Welcome to Authorized Sword Ministries. This is Lesson 4 in our series, Why We Use the King James Bible. Today's lesson is called The History of the 1611 King James Translation.

We're so glad you're here.

In our first lesson we told the story of the King James Bible in just a few minutes. Today we want to slow down and walk through it step by step. Who were the men who made it? How did they work? What rules did they follow? And how did the Bible printed in 1611 become the King James Bible you hold in your hands today? We'll stick to what the historical record shows, and we'll list our sources at the end so you can check every one.

Our Key Verse

Today's key verse is Proverbs 30:5-6.

"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." — Proverbs 30:5-6 (KJV)

Every word of God is pure. That is why it matters so much how a Bible is translated. A translator's job is not to add to God's words or take away from them, but to carry them faithfully into another language.

The English Bibles Before 1611

The King James Bible did not appear out of nowhere. It stands at the end of a long line of English Bibles.

In the 1300s, followers of John Wycliffe made what were probably the first complete Bibles in English. They were copied by hand, because the printing press had not reached England yet. In 1409 those Bibles were effectively banned.

In the 1520s William Tyndale translated the New Testament from the Greek. His was the first printed Bible in English. As we saw in Lesson 1, Tyndale was put to death for his work in 1536. But his words lived on. One careful study estimated that about 84 percent of the King James New Testament is word for word the same as Tyndale's, and about 76 percent of the Old Testament books he finished.

After Tyndale came the Great Bible in 1539, which was the first English Bible officially approved by the Church of England. Then English believers who fled persecution to Geneva made the Geneva Bible in 1560. It was small, cheap, and very popular with ordinary people. Then the church leaders put out the Bishops' Bible in 1568.

By the time King James came to the throne of England in 1603, there were two main English Bibles. The common people loved the Geneva Bible, and the churches officially used the Bishops' Bible.

The Hampton Court Conference

In January 1604, King James called a meeting at Hampton Court Palace. The Puritans in the Church of England had sent him a list of complaints called the Millenary Petition, and the meeting was to answer it.

At that conference a Puritan scholar named John Reynolds, also spelled Rainolds, the President of Corpus Christi College at Oxford, proposed a new translation of the whole Bible. He pointed out places where the older Bibles did not match the Hebrew and Greek. For example, the Great Bible had Psalm 105:28 say, "They were not obedient," when the Hebrew says the opposite. In the King James it reads:

"He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word." — Psalm 105:28 (KJV)

The king agreed to the new translation. He also did not like the notes printed in the margins of the Geneva Bible, so it was decided that the new Bible would have no notes explaining the text. Only short notes about the Hebrew or Greek words would be allowed.

The Rules for the Translators

The translators were given a list of rules. Here are a few of the most important.

First, the Bishops' Bible would be their starting point. They would change it only where the Hebrew and Greek required it.

Second, where they needed help, they could compare earlier English Bibles: Tyndale's, Coverdale's, Matthew's, the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible.

Third, old church words were to be kept. For example, the word "church" was not to be changed to "congregation."

Fourth, no notes in the margin were allowed except to explain Hebrew or Greek words.

That's why the title page of the 1611 Bible says it was "Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised." They went back to the original Hebrew and Greek, and they also stood on the shoulders of the faithful men who had gone before them.

The Men Who Did the Work

The king originally approved fifty-four men, and forty-seven actually did the work. All of them belonged to the Church of England, and all but one were ministers. They came from different sides of the church. Some had Puritan sympathies, and some were high churchmen. They were not paid directly for translating. Instead, the king asked the bishops to give them good church positions as those came open.

The men were divided into six companies, two each at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge:

• The First Westminster Company translated Genesis through 2 Kings. Its members included Lancelot Andrewes, a famous preacher and scholar who learned most of the modern languages of Europe.
• The First Cambridge Company translated 1 Chronicles through the Song of Solomon.
• The First Oxford Company translated Isaiah through Malachi. John Reynolds, who first proposed the translation, worked in this company.
• The Second Oxford Company translated the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.
• The Second Westminster Company translated the Epistles.
• The Second Cambridge Company translated the Apocrypha.

A note about that last one. Like other Protestant Bibles of that day, the 1611 King James Bible printed the Apocrypha in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. Those books are not part of the Old or New Testament, and today most King James Bibles leave them out.

How They Worked

Forty unbound copies of the Bishops' Bible were specially printed so the translators could write their changes in the margins. Each company worked on its own books. Then the drafts were compared and checked against each other so the whole Bible would fit together.

