or Greek, he relied heavily on Tyndale's work, as well as translating from German, Latin, and Swiss Bibles. Coverdale faced opposition as well, but by dedicating his Bible to the king, he got away with printing an unauthorized Bible.

In 1537, John Rogers published a printed English Bible under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. He used manuscripts given to him by Tyndale for much of the Old Testament and revised Coverdale's work for the remainder. This Bible was able to be distributed more freely because it was licensed by the king.

The Great Bible, produced in 1539, was a revision of the Matthews (Rogers) Bible commissioned to Coverdale.  Designed for public use, this large Bible was chained in churches, and all churches were ordered to purchase one. Illiterate people paid to have it read to them or to be taught to read.

When Bloody Mary became queen and favored Catholicism, reading the Bible was again banned. Many Protestants fled England, and a group of exiled scholars in Switzerland published the Geneva Bible in 1560. It was the first English Bible to be translated entirely from the original languages. It was well-loved and popular due to its portable size, affordability, and many features that aided readability and enhanced understanding.

The Bishop's Bible in 1568 was published as an official version to compete with the unauthorized Geneva Bible. This Bible, designed to please the monarchy and the established church, was neither exemplary nor well-received.

The King James Version was translated  between 1607 and 1611. It was called the Authorized Version because the king commissioned it; he wanted a version amenable to him without the marginal notes that he found offensive in other existing versions. It was a new translation, utilizing the best manuscripts available at that time (younger, majority), as well as relying on previous English and several foreign translations. The translators' instructions were to follow the Bishop's Bible as much as possible, or any of the preceding English Bibles if they matched the text better.

The group of scholars who did the translation had careful rules and many checks to improve accuracy. Having learned from errors in earlier translations, they were able to correct previous mistakes. The KJV also excelled in elegance of language, catching the rhythm of Elizabethan English.

The marginal notes were not to provide commentary, but merely to clarify the text. Realizing that their knowledge was incomplete, especially for words appearing only once in the manuscripts, the translators used notes to indicate possible alternative readings. Other marginal notes provided literal readings or acknowledged variations among manuscripts.

In the preface the translators acknowledged, "Notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be noted in the setting forth of it." Just as the scribes of the Old Testament and the copyists of the New Testament were imperfect, so were the translators and printers. The translators welcomed corrections that would make their Bible more accurate and readable.

In fact, due to the size of the initial printing in 1611, two simultaneous editions were produced to accommodate the order, and the two had differences between them. In the first three years, there were seventeen editions, with sometimes hundreds of corrections made in each edition. There was a constant effort to correct translation and printing errors, while hopefully not introducing new errors. Some shocking printing errors occurred, such as the Wicked Bible's "Thou shalt commit adultery" in 1631 and the Unrighteous Bible's "The unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God" in 1653. By 1800, there had been approximately 1,000 editions of the KJV, introducing tens of thousands of minor variations in an effort to enhance accuracy by correcting known problems.

The KJV translators also stated that there was "no reason therefore why the Word translated should be denied to be the Word or forbidden to be current." In addition to correcting translation and printing errors, they also engaged in periodic revisions to update wording as the English language changed. Numerous language changes were made, including one in 1755 by John Wesley; he made 12,000 translation changes in order to update the text into current speech. Eventually the process of updating the language stopped. The KJV Bible currently used by most people is based on Benjamin Blayney's 1769 edition, with few changes being made since then.

The KJV faced opposition from the Catholic church, which still did not want an English Bible, as well as from conservatives, because most of the very conservative men were left off the translation committees. The Geneva Bible was previously popular with the common people, but with the KJV's authorized status, high quality, and ready availability, it became the Bible of choice, was widely received for hundreds of years, and has stood the test of time.

(Much of this information is taken from "A Pictorial History of Our English Bible" by David Beale.)