How was the King James Bible created? (2023)

I found out todayon the origin of the King James Bible.

Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. She ruled England for 45 years and was very popular, instilling a sense of stability and security throughout her reign. Described as "neither a good Protestant nor a committed Papist", she was able to find a relatively happy middle ground between the two warring sects. However, since she had no children, the throne fell to King Jaime VI. of Scotland, who became King James I of England after his death.

England has been at war with Scotland on and off over the years. James's own mother, Mary, was beheaded by Elizabeth. However, many people saw the rise of a new king as an opportunity for the expected religious reform.

On his way south for his English coronation, King James was stopped by a delegation of Puritans who presented him with a list of grievances and proposals for reform. It was signed by over 1000 clergy (10% of the English clergy at the time) and was later called the Millennium Petition. They touched on things like prohibiting the use ofwedding ringsand carry a cross but doesn't mention anything about a new Bible translation.

The new King James called a meeting at Hampton Court Palace to address concerns about the Millennium Petition, which took place in early 1604. Puritans were not allowed to attend the first day of the conference and James largely ignored custom most of your requests. In fact, James was content with the configuration of the English Church, having been extremely frustrated with the Scottish Presbyterian model.

Finally, Dr. John Reynolds, the leading Puritan voice at the conference, floated the idea of ​​a Bible translation because “those who come into the reigns of King Henry VIII and King Edward VI. they were admitted, they were corrupt and did not respond to the truth of the original”. James, who hated the popular Geneva Bible for its anti-royal message, agreed that a new translation would be best. And despite the other results of the conference, the Puritans were happy because they believed they would have a say in the new translation, which would allow them to carry out some of the reforms they wanted anyway.

The translation of the Bible did not begin until 1607. Fifty-four Bible scholars (only forty-eight are on record, as some died before the translation was complete) met in Oxford, Westminster, and Cambridge to discuss the translation. They came from all religious backgrounds and had different ideas about the reform they wanted to see. They had to follow 15 rules for translation, including marginal notes and keeping the language accessible to common people (many of whom were completely illiterate at the time).

The translators were divided into subcommittees. Each translator independently translated the same portion of the Bible, which they then returned to the subcommittee. All the translations were compared and one was chosen to be sent to the general review committee. The review committee listened to the translation instead of reading it; Since many of their listeners were illiterate, they wanted the Bible to sound much more than it felt right. If the translation didn't sound right, the General Committee would discuss and revise the passage until it sounded right. After this, they would send their approved passages to some bishops who would then send the passage to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who would forward it to King James, who would have final say in approving the new translation.

The new translation was finally completed in 1610, but it was not made public until the following year. It was printed by Robert Barker, a printer personally appointed by King James. Unfortunately, the new translation was so long overdue that Barker rushed to print and many errors were made. Barker paid £3,500 for the right to publish the Bible, and spent even more to correct errors and prevent piracy. In 1635 he ended up in debtors' prison, where he later died.

In addition to printing two different versions of the Bible at the same time and being able to bind the pages together instead of separating them, major typographical errors were discovered in the 1631 printing that later became known as The Wicked Bible. Among other things, "the greatness of God" was erroneously printed as "the great donkey of God" and the word "not" was omitted from the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery." For that reason, it's not exactly a mystery why the King James version wasn't popular from the start.

Over time, the King James Bible has gone through several revisions from the original translation. Typos corrected, new chapter summaries added, and marginal references added and checked for accuracy. The revisions opened the door to increase the popularity of the King James version. Today, the Christian Post reports that the King James Bible is the second best-selling Bible after the New International Version.

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PrimaFacts:

• Although it is commonly said that Jesus was a carpenter before he became a "rabbi" or teacher, this may not be accurate. Mark 6:2-3 shows that he, like his stepfather, was a "carpenter," as it is commonly translated. However, the chosen translation of the Greek word "tecton" into "carpenter" is considered by some modern scholars to be a mistranslation, or at least an assumption. In fact, "tecton" (in Markus) or "tekton" (in Mathew) is more correctly translated to a more general word describing a "contractor"; in particular rent as"builder" or "craftsman".If we think about it, he could be a carpenter, but most of his work was most likely not related to wood. They had something he needed to fix/fix, design or build and he was the guy to call. And keep in mind that this isn't just small jobs like fixing a leaky roof or the like, although those things were probably part of what he was doing when the bigger business was slow; it also refers to things like designing and building bridges, stone temples, etc. Therefore, perhaps given the current definition of the profession, it would be more appropriate to describe it as an "engineer".
• The Geneva Bible, which was the forerunner of the King James, was the first widely circulated English translation of the Bible, after much debate about bishops reading the Bible in Latin, which few could understand.
• The King James Bible was the first to translate "You shall not let a witch live" (Exodus 22:18). Some people believe that the original word was Greek.Pharmacy,which means "apothecary", which should make the translation something like "even if you don't let a poisoner live". However, the notion that this part was mistranslated is not universally accepted. The doubters refer to the Hebrew wordKaschph,which can be translated as "wizard", which basically means the same thing as "witch".

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