ENGLISH
VERSIONS
in
co-operation;
and
(on
the
suggestion
of
the
bishop
of
London)
he
laid
down
that
no
marginal
notes
should
be
added,
which
preserved
the
new
version
from
being
the
organ
of
any
one
party
in
the
Church.
31.
Ultimately
it
was
arranged
that
six
companies
of
translators
should
be
formed,
two
at
Westminster,
two
at
Oxford,
and
two
at
Cambridge.
The
companies
varied
in
strength
from
7
to
10
members,
the
total
(though
there
is
some
little
doubt
with
regard
to
a
few
names)
being
47.
The
Westminster
companies
under-took
Gn.-2
Kings
and
the
Epistles,
the
Oxford
com-panies
the
Prophets
and
the
Gospels,
Ac,
and
Apoc,
and
the
Cambridge
companies
1
Chron.-Eccles.
and
the
Apocrypha.
A
series
of
rules
was
drawn
up
for
their
guidance.
The
Bishops'
Bible
was
to
be
taken
as
the
basis.
The
old
ecclesiastical
terms
were
to
be
kept.
No
marginal
notes
were
to
be
afhxed,
except
for
the
explanation
of
Hebrew
or
Greek
words.
Marginal
references,
on
the
contrary,
were
to
be
supplied.
As
each
company
finished
a
book,
it
was
to
send
it
to
the
other
companies
for
their
consideration.
Suggestions
were
to
be
invited
from
the
clergy
generally,
and
opinions
requested
on
passages
of
special
difficulty
from
any
learned
man
in
the
land.
'
These
translations
to
be
used
when
they
agree
better
with
the
text
than
the
Bishops'
Bible,
namely,
Tindale's,
Matthew's,
Coverdale's,
Whit-church's
[i.e.
the
Great
Bible],
Geneva.'
The
trans-lators
claim
further
to
have
consulted
all
the
available
versions
and
commentaries
in
other
languages,
and
to
have
repeatedly
revised
their
own
work,
without
grudging
the
time
which
it
required.
The
time
occupied
by
the
whole
work
is
stated
by
themselves
as
two
years
and
three-quarters.
The
several
companies
appear
to
have
begun
their
labours
about
the
end
of
1607,
and
to
have
taken
two
years
in
completing
their
several
shares.
A
final
revision,
occupying
nine
months,
was
then
made
by
a
smaller
body,
consisting
of
two
representatives
from
each
company,
after
which
it
was
seen
through
the
press
by
Dr.
Miles
Smith
and
Bishop
Bilson;
and
in
1611
the
new
version,
printed
by
R.
Barker,
the
king's
printer,
was
given
to
the
world
in
a
large
folio
volume
(the
largest
of
all
the
series
of
English
Bibles)
of
black
letter
type.
The
details
of
its
issue
are
obscure.
There
were
at
least
two
issues
in
1611,
set
up
inde-pendently,
known
respectively
as
the
'He'
and
'She'
Bibles,
from
their
divergence
in
the
translation
of
the
last
words
of
Ruth
S'S;
and
bibliographers
have
differed
as
to
their
priority,
though
the
general
opinion
is
in
favour
of
the
former.
Some
copies
have
a
wood-block,
others
an
engraved
title-page,
with
different
designs.
The
title-page
was
followed
by
the
dedication
to
King
James,
which
still
stands
in
our
ordinary
copies
of
the
AV,
and
this
by
the
translators'
preface
(believed
to
have
been
written
by
Dr.
Miles
Smith),
which
is
habitu-ally
omitted.
[It
is
printed
in
the
present
King's
Printers'
Variorum
Bible,
and
is
interesting
and
valuable
both
as
an
example
of
the
learning
of
the
age
and
for
its
description
of
the
translators'
labours.]
For
the
rest,
the
contents
and
arrangement
of
the
AV
are
too
well
known
to
every
reader
to
need
description.
32.
Nor
is
it
necessary
to
dwell
at
length
on
the
characteristics
of
the
translation.