The companies started near the end of 1604, and all six had finished their parts by 1608. Then, starting in January 1609, a General Committee of Review met at Stationers' Hall in London to go over the finished work. One of those men, John Bois, took notes of their discussions in Latin, and part of his notes still survive. They show the men weighing word after word, comparing the Greek, older translations, and the writings of early Christians.

The translators explained their goal in a long preface called "The Translators to the Reader." In their own words, they never thought they needed "to make of a bad one a good one," but "to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principall good one." They also wrote that translation "openeth the window, to let in the light."

There was one more careful thing they did. When they had to add an English word that wasn't written in the Hebrew or Greek, but was needed to make a sentence read right in English, they printed it in a different typeface. Later printings put those words in italics, and you can still see them in your King James Bible today. We'll talk more about that in our next lesson.

The First Printing in 1611

In 1611 the new Bible was printed in London by Robert Barker, the King's Printer. It was a large folio Bible, meant to be read aloud in churches. A copy sold for ten shillings unbound, or twelve shillings bound. The title page said it was "Appointed to be read in Churches."

Two printings came out in 1611, and you can tell them apart by Ruth 3:15. One says "he went into the city," and the other says "she went into the city." Collectors call them the "He" Bible and the "She" Bible. Today's King James reads:

"Also he said, Bring the vail that thou hast upon thee, and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and she went into the city." — Ruth 3:15 (KJV)

At first, many people kept reading their Geneva Bibles. But over time the King James won them over. By the early 1700s it had become the Bible of English-speaking Protestants.

Printers' Mistakes and the 1769 Edition

Printing by hand in those days was hard work, and later printers were not always as careful as the first. Over the years, printing mistakes crept into some editions. The most famous was a 1631 printing that left the word "not" out of the commandment against adultery. It became known as the "Wicked Bible."

Of course, God's Word never said that. Here is what it says:

"Thou shalt not commit adultery." — Exodus 20:14 (KJV)

To clean up those printing errors, Cambridge put out corrected editions in 1629 and 1638, and two of the original translators, John Bois and Samuel Ward, helped edit them. Then in 1760 Cambridge printed a standard edition by Francis Sawyer Parris, and in 1769 Oxford printed one by Benjamin Blayney.

What changed in 1769? Mostly spelling and punctuation. In 1611 English spelling was not settled yet. The 1611 printing used "u" and "v" differently than we do. It spelled "speak" as "speake" and "have" as "haue." Blayney brought the spelling up to date, fixed printers' errors, and added more italics for supplied words. Almost all King James Bibles printed today follow that 1769 text.

So when someone says, "The King James has been changed many times," it's important to know what kind of changes those were. They were printing corrections and spelling updates, not a new translation from a different Greek text. Here is 1 Corinthians 13:1 as it was first printed in 1611, in Roman type:

"Though I speake with the tongues of men & of Angels, and haue not charity, I am become as sounding brasse or a tinkling cymbal."

And here it is in the King James Bible today:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." — 1 Corinthians 13:1 (KJV)

The words are the same. Only the spelling has changed.

Over Four Hundred Years

For over four hundred years, this Bible has been preached, memorized, and carried around the world. Its words have shaped the English language itself. One scholar, David Crystal, estimated that it gave English 257 everyday phrases, like "feet of clay" and "reap the whirlwind."

But we don't love the King James because it's beautiful English. We love it because we believe it carries God's pure words faithfully into our language. The men who made it were careful, humble, and serious about their work, because they knew they were handling the Word of God.

"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." — Psalm 119:130 (KJV)

A Simple Step for This Week

Here's our challenge. Open your King James Bible to the very front and see if it includes "The Translators to the Reader" or the dedication to King James. Many editions do. If yours doesn't, you can read it online for free. Read a page or two and see how these men thought about the Word of God. Then thank the Lord for the long line of faithful people who brought His Word to you.

A Prayer

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You that every word of Yours is pure. Thank You for William Tyndale and all who suffered so we could have Your Word in English. Thank You for the men who worked so carefully to give us the King James Bible, and for keeping Your Word through all these years.

Lord, help us treat Your Word with the same care they did. Help us never to add to it or take away from it. And let the entrance of Your words give light to every person listening today.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for spending this time with us.

This is Authorized Sword Ministries. God bless you.

