A Brief History of the King James Bible
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As the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603) was coming to a close, we find a draft for an act of Parliament for a new version of the Bible: "An act for the reducing of diversities of bibles now extant in the English tongue to one settled vulgar translated from the original."
The Bishop's Bible of 1568, although it may have eclipsed the Great Bible, was still rivaled by the Geneva Bible. Nothing ever became of this draft during the reign of Elizabeth, who died in 1603, and was succeeded by James 1, as the throne passed from the Tudors to the Stuarts. James was at that time James VI of Scotland, and had been for thirty-seven years. He was born during the period between the Geneva and the Bishop's Bible.
One of the first things done by the new king was the calling of the Hampton Court Conference in January of 1604 "for the hearing, and for the determining, things pretended to be amiss in the church." Here were assembled bishops, clergymen, and professors, along with four Puritan divines, to consider the complaints of the Puritans.
Although Bible revision was not on the agenda, the Puritan president of Corpus Christi College, John Reynolds, "moved his Majesty, that there might be a new translation of the Bible, because those which were allowed in the reigns of Henry the eighth, and Edward the sixth, were corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the Original." The king rejoined that he: "Could never yet see a Bible well translated in English; but I think that, of all, that of Geneva is the worst. I wish some special pains were taken for an uniform translation, which should be done by he best learned men in both Universities, then reviewed by the Bishops, presented to the Privy Council, lastly ratified by the Royal authority, to be read in the whole Church, and none other."
Accordingly, a resolution came forth: "That a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek; and this to be set out and printed, without any marginal notes, and only to be used in all churches of England in time of divine service." The next step was the actual selection of the men who were to perform the work. In July of 1604, James wrote to Bishop Bancroft that he had "appointed certain learned men, to the number of four and fifty, for the translating of the Bible." These men were the best biblical scholars and linguists of their day.
In the preface to their completed work it is further stated that "there were many chosen, that were greater in other men's eyes than in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise. Again, they came or were thought to come to the work, learned, not to learn." Other men were sought out, according to James, "so that our said intended translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned men within this our kingdom." Although fifty-four men were nominated, only forty-seven were known to have taken part in the work of translation.
The translators were organized into six groups, and met respectively at Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford. Ten at Westminster were assigned Genesis through 2 Kings; seven had Romans through Jude. At Cambridge, eight worked on 1 Chronicles through Ecclesiastes, while seven others handled the Apocrypha. Oxford employed seven to translate Isaiah through Malachi; eight occupied themselves with the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.
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The work began to take shape in 1604 and progressed steadily. The translators expressed their early thoughts in their preface as: "Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one,...but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against, that hath been our endeavor."
They had at their disposal all the previous English translations to which they did not disdain: "We are so far off from condemning any of their labors that travailed before us in this kind, either in this land or beyond sea, either in King Henry's time, or King Edward's...or Queen Elizabeth's of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God, for the building and furnishing of his Church, and that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting remembrance."
And, as the translators themselves also acknowledged, they had a multitude of sources from which to draw from: "Neither did we think much to consult the Translators or Commentators, CHaldee, Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Latin, no nor the Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch." The Greek editions of Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza were all accessible, as were the COmplutensian and Antwerp Polyglots, and the Latin translations of Pagninus, Termellius, and Beza. Four years were spent on the preliminary translation by the six groups.
New Age Bible Versions by auther Gail Riplinger
The translators were exacting and particular in their work, as related in their preface: Neither did we disdain to revise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered: but having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at the length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass that you see. The conferences of each of the six being ended, nine months were spent at Stationers' Hall in London for review and revision of the work by two men each from the Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford companies. The final revision was then completed by Myles Smith and Thomas Bilson, with a preface supplied by Smith.
by Dr. Laurence M. Vance
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The 400th Anniversary Of The King James 1611 Bible
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The 100 Day Countdown In Celebration Of The Book That God Wrote
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"Where the word of a king is, there is power" Ecclesiastes 8:4
100 Day Countdown!
Today, NTEB starts our 100 Day Countdown to the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible, which was first published on May 6th, 1611. We are proud to stand with and stand on the King James Authorized 1611 Holy Bible as the revealed word of God, as God wrote it, and as God has preserved it. God promised to always have His word here on earth, forever, and available to all those who seek it's Truth. NTEB is proud to say that, yes, we do have the word of God, each and every word. So for the next 100 days, Dr. John McTernan and NTEB will be bringing you awesome and amazing testimony, stories, video and insights in THE Book that God wrote.
