On May 2, 1611, the English translation of the Scriptures authorized by King James I was published.
The King James Version became the most widely used English translation, and has shaped the culture of the English-speaking peoples. Although the last 50 years have seen many new translations and paraphrases published, the 1611 English Bible remains the go to version, the mainstay, of many pastors, teachers, and casual readers.
In January 1604, King James convened the Hampton Court Conference, a meeting between the king and the English clergy, a faction among whom were the Puritans, the strongly Protestant wing of the Church of England. On the Puritans’ wish list was a new translation of the Scriptures. They got their wish, as King James agreed to commission a new translation.
The translation was done by 6 panels of scholars, 47 men in all, including the leading biblical scholars in England. It was first published on May 2, 1611, which is why it is still referred to as the 1611 Bible. It is now 412 years old.
By the first half of the 18th century, the KJV was unchallenged as the English translation used in Anglican and other English Protestant churches. 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 of Oxford, and nearly always omitting the Apocrypha (although it too had been re-translated).
Today there is a sort of King James Version controversy, which is not a controversy over translation, but rather a manuscript controversy. The KJV was translated from the Greek manuscript called the Textus Receptus, or the “received text,” whereas most of the modern translations of the New Testament have been translated from the “critical text” compiled by Westcott and Hort and published in 1881.
Westcott and Hort sought, through the use of the earliest manuscripts, to pare away what they believed were later embellishment or additions to the Greek Scriptures, but many conservative scholars believe that the so-called “critical text” has critical omissions. Walter Veith has argued that many of Westcott and Hort’s omissions relate to the divinity of Jesus Christ, and that it is easier to prove Christ’s divinity from the KJV.
Which is the best version of Scripture? This question was asked of the panel at the “Hold the Line” seminar at Doug Batchelor’s Granite Bay Church the weekend before last. Clifford Goldstein, who is a Hebrew scholar, argued that the NIV’s translation of the Old Testament better captures the sense of the Hebrew original. Elder Wilson said that his longtime Bible was a KJV, but he had accidentally left it on an airplane, and replaced it with the New King James Version, which he has found to be very readable. He stated that the “best translation” is the one you will actually read, and read regularly. I agree.