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You are Here: BibleSanity.org >> Bible Versions >> Info and Review KJV
King James Version
Information and Review
My Review of the King James Version of the Bible
My own love and respect for the inerrant Word of God is built on a foundation of solid, conservative instruction delivered from the pages of the King James Version of the Bible. As far as popularity goes, the over 400 year-old King James Version (KJV) Bible was virtually the only English version used until the second generation of modern translations emerged at the end of the 20th Century.
The KJV is an extremely accurate literal translation rendered in beautiful literary form. It is also the only version of the Bible which is universally recognized and trusted as such. The King James Bible is the Gold Standard by which all other versions must be compared!
Scholarship of the KJV
The Scholarship of the KJV is a extensive historic saga spanning almost 100 years of progressive development by men who invested their lives, and by multiple rulers and universities. The development of the Tyndale family of Bibles was a refining process along a single road which culminated in the KJV.
The majority of the original translation (from original lanugages to English) was the work of William Tyndale (d. 1536), followed by Miles Coverdale (d.1569), and Thomas Matthew (d. 1555). The work of these men was then revised first into the Great Bible (1539), which was then revised into the Geneva Bible (1557) and the Bishops Bible (1568), all of which directly contributed to the KJV.
In 1604, King James originally commissioned the actual KJV. The project was enacted by a large team of 48-50 scholars from Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge, and the text was officially based on the Bishops Bible, but with comparisons to all the Bibles listed above as well as many other sources (Vulgate, Luther, etc.). The completed King James version was first published in 1611.
Article: History of the English Bibles
KJV Manuscripts
For source manuscripts, the King James uses the Masoretic text for the Old Testament and the Textus Receptus for the New Testament.
Without addressing the TR vs Critical Text question here, suffice it to say that the King James Version used available Greek and Hebrew, which were good representations of the Majority Text and Masoretic Text, to translate the Scripture literally and accurately, into the English language.
For the Old Testament, The King James Bible was based on the Ben Chayyim Rabbinic Bible, a Masoretic text published in 1525. The Masoretic text is also the basis for modern critical text Old Testaments (but primairly from the Leningrad Codex of AD 1008).
For the New Testament, the Novum Instrumentum Omne by Desiderius Erasmus was used. This was a presentation of the whole New Testament in both Latin and Greek, commonly know as the Textus Receptus (TR) or Received Text, and published with four revisions from 1516-1535. The Greek sources Erasmus used were mostly 12th Century manuscripts originating from Constintanople.
Article: Old Testament Manuscripts - Article: The Textus Receptus
Constitutions/Bylaws requiring "the 1611 KJV"
The King James Version was published by commission of King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) in 1611. It is important to understand that none of the (around 20 at least) revisions to the KJV have changed the manuscripts used for translation or have retranslated any passages from the version produced in 1611. This faithfulness in maintaining the orginial translation explains why many fundamentalist churches confusingly specify exclusive use of the "1611 version" of the KJV in their constitution or bylaws, while in practice they actually use later KJV editions (typically Oxford 1769 or Cambridge 1873).
The purpose of specifying the 1611 KJV Bible is twofold; to strongly identify the KJV by including the year in the version name, and secondly, to exclude other similar translations, such as the New King James (1979).
Article: KJV Revisions since 1611 (pdf)
Article: The Legitimacy of Exclusive Use of the King James Version
Compared to Modern Translations
Compared to modern literal translation Bibles, the 400+ year old King James Version does present a few considerations.
The archaic language of the KJV is a concern because it is more difficult to read. It uses Elizabethan language and also uses some words which are not commonly understood, or uses them in unusual ways. Secondly, the KJV presents names using inconsistent forms, like Isaiah and Esaias or Elias and Elijah. Thirdly, the KJV also uses substitute words which actually have different meanings. Examples include using candles instead of lamps, coney instead of hyrax, and penny, farthing, and pounds for money.
These various aspects of the archaic translation are easily overcome by using various references, and the language is familiar within KJV church cultures.
The source texts for Old and New Testaments are not the same as the Critical Text sources used by modern translations, but this is not a concern. As stated above, the KJV uses a good source of the Masoretic text for the Old Testament and a good set of source manuscripts for the Majority text of the New Testament. Likewise, improved understanding of biblical languages has not, in itself, caused any major impact on revision.
Real progress has been made since the 1600's. Modern versions do benefit from refinements to our best discernment of the original writings, improvements in our understanding of ancient Greek and (especially) Hebrew languages, and updates to the grammar and word-choices for translation to modern English. The benefit of using a modern version is a sum of small changes over full extent of Scripture. So long as the modern version uses a literal translation style, like the NASB or ESV, then the progress made merits comparative evaluation.
In the end, the King James Version is too good of a translation to be considered obsolete or even devalued. While modern versions offer easier reading and a degree of improved translation accuracy, only the KJV has established its trustworthiness over four centuries. It is the Bible trusted by my parents, my grandparents, their parents... and all that trust was earned by an excellent translation.
(C) Copyright 2025 Daniel Stanfield, this document may be distributed freely, but may not be sold or modified.