The Book that God wrote has withstood every challenge thrown at it, as well as the test of time.
My Personal Testimony Of The King James Bible - by Dr. John McTernan
Through my teen years and up until I was 26, I was an atheist. I had never owned a Bible and never even read a verse from the Bible. I even never heard of John 3:16! I remember briefly listening to Billy Graham and thinking he was crazy. I was not hostile towards the Bible. It just was irrelevant to me.
In August 1974, I had stopped and listened to a Jewish man preaching the gospel on the street. I had nothing to do, so I stayed and listened. He spoke about Bible prophecy connected to Israel and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. His history about Israel caught my attention, as I was a budding historian, and in my mind was verifying what he was saying. He was very accurate with history, which gave him credibility to me. When he shared the prophecy of Christ's first coming, I was astonished along with the verses about the restoration of the nation of Israel.
John used the King James Bible to defeat judaism's top apologist, Tovia Singer, in a 2-part debate on
Jesus of Nazareth's claim to be Israel's promised Messiah. (Click image to order this excellent resource).
He had established the authority of the Bible through prophecy, which I could not deny. This was the first time I heard anything like this, but I knew in my heart it was truth. At the end, he gave a call to receive Christ as Savior, to which I responded. Right there in the street, I went from an atheist to a believer in the Lord Jesus. I never turned to the left or right but stayed on course with the Lord.
Since I did not own a Bible, I needed one and ended up getting God News For Modern Man. I had this translation for about three months and was not getting much out of it. I met a pastor who was selling Thompson Chain, King James Bibles. They were new, and he wanted only $10.00 as the covers were soiled. I used that Bible for years until the cover fell apart and the pages fell away.
As I read it, I immediately felt the power. I was obtaining understanding and now clearly understood verses. I literally threw the other translation away. Reading was very difficult for me. At this time, I was not aware that the problem was caused by dyslexia. What I did find was that as I thought on a verse, it brought a soothing to my mind. I could feel it. This led me to start memorizing verses instead of reading the Bible. I found that memorizing was far easier for me than reading, so I spent vast amounts of time memorizing and mediating upon the Bible. Soon I had significant amounts of the Bible memorized including entire books. I found that memorizing the King James Scriptures was easy and actually fun. The dyslexia was no hindrance on my ability to memorize. I tried other versions but was unable to memorize even one verse! At this time, I was unaware of any differences between the translations. I put enormous amounts of time in this effort but found it impossible to memorize one verse. I simply gave up and went back to the King James, which once again I found so easy. (I developed a memorization course which I taught for years. What I am going to do is post this course on my website. I will go into detail about this course in a later posting.)
I stayed with the King James until briefly switching over to the New King James. I read Gail Riplinger's book New Age Bible Versions. This book had a huge impact on me as I spent a good part of a year verifying her research about the differences in various translations compared to the King James. Based on the leading of the Holy Spirit, her book and my independent research, I came to the conclusion that the King James translation was the correct one.
God would lead me into defending the faith from all types of unbelievers. I spent thousands of hours in both email and formal debates with Jews, Muslims and every type of belief system you can image. Against all of them, I used only the King James to defend the faith, and it easily withstood the test. From the knowledge I gained from defending the faith against all this opposition, I wrote three books. I exclusively use the King James version to articulate my knowledge. With using the King James, there is absolutely no problem in understanding what the Bible is stating. The King James makes it very clear with power.
All I ever used was the King James against every attack from unbelievers that you can imagine! I am in awe of this Bible. It is the word of God for us. This is not so with the other translations, and in a later posting I will give you specific examples of how it is impossible to defend the faith with the other translations. The leading Muslim and Jewish apologists know the pitfalls of these modern translations and use them when attacking Christianity. I was protected from this attack by using the King James Bible. This is not a theory as I lived this.
I know from life experience of being able to memorize vast amounts of the Bible and seeing the results from defending the faith from every attack possible, that the King James Bible is God's word for us today. There is great power in the King James Bible that is not found in other translations. Many Christians lack power in their life, and maybe the source of the problem is the the Bible they are reading.
"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."
Jude 1:3
Click here to visit Dr. John McTernan's INSIGHTS blog
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