Note: Numerous references will be made to the Old and New Testaments. If you do not like these terms, please understand that I do not mean to imply that there is anything obsolete about the Old Testament. If you prefer, substitute in your mind "The First Testament and Second Testament" or "The Hebrew Scriptures and The Greek Scriptures" or even the "Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures", as long as we understand what is being talked about. I choose the Old and New, because they are common terms among Christians, of which, I am one.

A Short History of the English Bible

Occasionally I encounter someone, who believes that the King James Version of the Bible, is the only legitimate translation in English. Following is a short course in the history of Bibles in English, as well as some facts and observations of some modern English translations. This is presented as interesting information for those concerned with these things, and there is no intent to change anyone's convictions. It is, however, my hope, that after reading this, those who are KJV only advocates, will have a little more tolerance for those who disagree.

Let's address some of the items of interest, which KJV only people should know, before we get into the History part, which should be of interest to a broader audience. The following points are often unknown or overlooked by many:

• The Bible Version you read, is most likely NOT the real 1611 KJV. Most Bibles which claim to be 1611 Versions, are not, they are revisions of the 1611 Version, revised in 1769. Words have been changed, spelling revised, and 14 books have been eliminated, in most cases.

• The original 1611 Version, contained the Apocrypha. Protestants reject the Apocrypha as not inspired by God. Though the Roman Catholic Church uses the Apocrypha, the KJV is not approved by the Catholic Church, the KJV was the Bible of the Anglican Church, which also persecuted the protestant reformers. 

• The English Protestant Bible, was the Geneva Bible, published in 15xx. You can read the Geneva Study Bible (Bible with interlinear commentary) here.

• You may be able to buy an original KJV, for about $400,000, or you can get a reproduction for $2000 (they used to be $6000), or, you can get a scanned copy of a KJV for about $250, for you budget minded people.

If you would like to see the difference between your "King James" and a 1611 Version, compare the following to yours:

History of the Bible, from the beginning to Modern English

Around 1,400 B.C. God wrote the ten commandments in stone, earliest written word of God. By around 500 B.C, the 39 Hebrew manuscripts which make up the Old Testament, had been written. A manuscript is a handwritten document, the first manuscript of a book, is the one written by the author himself. We do not have any of these. Since there where no printing presses or copy machines, the Word of God was spread and preserved only by manuscripts,  laboriously copied by hand.

Alexander the great came to power and conquered the known   world. He was a Greek and as he conquered foreign lands, he came up against language barrier problems. He absorbed armies into his own, and needed to be able to communicate orders to the field soldiers, without the delays and losses of accuracy which are possible with multiple, serial translation. He developed a modified form of his own language, Greek. This form of the language, was clearer, less ambiguous than the form of Greek from which it developed. This language, was spread throughout his empire, which eventually grew to the entire known (to him) world. It became a language which was common to all of these countries, and the common people spoke it. We call this language, Koine (common) Greek. The language was so successful, that it was spoken even in the Roman Empire, hundreds of years later, and the New Testament was written in it, since it was the language of the area, during apostolic times. Since this language was so successful, formerly native languages were dying out. In Alexandria, named after Alexander, Greek speaking Egyptian Jews, became concerned, that Hebrew may not survive as a language, so they decided to translate the Jewish Scripture (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament) and also the apocryphal literature into Koine Greek, to insure the survival of the word of God. This collection of books of scripture, written in Greek from Hebrew manuscripts, is known today as the Septuagint, it was written about 200 years B.C.

What is the significance of the Septuagint?

The Septuagint is, as noted, a translation from Hebrew.  In this translation, some passages appear to change from the Hebrew. We see in this, a reflection of what these Greek speaking scholars, believed the Hebrew was saying. Pay attention to what I am about to say carefully, I do not want to be misunderstood. By translating to a different language, we may have a preservation of meaning in many cases. All languages change over time. Looking at the English in the KJV Bible above, you can see that it is somewhat different from modern English. Four hundred years have elapsed, and for some people, this is all but unreadable. English has never died out, as a spoken language. Hebrew has died out.  In fact, by the time Jesus was born, Hebrew had already died out, as a spoken language. Jews in Jesus' time, spoke Aramaic as a common language, but Hebrew was used in synagogues and in temple worship, so Jesus would have spoken both Aramaic, Hebrew, and probably Greek.  Aside from the fact that Greek was a common language, why would I assume that Jesus spoke Greek?

Matt 15:7-9
7 "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
8'This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
9'But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' "

That wording of Isaiah, is from the Septuagint, not the Hebrew. Perhaps, this is Matthew's use of Greek, it does not matter for our purposes here. The point is, that the New Testament authors frequently quoted both the Septuagint, and the Hebrew. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Hebrew Scriptures we have manuscripts of, come from Medieval times, the so-called Masoretic Texts. The King James Bible, can go back no farther than that for Hebrew source material. With the discover of the scrolls, we push this back father, by 600 to 1000 years. Looking at these older texts, we see indication of change, although nothing of theological significance. This lays some doubt to the claim, that the Jews were so meticulous in their copying, that the Hebrew Scriptures are virtually error free. Personally, I do not believe it. Humans make mistakes, always have, always will, until Jesus changes us for the afterlife. It must be said, that the Jews did a marvelous job, no one has been able to keep the meaning of something intact by transmission, from generation to generation, as has been done with Scripture. In spite of man's shortcomings, this is also strong evidence that God has been able to keep His message intact. I am a believer in progressive revelation, that God makes things clearer, in times when He deems it appropriate for mankind to understand more clearly His mysteries. The writing of the New Testament, is one of those times in history, where God stepped in to uncover what was hidden. Reading the New Testament, you can discover the theology of the authors. One thing one notices, is that there theology is more in line with the details of the Septuagint, that the Masoretic Text. For this reason, a serious Bible student, would want to use a modern version of the Bible, because they have at their disposal, the Septuagint, the dead sea scrolls, and older and greater number of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, upon which to build an accurate English translation. Remember also, the Jews who wrote the Septuagint, knew more about Hebrew than anyone does today, for them, it was a living language.

