Bible

Abstract

Abstract Produced during the lifetime of William Shakespeare and John Donne, the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible has long been viewed as the most elegantly written and poetic of the many English translations. Now reaching its 400th anniversary, it remains one of the most frequently used Bibles in the English-speaking world, especially in America. This book offers an authoritative history of this renowned translation, ranging from the Bible's inception to the present day. The text tells the complex story of how this translation came to be commissioned, who the translators were, and how the translation was accomplished. The book does not end with the printing of that first edition, but also traces the textual history from 1611 to the establishment of the modern text by Oxford University Press in 1769, shedding light on the subsequent generations who edited and interacted with the text and bringing to life the controversies surrounding later revisions. In addition, the book examines the reception of the KJV, showing how its popularity has shifted through time and territory, ranging from adulation to deprecation and attracting the attention of a wide variety of adherents. Since the KJV is more widely read in America today than in any other country, the book pays particular attention to the history of the KJV in the United States. Finally, the volume includes appendices that contain short biographies of the translators and a guide to the 74-page preliminaries of the 1611 edition.