Published 1611 (revised 1769)
King James Version (KJV)
Commissioned by King James I of England in 1604 and published in 1611, the King James Version (also called the Authorized Version) is the most influential English Bible ever produced. Its rhythms shaped English literature for four centuries.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Translators
47 scholars of the Church of England, working in six committees in Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford
Source text
Hebrew Masoretic Text (Old Testament), Textus Receptus (New Testament), with reference to the Latin Vulgate and earlier English translations including Tyndale, Coverdale, Geneva, and the Bishops' Bible.
Language
Early Modern English (17th century)
Copyright
Public domain — free to read, share, and quote.
History
- 1604 — King James I convenes the Hampton Court Conference and authorizes a new English translation.
- 1607 — Translation work begins in six companies of scholars.
- 1611 — The translation is published by Robert Barker, the King's Printer.
- 1769 — The Oxford standard edition by Benjamin Blayney standardizes spelling and corrects printing errors. This is the text most modern readers know as 'the KJV.'
Strengths
- Literary cadence and memorability that no modern translation has matched.
- Word-for-word correspondence to the underlying Hebrew and Greek where English grammar allows.
- Public domain in most jurisdictions (the Crown patent applies only in the United Kingdom).
Notes for readers
- Uses 'thee', 'thou', and verb forms like 'sayest' — these were already slightly formal in 1611 and signaled reverence even then.
- Italicized words in printed editions are supplied by the translators for English grammar; they are not in the original languages.
- The underlying New Testament text (Textus Receptus) is based on a small number of late Greek manuscripts. Modern translations typically use the Critical Text, which incorporates older manuscript discoveries.
Compare with
World English Bible (WEB)
The World English Bible is a freely-distributable, modern-English revision of the ASV. It keeps the literal, formal-equivalence approach of its parent translation while replacing archaic 'thee/thou' language with contemporary speech.
American Standard Version (ASV)
The American Standard Version is the American counterpart to the English Revised Version (1881–1885). It became the most widely-used scholarly translation of the early 20th century and is the parent text of the RSV, NASB, and WEB.