Lets look at some of the passages from the New Testament, that reference the Old Testament, and see how the Masoretic text renders it, and how the Septuagint renders it:

When the New Testament was written, the Greek language was understood all over the Mediterranean world, because it was the international language of the Roman Empire. However, by the time the New Testament was written, things were already beginning to change and local languages were becoming more popular, as Rome was going into decline. The Greek scriptures, we more and more, starting to be translated into other languages, Latin in particular. Pope Damasus I assigned a scholar (Jerome) to create an official   Latin Bible in A.D. 383, a task that over 26 years. This translation is known as the Latin Vulgate. For ten centuries, this was the official bible of western Europe. Latin became a dead language, and then, common people could not read the Bible. This left people vulnerable to a religious hierarchy, which the people could not hold accountable, as they we to unlearned in what the Bible actually said. Strange doctrines and practices arose, because of this. In approximately 1455, Guttenburg invented the printing press, and the Bible became the first book to be printed. Now that there was a way to print Bibles in mass quantities, a demand arose for Bibles in languages that people could actually read and understand. Following, is the family tree of some modern versions and their ancestors, along with other notable milestones.

By the end of the 1st Century, all the manuscripts making up the 27 books of the New Testament, had been completed.

1st Century AD: Completion of All Original Greek Manuscripts which make up The 27 Books of the New Testament.

315 AD: Athenasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, identifies the 27 books of the New Testament which are today recognized as the canon of scripture.

382 AD: Jerome's Latin Vulgate Manuscripts Produced which contain 80 Books (39 Old Test. + 14 Apocrypha + 27 New Test).

500 AD: Scriptures have been Translated into Over 500 Languages.

600 AD: LATIN was the Only Language Allowed for Scripture.

995 AD: Anglo-Saxon (Early Roots of English Language) Translations of The New Testament Produced.

1384 AD: Wycliffe is the First Person to Produce a (Hand-Written) manuscript Copy of the Complete Bible; 80 Books.

1455 AD: Gutenberg Invents the Printing Press; Books May Now be mass-Produced Instead of Individually Hand-Written. The First Book Ever Printed is Gutenberg's Bible in Latin.

1516 AD: Erasmus Produces a Greek/Latin Parallel New Testament.

1522 AD: Martin Luther's German New Testament.

1526 AD: William Tyndale's New Testament; The First New Testament printed in the English Language.

1535 AD: Myles Coverdale's Bible; The First Complete Bible printed in the English Language (80 Books: O.T. & N.T. & Apocrypha).

1537 AD: Tyndale-Matthews Bible; The Second Complete Bible printed in English. Done by John "Thomas Matthew" Rogers (80 Books).

1539 AD: The "Great Bible" Printed; The First English Language Bible Authorized for Public Use (80 Books).

1560 AD: The Geneva Bible Printed; The First English Language Bible to add Numbered Verses to Each Chapter (80 Books).

1568 AD: The Bishops Bible Printed; The Bible of which the King James was a Revision (80 Books).

1609 AD: The Douay Old Testament is added to the Rheims New Testament (of 1582) Making the First Complete English Catholic Bible; Translated from the Latin Vulgate (80 Books).

1611 AD: The King James Bible Printed; Originally with 80 Books. The Apocrypha was not Officially Removed until 1885 Leaving Only 66 Books.

1782 AD: Robert Aitken's Bible; The First English Language Bible (KJV) Printed in America.

1791 AD: Isaac Collins and Isaiah Thomas Respectively Produce the First Family Bible and First Illustrated Bible Printed in America. Both were King James Versions, with All 80 Books.

1808 AD: Jane Aitken's Bible (Daughter of Robert Aitken); The First Bible to be Printed by a Woman.

1833 AD: Noah Webster's Bible; After Producing his Famous Dictionary, Webster Printed his Own Revision of the King James Bible.

1841 AD: English Hexapla New Testament; an Early Textual Comparison showing the Greek and 6 Famous English Translations in Parallel Columns.

1846 AD: The Illuminated Bible; The Most Lavishly Illustrated Bible printed in America. A King James Version, with All 80 Books.

1885 AD: The "English Revised Version" Bible; The First Major English Revision of the KJV.

1901 AD: The "American Standard Version"; The First Major American Revision of the KJV.

1971 AD: The "New American Standard Bible" (NASB) is Published as a "Modern and Accurate Word for Word English Translation" of the Bible.

1973 AD: The "New International Version" (NIV) is Published as a "Modern and Accurate Phrase for Phrase English Translation" of the Bible.

1982 AD: The "New King James Version" (NKJV) is Published as a "Modern English Version Maintaining the Original Style of the King James."

2002 AD: The English Standard Version (ESV) is Published as a translation to bridge the gap between the accuracy of the NASB and the readability of the NIV.

See Also Textus Receptus / King James Bible