Despite the unique importance and widespread popularity of the Authorized Version, there gradually arose a cry for its revision, and in considering the reasons for this cry, it may be recalled that the King James translation was itself "but the best of many revisions" (Hoare: Evolution of the English Bible, p. 270). Those who prepared it did not profess to have ended forever the task of revision, for in their preface they modestly affirm, "We have at the length . . . brought the work to that pass that you now see." Those who were eventually appointed to undertake such a further revision were deeply sensible on their part of the merits of the King James rendering, for they express their admiration for "its simplicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression, its general accuracy, . . . the music of its cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm" (Preface to the Revised Version of the New Testament). Nevertheless, it is true that since 1611 there has been change and development in the English language. Many words which were then readily understandable are now archaic or even obsolete. Then, too, in the past three centuries many important manuscripts have been discovered and there has been a more specialized study of the grammar, syntax, and idiom of the Bible languages. Such reasons as these prompted the decision made by an assembled group of leaders of the Church of England, in the year 1870, to the effect that a committee of its own members should be appointed to undertake the work of revision in collaboration with other scholars whom they might select without consideration of nationality or of creed.
No fewer than ninety-nine outstanding men of letters, of whom thirty-four were Americans, took part in this revision; while of the sixty-five British members, forty-one belonged to the Church of England, the remainder being from other denominations. Thus, while the Authorized Version was in effect a national Bible, the Revised Version was international in its scope. The rules adopted to guide the preparation of this revision called for a minimum of change in the Authorized Version, consistent with faithfulness to the original. The general style of its language was to be retained. There was to be a preliminary revision of each portion of the Bible, followed by a second and final one at which suggested changes must receive the affirmative vote of two thirds of the members present. The revision of the New Testament continued for some ten and a half years, and that of the Old Testament for no less than fifteen years. It is said to contain, in the New Testament alone, some thirty-six thousand changes from the Authorized Version, many of which "have done much to elucidate the Scriptures to English readers" (Edgar: Bibles of England, p. 383).
"Time has shown," says Dr. Robinson, discussing this Revised Version, "that its improved grammatical accuracy is not a sufficient compensation for the music of the old cadences, which in so many cases has been sacrificed for some trifling point of Syntax!" (Where Did We Get Our Bible? p. 175.)
