You may have heard that 2011 marks the 400th anniversary since the original publication of the King James Bible. So what? The KJV (King James Version) is not simply a Bible, it is the Bible that has influenced the English-speaking world more than any other.
There are, however, several, popular, mistaken notions about this book. First of all, it was not the first English translation of the Bible. Several came before it—including a famous one by a guy named Wycliffe, and another by a man who was burnt at the stack for translating the Bible into the vernacular: Tyndale.
Second, King James did none of the work. He appointed someone who then assembled a series of translation committees made up of scholars and poets who did the work.
Third, there is no record of King James ever actually authorizing the KJV for use in the churches of England, once it was completed, making it all the more odd that the KJV is also often referred to as the “Authorized Version.” That’s what my grandfathers called it.
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