Revision with original-language review
The companies began from the Bishops’ Bible, compared earlier English versions, and checked their work against Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek sources available to seventeenth-century scholars.
Bible translation guide
King James Version
KJVThe King James Version is a 1611 Church of England revision whose measured cadence and memorable phrasing have shaped English-speaking worship, literature, and public speech for four centuries.
Core translation summary
What is it?
Commissioned after the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, the King James Bible was prepared by six companies of scholars at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge. Their task was to revise the Bishops’ Bible while consulting the Hebrew and Greek texts and the best earlier English Bibles.
The translators inherited much of the English Bible tradition that began with William Tyndale. They kept familiar language when they judged it sound, revised it when the source text required, and wrote for public reading in church. The result is formally equivalent in tendency, literary in character, and unmistakably early modern in its grammar and vocabulary.
Bible translation history and lineage
Where this translation comes from
The KJV was not written in isolation. Its translators revised an existing English tradition, with the Bishops’ Bible as their official base and several earlier Bibles available when they offered a better rendering.
Tyndale’s translations
1526–1535Supplied much of the durable English phrasing inherited by later Bibles.
Coverdale, Matthew’s, and Great Bibles
1535–1539Completed and revised the emerging English Bible tradition.
Geneva Bible
1560Contributed scholarship, clarity, and readings familiar to English households.
Bishops’ Bible
1568 / 1602The official base text the KJV companies were instructed to revise.
King James Version
1611Compared the inherited English text with the original languages and one another.
Translation timeline
How the text developed
1604
A new translation is proposed
At Hampton Court, Puritan scholar John Rainolds proposed a new Bible. King James I supported the project and rules were drawn up for the translators.
1604–1610
Six companies revise the text
Scholars at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge divided the biblical books, reviewed drafts, and brought the work through a final editorial stage.
1611
The first edition appears
Robert Barker printed the large folio Bible. Two settings of the first edition are often called the “He” and “She” Bibles after their differing text at Ruth 3:15.
1629–1769
The printed text is standardized
Later Cambridge and Oxford editions corrected printing errors and regularized spelling, punctuation, and presentation. Most KJV readers now encounter a standardized later text rather than the exact 1611 setting.
Today
A living literary and worship tradition
The KJV remains in active use and continues to influence English hymnody, preaching, literature, and memorized Scripture.
Textual basis and translation philosophy
How it translates
Formal correspondence
The KJV often preserves the form and sequence of the source text. Italics traditionally mark English words supplied for sense, though digital editions do not always preserve that typography.
Textual basis of its time
Its New Testament reflects the printed Greek tradition later called the Textus Receptus. Its Old Testament rests chiefly on the Masoretic Hebrew tradition, with ancient translations consulted where useful.
Written for the ear
The translators expected the Bible to be read aloud in church. Balanced clauses, parallel phrasing, and a deliberate rhythm are central to its character.
Key strengths
Where it shines
Memorable language
Its rhythm and compact phrasing make many passages unusually durable in memory and public reading.
Historical continuity
It connects readers with centuries of English sermons, hymns, prayers, commentaries, and literature.
Close verbal study
Its formal approach can make repeated words and grammatical patterns easier to notice, provided readers account for changes in English usage.
Original-language study in Script Bible
The KJV is currently the translation with word-level Hebrew and Greek alignment in Script Bible’s interlinear tools.
Significant verse renderings
Hear the translation’s character
These passages show choices that are especially recognizable, useful for study, or revealing of the translation’s English style.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”
Its sound and pacing have made this one of the best-known lines in English Scripture and funeral liturgy.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”
The paired clauses establish the cadence carried through the poem that follows.
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
“Charity” preserves an older English sense of self-giving Christian love; most modern translations use “love.”
“Terrible as an army with banners.”
Here “terrible” carries the older sense of awe-inspiring or formidable, a good example of how familiar KJV words can have shifted in meaning.
Consider other translations when…
When comparison helps
Every translation makes choices. A second translation is most useful when it exposes a choice that one English text can hide.
You want ordinary modern English
Words such as “conversation,” “prevent,” and “peculiar” can mean something different in the KJV than they do now. A modern translation reduces that extra interpretive step.
You are reading with children or new English readers
The pronouns, verb forms, and long sentence structures can obscure the sense before a reader reaches the substance of the passage.
You are studying manuscript differences
Modern translations can reflect discoveries and critical editions unavailable in 1611. Comparing textual traditions is more useful than treating any one English rendering as the manuscript evidence itself.
A familiar phrase may be driving the interpretation
Read a second translation when the KJV’s literary familiarity makes it hard to distinguish the biblical author’s point from the phrase’s later cultural life.
Copyright and credits
Using and crediting the text
The KJV is in the public domain in the United States and many other jurisdictions. In the United Kingdom, rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown and administered under royal letters patent. Reuse rules therefore depend on where and how the text is published.
The short KJV excerpts on this page come from the text displayed by Script Bible. Consult the applicable rights administrator for uses that go beyond what local law permits.
Credit
Translation by the companies appointed under King James I; first printed in London by Robert Barker in 1611.
Resources
Learn more
Go deeper with primary texts, library exhibitions, translation documentation, scholarly histories, downloads, and rights guidance.
History
The Making of the King James Bible ↗
Cambridge University Library’s illustrated exhibition follows the English Bibles, manuscripts, translators, and printings behind the 1611 edition.
History
The King James Bible at 400 ↗
A National Archives lecture on Tyndale’s legacy, the Bishops’ Bible base text, and the political and religious setting of the translation.
Textual study
A Textual History of the King James Bible ↗
David Norton’s scholarly history of the translators’ work and the printed text’s development from 1611 through the standard editions of the eighteenth century.
Textual study
The King James Bible: A Short History ↗
A compact history by David Norton tracing the translation from Tyndale through its later printing and literary reception.
History
Translating the King James Bible ↗
Brigham Young University’s library exhibition explains the companies, instructions, review process, and surviving evidence from the translators.
Primary text
Facsimile scan of the 1611 King James Bible ↗
A page-by-page scan of the first edition for examining its blackletter type, chapter headings, marginal notes, and original presentation.
Rights
Authorized Version permissions ↗
Cambridge University Press explains where to find current guidance for reuse of the Authorized Version and other Cambridge Bible texts.
History
The Tyndale Society ↗
Articles, events, and bibliographies on William Tyndale and the English translation tradition inherited by the KJV.