IN view of the widespread and deserved popularity of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible, it is but natural that one should inquire as to the background of this rendering, and, in particular, as to the nature of the sources and authorities which were studied or appealed to by those who prepared it.
Now, while we are accustomed to think and speak of it as a "translation," it might more properly be described as a "revision." It is, in point of fact, the most generally accepted of a long series of such revisions. In the interesting Preface to their rendering, the revisers themselves stress this point. "We never thought from the beginning," they wrote, "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 . . . that hath been our endeavor." It was, then, in this spirit that they approached their task, carefully consulting, and constantly adopting, the renderings suggested by those great men who had preceded them. The first article of a code of rules which was drawn up for their guidance in entering upon this monumental work, stated that the immediate basis of the revision was to be the so-called "Bishops' Bible," which, it will be recalled, had been first published in 1568, some thirty-six years before the King James revisers commenced their undertaking. Then, too, they referred to the Genevan Version, the Great Bible, and Matthew's Bible, while the work of such outstanding early translators as Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Coverdale was also given most careful consideration. Moreover, the revisers themselves inform us that in addition they examined and compared versions and commentaries in languages other than English, including "Chaldee, Hebrew, Syrian. Greek, . . . Latin, . . . Spanish, French, Italian or Dutch."
As might be expected, their work was by no means confined to the consideration of versions and translations, for they went back to and carefully studied such manuscripts and printed texts of the Hebrew and Greek originals as they were able to obtain. "If you ask what they had before them, truly it was the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New" (Preface to the Authorized Version). When, however, we inquire as to the nature or age of the manuscripts which they had at their disposal, we find that what are today regarded as the most ancient and important codices, particularly of the New Testament, were not then available.
