To this day, after the passing of more than three hundred years since the date of its preparation, the prestige of the Authorized Version remains virtually unchallenged.
Without doubt one of the outstanding merits of the rendering is the purity of its English style, which perpetuates the highest qualities of the Golden Age of English literature, without stooping to the discursive pedantry or the florid phrases characteristic of some of the Elizabethan and Jacobean authors. "We need waste no words in praise of the Authorized Version," writes Dr. Hoare, "it is universally accepted as a literary masterpiece, as the noblest and most beautiful book in the world"(Evolution of the English Bible, p. 241) "In point of sheer literary excellence," writes the same authority, "it is indeed hardly conceivable that the Bible of 1611 will ever be surpassed" (op. cit., p. 257).
The influence of its style has been as far-reaching as it has been potent; and quotations and turns of expression from the Authorized Version are constantly to be found in our contemporary literature. The very fact that those who prepared this version made it plain that the work was by no means completely new, provides another reason for its success. Despite the fact that they themselves were scholars of high standing, they did not fail to examine previous renderings, and constantly adopted such renderings. Thus the resultant version may fairly be said to retain the best qualities of the many translations which preceded it and which went far towards making it possible, while at the same time it provides many new renderings suggested by those who prepared it.