Study Questions

1. Read Proverbs 30:5-6. Why does this verse matter when we talk about translating the Bible?
2. Name three English Bibles that came before the King James Bible.
3. How much of the King James New Testament is estimated to match Tyndale's wording?
4. What happened at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, and who proposed the new translation?
5. What were some of the rules given to the translators?
6. How many translators did the work, and how were they organized?
7. What was the General Committee of Review, and where did it meet?
8. In "The Translators to the Reader," what did the translators say their goal was?
9. What are the "He" Bible and the "She" Bible?
10. What kinds of changes were made in the 1769 edition, and what kinds were not?

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Verified Scripture References (KJV)

All quotations were checked word for word against the King James Version (bible-api.com, translation=kjv) on October 26, 2026.

1. Proverbs 30:5-6 — "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."
2. Psalm 105:28 — "He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word."
3. Ruth 3:15 — "Also he said, Bring the vail that thou hast upon thee, and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and she went into the city."
4. Exodus 20:14 — "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
5. 1 Corinthians 13:1 — "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."
6. Psalm 119:130 — "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."

Historical Sources

All sources were opened and checked on October 26, 2026.

1. Main source for most of this lesson: "King James Version," Wikipedia (sections "Earlier English translations," "Considerations for a new version," "Translation committees," "Printing," "Authorised Version," "Standard text of 1769," and "Influence"), which cites David Daniell, The Bible in English (Yale, 2003); David Norton, A Textual History of the King James Bible (Cambridge, 2005); Benson Bobrick, Wide as the Waters (2001); A. S. Herbert, Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible (1968); and F. H. A. Scrivener, The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1884). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version
   • Wycliffite Bibles in the 14th century, effectively banned in 1409 (Daniell, p. 75).
   • Tyndale's New Testament the first printed Bible in English; Great Bible 1539 as the first authorised version of the Church of England; Geneva Bible 1560; Bishops' Bible 1568 (Daniell, pp. 143, 204, 304, 344).
   • About 84% of the KJV New Testament word for word identical to Tyndale, and about 76% of Tyndale's Old Testament: Jon Nielson and Royal Skousen, "How Much of the King James Bible Is William Tyndale's?" Reformation 3 (1998): 49-74.
   • Hampton Court Conference, January 1604, responding to the Millenary Petition; Psalm 105:28 complaint ("They were not obedient") (Daniell, p. 433).
   • Rules: Bishops' Bible as base; consult Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew's, Great, and Geneva Bibles; keep "church" rather than "congregation"; no explanatory marginal notes; supplied words in a different typeface (Daniell, p. 439; Norton, p. 10).
   • 54 approved, 47 worked; all Church of England, all but Sir Henry Savile clergy; not paid directly; six companies and their assigned books (Daniell, p. 436; Bobrick, pp. 223-244).
   • Forty unbound copies of the 1602 Bishops' Bible; work began late 1604, finished 1608; General Committee of Review at Stationers' Hall from January 1609; John Bois's notes (Daniell, p. 442; Norton, p. 11; Bois, Allen and Walker, 1969).
   • Robert Barker, King's Printer, 1611 folio; ten shillings loose, twelve bound (Herbert, pp. 309-310). "He" and "She" Bibles at Ruth 3:15 (Norton, p. 62).
   • KJV effectively unchallenged among English Protestants by the first half of the 18th century (Daniell, p. 488).
   • "Wicked Bible" omitting "not" (Herbert, p. 444); Cambridge editions of 1629 and 1638 edited with John Bois and Samuel Ward; Parris 1760; Blayney 1769 standardized spelling and punctuation, extended italics, and is the basis of almost all current printings (Norton, pp. 106-125).
   • 1611 and 1769 wording of 1 Corinthians 13:1 (comparison table in the article).
   • David Crystal's estimate of 257 idioms, including "feet of clay" and "reap the whirlwind."
2. The "Wicked Bible" date of 1631: "Wicked Bible," Wikipedia ("1631 edition of the King James Bible"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible
3. John Rainolds (Reynolds), President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford: "John Rainolds," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rainolds
4. Lancelot Andrewes learned most of the modern languages of Europe: "Lancelot Andrewes," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_Andrewes
5. The Translators' own words ("to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principall good one"; "openeth the window, to let in the light"): "The Translators to the Reader," 1611, Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James_Version,_1611)/Translators_to_the_Reader
6. Title page wording ("Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised"; "Appointed to be read in Churches"): "King James Version," Wikipedia, section "Name." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version