The King James Version and the English Bibles Before It
The King James Version was published in 1611, after other English translations had already circulated. The Geneva Bible appeared in 1560, and the Bishops' Bible followed in 1568. Earlier still, portions of Scripture had been translated into Middle English, with the first complete English Bibles probably produced by followers of John Wycliffe. Those Wycliffite Bibles preceded the printing press and circulated widely as manuscripts. Their association with the Lollards led to an effective, though not formal, ban in 1409. Large portions of Scripture were translated into Middle English during the fourteenth century.
William Tyndale undertook an English New Testament in 1525. His translation was the first printed New Testament in English, and he continued revising that work over the following decade as biblical scholarship advanced. He also began translating the Old Testament. Myles Coverdale later edited and adapted Tyndale's translations, removing offensive notes. In 1539, Tyndale's New Testament and unfinished Old Testament work became the basis for the Great Bible. Issued by the Church of England during Henry VIII's reign, that Bible was its first authorized version. Tyndale's prose style helped make his translation the basis for subsequent renditions into Early Modern English.
Another route ran through Geneva. When Mary I became queen in 1553, she returned the Church of England to communion with the Catholic faith. Many English religious reformers fled, and some established an English-speaking community in the Protestant city of Geneva. The translation they undertook became the Geneva Bible, revising Tyndale's Bible and the Great Bible against the original languages. Small editions at relatively low prices helped make it popular with Elizabethan lay readers. The King James Version would later emerge in a landscape where the Geneva translation already had a substantial readership, alongside concerns about its notes and church organization.
Church authorities found problems in both the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible after Elizabeth I's accession. In particular, the Geneva translation did not reflect the Church of England's episcopal structure and beliefs about ordained clergy. The church responded with the Bishops' Bible, revising the Great Bible in light of the Geneva version. Official approval did not make it the most popular English Bible. Its first edition was a large folio, but a smaller quarto edition followed in 1569. Meanwhile, Catholic exiles produced the Douay-Rheims New Testament of 1582, translated from the Latin Vulgate.
King James convened the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, where a new English translation was proposed in response to perceived problems in earlier versions. He directed the translators to reflect the Church of England's organization and traditional beliefs about clergy. Familiar ecclesiastical terms mattered: 'church' was to remain rather than being replaced by 'congregation.' Marginal notes were restricted, following objections to Geneva annotations that James considered offensive to royal supremacy. The King James Version thus took shape through decisions about wording, church authority, and commentary as well as the translation of biblical languages. James objected particularly to notes commending civil disobedience to the Egyptian Pharaoh by the Hebrew midwives.
The Bishops' Bible served as the translators' primary guide, and familiar proper names were to remain. When difficulties arose, they could consult an approved group of earlier translations, including Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew's Bible, the Great Bible, and Geneva. The New Testament used the Greek Textus Receptus compiled by Erasmus; the Old Testament used the Hebrew Masoretic text. Work on the Apocrypha drew on the Septuagint or, where Greek was unavailable, the Latin Vulgate. The King James Version combined attention to these languages with comparison and revision of earlier English translations, a process acknowledged on the flyleaf of most printings.
The translation task involved 47 scholars, although 54 had originally been approved. All belonged to the Church of England, and all except Sir Henry Savile were clergy. They worked in six committees, with two each at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster. The committees translated separate portions, then compared and revised drafts for harmony. They began toward the end of 1604 and completed their sections by 1608. A general review committee met at Stationers' Hall in London from January 1609. The scholars received no direct payment for translating; some had college support, while church appointments and royal patronage supported others.
Robert Barker, the King's Printer, published the King James Version as a complete folio Bible. The original selling price is not known. The printing came before English spelling was standardized, and printers expanded or contracted spellings to make even columns. Blackletter type appeared in the initial printing, while smaller editions and roman-type editions followed rapidly, including quarto editions in 1612. Two editions published in 1611 differed in Ruth 3:15: one said 'he went into the city,' and another said 'she went into the city.' That variation gave them their colloquial names, the 'He' and 'She' Bibles.
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