King James Version
1611 English translation of the Christian Bible
The King James Bible, widely known by the nickname King James Version (KJV) and the Authorized Version, is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England and Church of Scotland, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I. The 80 books of the KJV include 39 books of the Old Testament, 14 books of Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament.
The KJV does not include a commentary on the text as the King believed that might contain anti-monarchist sentiment as had its predecessor the Geneva Bible.
Noted for its "majesty of style," the KJV has remained in continuous use for over four centuries, exerting more influence on English literature and Christian thought than any other English Bible translation. Its phrasing has been credited with shaping not only hymnody and liturgy, but also the idioms of everyday speech used in the English-speaking world. It is considered one of the important literary accomplishments of early modern England. The original KJV is a 17th-century translation and thus contains a large number of archaisms and false friends - words that contemporary readers may think they understand but that actually carry obsolete or unfamiliar meanings - making understanding the text difficult for modern readers, even pastors and preachers trained in formal theological institutes. While the 1611 text reflects Early Modern English usage, subsequent standardisations—most notably the 1769 Oxford edition and the more recent 1900 Pure Cambridge Edition—have made the KJV considerably more accessible to later generations. Many scholars note that its sentence structure is often clearer and more direct than some modern versions, despite occasional obsolete vocabulary.
The King James Version was the third translation into English approved by the Church of England. The first had been the Great Bible in 1535, and the second had been the Bishops' Bible in 1568.
“King James Version” enters the record as 1611 English translation of the Christian Bible. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what King, James and Version can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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