King James came to the English Throne in 1603 when the nation was gripped in the fiery, 100 year-long contest between Puritan "renewal" and Anglican "resistance." The Puritans were God's preaching voice in that era, producing great scholars, powerful pulpits, demanding moral change, and the church’s spiritual restoration. The Church of England adamantly refused; holding to its centuries-old royalty, ritual, and religion. Even so, the sovereignty of God prevailed and out of the darkness of that generation came the light of Scripture known as “The King James Bible.” That book was destined to bless England and the rest of the world. Here is how it happened:
Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, King James of Scotland suddenly fell heir to the English Crown also and found himself ruling the United Kingdom. Leaving his home at Stirling Castle he traveled by horse-drawn carriage to London and at the English border was stopped by a band of Puritan ministers. The pastors refused to wait until the Coronation to make the new King aware of their grievances. One of the surprising results from that unorthodox encounter was that King James immediately ordered a meeting to convene eight months later. That historic event, known as the “Hampton Court Conference,” convened for three days, January 14-16, 1604.
By London's standards, King James was crude and untrustworthy. The King of France once referred to him as “The wisest fool in Christendom.” James was brilliant but deceitful, and equally one of the most ungainly-looking men ever to wear the English Crown. His head was too large, his legs too small, and his tongue too big for his mouth. Probably, frustration from these unfortunate features contributed to his being hateful and uncouth. But what he lacked in looks and manners, he over-compensated in his determination to force all non-conformists into obedience to the Throne. This included Puritans, Pilgrims, Baptists, Catholics, and everyone else who disagreed. In an angry outburst he once accused the Puritans of trying to establish a Presbytery “where Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet, and at their pleasure censure me and my Council and all their proceedings.”
Before his arrival in England, James had continuously battled the Scottish Presbyterians and proved no less formidable to their Puritan brothers in the South. He especially enjoyed religious controversies where he could display his ecclesiastical knowledge and then intimidate his opponents by declaring his “Divine Right Of Kings.” While few others in England believed in that supposed “right,” he did, and used his position to inflict it. Thankfully, in some measure, Parliament restrained him. During his reign, heretics could still be burned alive at the stake, have their nose or ears cut off, be hanged, or suffer other torments. The last “heretic” to be burned at the stake was a Baptist pastor, Edward Wightman, who perished in the flame at the London Fairgrounds in 1611.
But God was more determined than King James and surprising things happened at the Hampton Court Conference. Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and leader of the Puritan party, requested that the King authorize a new English translation of the Bible. The idea drew angered opposition from the Anglican clergy and a majority of the delegates opposed it. The measure would have died immediately except for one thing--the King approved. In a providential way, his “Divine Right” became a blessing to mankind. Seven years later, in 1611, following the work of fifty-four of England`s best Biblical scholars, the King James Bible was presented to the world. What began with the Puritans’ encounter on the Scotland-England border and the Hampton Court Conference, has since been found in millions of homes: The King James Bible.
The “Authorized Version,” as it is also called, has had it critics as well as its admirers--but probably none speaks with more authority than the Catholic scholar, Alexander Geddes, in 1786, who said, "If accuracy and strictest attention to the letter of the text be supposed to constitute an excellent version, this is of all versions the most excellent."
Many who cherish and defend the King James Bible today mistakenly suppose they are using the 1611 version. That is not the case. The edition now in use--while it retains all of the original truth--has undergone a number of revisions. The first two, 1629 and 1638, were edited by John Bois and Samuel Ward, scholars who had participated in the original 1611 team. The 1629 version was the first Bible printed at Cambridge University; in 1762 it was followed by another revision. This one was also printed at Cambridge and replaced all previous editions. Finally, in 1769 the Oxford edition, which is the one in use today, was presented to the public. Historically, revisions were made, not to correct errors, but to keep the Scripture current with a constantly shifting language. Modern readers would have great difficulty--if not impossibility--in comprehending the antique English text of 1611.
Besides appreciating their scholarship, their prayerful approach to the work, and the reverent attitude they each held personally to Scripture, it is important that we understand their attitude regarding the translation they gave us. Did they believe their version was the “one-and-only” correct English Bible? No. Hear what they said of other versions and the translators who provided them:
“We are so far off from condemning any of their labors that travailed before us in this kind, either in this land or beyond sea, either in King Henry’s time, or King Edward’s ... Or Queen Elizabeth’s of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God, for the building and furnishing of his Church, and that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting remembrance.”
They further declared:
“Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one ... but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against, that hath been our endeavor.”
