• Authorised Version (KJV)

By “text” is meant the Hebrew and Greek wording of the Bible, from which translations are made into English and other languages. A good text is one that can be trusted as a faithful copy of the words which God originally inspired. The text of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament is available in printed editions, which are in turn based on handwritten copies known as “manuscripts”.

The Hebrew and Greek editions which were used by the Authorised Version translators were based on only a few manuscripts. In the centuries which have passed since 1611, when the Authorised Version was published, several thousands of manuscripts have been discovered which were not used by the early translators. The majority of such manuscripts have been proved to be substantially in agreement with the Authorised Version, and the general reliability of the text used for this version has been confirmed.

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Because of their reverent regard for the Bible as the inspired Word of God, the translators felt that they should very carefully set down in English all that was written by the inspired writers. They were conscious of the strict commands in Deuteronomy 4.2, that God’s people should not add to His Word or take anything away from it. Modern versions quite often commit both of these errors, and the reader loses as a result.

For instance, in John 1.17 John wrote, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. The Authorised Version puts this in simple English, with nothing added and nothing taken away.

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The Holy Bible is the Word of a Holy God, and a translation should be in language appropriate to the Divine Author. The Bible was written by holy men of God who “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1.21), so a translation should use language and style appropriate to the inspired writers. The Bible speaks of many important and solemn matters such as eternal life, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, sin and salvation, lost sinners and their Divine Saviour, the Eternal Son of the Eternal God. A translation should therefore be in language and style appropriate to the subject matter.

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Some of the old manuscripts favoured by modern scholars leave out or alter some of the most important passages which declare that our Redeemer is equal and co-eternal with God, and that He is Himself “God manifest in the flesh”. This great testimony in 1 Timothy 3.16 is weakened or lost in nearly every modern version. In many also the testimony of Mark 1.1 is lost, where in the Authorised Version we read “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. The modern versions tend to omit or question the statement that He is “the Son of God” (see also John 6.69 and 9.35). In Hebrews 1.8, God the Father addresses the Son as God: “Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever”. In many modern versions this testimony is weakened or lost.

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No other version has taken its place in this respect. The greatest evangelists and expositors of the last 350 years have used this version for their ministries, and by means of it God has blessed millions of people with the light and truth of the Gospel of Christ.

There are hundreds of thousands of Christian people in Africa, India, the Far East and the West Indies, who use this version and want no other. During recent years, the Trinitarian Bible Society has sent hundreds of thousands of copies of the Authorised Version into Africa, where it is read by Africans whose language is English. It is the Bible they know and love, and from which the Gospel is preached to them.

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Why this Message – on a 400 year-old Book? A simple answer: To inform, edify and provide for possible witness opportunities.

A Christian friend recently emailed me an article by Peter Hitchens of The Daily Mail about The Authorized Version. This article is a comment on the 400th anniversary of the 1611 Holy Bible, for which a special trust has been set up with HRH Charles the Prince of Wales as Patron.

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Why this Story – about a 400 year-old Book? A simple answer: Because of its effect on: (1) the nation’s leaders; (2) the nation’s life; (3) the nation’s enemies.

(1) The nation’s leaders. e.g. HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales. This is an American Independent KJB Baptist pastor quoting The Daily Telegraph, Dec. 20, 1989, no. 41,832, his emphases.

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We continue with an outline of how that glorious British Protestant Bible came into being. None can introduce better the overall incentive for the work than the learned men, the King James translators themselves, according to the preface to the 1611 Holy Bible, entitled The Translators To The Reader as the following extract shows:

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With James having granted the Puritans’ petition, the next step was to choose the translators. The ones eventually chosen could be summed up as:

Two of James 1st’s most trusted advisers were Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London and later Archbishop of Canterbury and Robert Cecil, who became the Earl of Salisbury. The king charged them with appointing the men to compile the new bible and by the end of summer 1604 they had selected a total of 47 scholars for the work. As indicated, these 47 scholars were both high and low churchmen.

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19th century historian Alexander McClure wrote this, his emphases: “As to the capability of those men, we may say again, that, by the good providence of God, their work was undertaken in a fortunate time. Not only had the English language…then ripened to its full perfection, but the study of Greek, and of the oriental tongues [including Hebrew], and of rabbinical [Jewish] lore, had then been carried to a greater extent in England than ever before or since. This particular field of learning has never been so highly cultivated among English divines [scholars] as it was at that day…All the colleges of Great Britain and America, even in this proud day of boastings, could not bring together the same number of divines equally qualified by learning and piety for the great undertaking.”

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