The Story of Our King James Bible

1. The Story of Our King James Bible Other early editions

2. There were 2 exceptions to Barker’s monopoly • The University of Cambridge • The University of Oxford • Cambridge was the first to compete with the King’s printer (Robert Barker)

3. There was some legal wrangling • In 1534, Henry VIII had granted a charter to Cambridge to print • But in 1623 the king’s privy council refused permission to Cambridge to print Bibles • With the ascension of Charles the I (1628), he restored the 1534 charter

4. The first Cambridge edition was published in 1629 • It was much higher quality than Barker’s • It made 200+ changes to the text

5. Many of these changes standardized names • The 1611 used “Sem,” and “Shem,” “Caldees,” and “Chaldees,” for example • Most of the other changes dealt with grammar: singular and plural forms of words • Song of Solomon 4.6 had mountains, and hill • The Cambridge made both singular

6. The only revision of a verse… • Is Job 4.6 • Which was redrafted 3 times • Until the form in which we have it, which dates to the second Cambridge edition, 1638 • Which is viewed as the best Bible of the 17th century Bibles • With the exception of Acts 6.3, in which “ye” was changed to “we”

7. Oxford obtained permission in 1632 • But accepted payments in lieu of printing for 40 years • So the first Oxford Bible wasn’t printed until 1673 • The 1679 Oxford used an unusual dating system: ”anno mundi”-numbering years consecutively from creation.

8. In 1701 the chronology changed again: James Ussher’s was used • He dated creation as Saturday, October 22, 4004 BC (on the Calendar then in use) • By 1683 Oxford was the largest printer of Bibles in England

9. The reception of the KJV • Puritans were generally happy, but disliked the Apocrypha • In the early 17th century, Bishop’s Bibles were replaced with KJV’s in Churches • Opposition to the KJV generally took the form of buying another translation-Geneva • After 1644 it was no longer printed or imported

10. The Civil war (1649) saw little impact • Some KJV’s were printed with Geneva’s notes • There was a Parliamentary call for a revision of the KJV • Some wanted to review the translation • Others wanted to deal with the misprinted editions • Nothing ever came of it

11. By 1660 (the Restoration) • Most attacks on the KJV had ended • All the Protestant factions accepted it