Not
only
was
it
superior
to
all
its
predecessors,
but
its
excellence
was
so
marked
that
no
further
revision
was
attempted
for
over
250
years.
Its
success
must
be
attributed
to
the
fact
which
differentiated
it
from
its
predecessors,
namely,
that
it
was
not
the
work
of
a
single
scholar
(like
Tin-dale's,
Coverdale's,
and
Matthew's
Bibles),
or
of
a
small
group
(like
the
Geneva
and
Douai
Bibles),
or
of
a
larger
number
of
men
working
independently
with
little
supervision
(like
the
Bishops'
Bible),
but
was
produced
by
the
collaboration
of
a
carefully
selected
band
of
scholars,
working
with
ample
time
and
with
full
and
repeated
revision.
Nevertheless,
it
was
not
a
new
translation.
It
owed
much
to
its
predecessors.
The
translators
themselves
say,
in
their
preface:
'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
en-deavour,
that
our
mark.'
The
description
is
very
just.
The
foundations
of
the
AV
were
laid
by
Tindale,
and
a
great
part
of
his
work
continued
through
every
re-vision.
Each
succeeding
version
added
something
to
the
original
stock,
Coverdale
(in
his
own
and
the
Great
Bible)
and
the
Genevan
scholars
contributing
the
largest
share;
and
the
crown
was
set
upon
the
whole
by
the
skilled
labour
of
the
Jacobean
divines,
making
free
use
of
the
materials
accumulated
by
others,
and
happily
inspired
by
the
gift
of
style
which
was
the
noblest
literary
achievement
of
the
age
in
which
they
lived.
A
sense
of
the
solemnity
of
their
subject
saved
them
from
the
ex-travagances
and
conceits
which
sometimes
mar
that
style;
and,
as
a
result,
they
produced
a
work
which,
from
the
merely
literary
point
of
view,
is
the
finest
example
of
Jacobean
prose,
and
has
influenced
incal-culably
the
whole
subsequent
course
of
English
literature.
On
the
character
and
spiritual
history
of
the
nation
it
has
left
an
even
deeper
mark,
to
which
many
writers
have
borne
eleoquent
testimony;
and
if
England
has
been,
and
is,
a
Bible-reading
and
Bible-loving
country,
it
is
in
no
small
measure
due
to
her
possession
of
a
version
so
nobly
executed
as
the
AV.
33.
The
history
of
the
AV
after
1611
can
be
briefly
sketched.
In
spite
of
the
name
by
which
it
is
commonly
known,
and
in
spite
of
the
statement
on
both
title-pages
of
1611
that
it
was
'appointed
to
be
read
in
churches,'
there
is
no
evidence
that
it
was
ever
ofhcially
authorized
either
by
the
Crown
or
by
Convocation.
Its
authoriza-tion
seems
to
have
been
tacit
and
gradual.
The
Bishops'
Bible,
hitherto
the
ofBcial
version,
ceased
to
be
re-printed,
and
the
AV
no
doubt
gradually
replaced
it
in
churches
as
occasion
arose.
In
domestic
use
its
fortunes
were
for
a
time
more
doubtful,
and
for
two
generations
it
existed
concurrently
with
the
Geneva
Bible;
but
before
the
century
was
out
its
predominance
was
assured.
The
first
4to
and
8vo
editions
were
issued
in
1612;
and
thenceforward
editions
were
so
numerous
that
it
is
useless
to
refer
to
any
except
a
few
of
them.
The
early
editions
were
not
very
correctly
printed.
In
1638
an
attempt
to
secure
a
correct
text
was
made
by
a
small
group
of
Cambridge
scholars.
In
1633
the
first
edition
printed
in
Scotland
was
published.
In
1701
Bishop
Lloyd
superintended
the
printing
of
an
edition
at
Oxford,
in
which
Archbishop
Ussher's
dates
for
Scripture
chronology
were
printed
in
the
margin,
where
they
thenceforth
remained.
In
1717
a
fine
edition,
printed
by
Baskett
at
Oxford,
earned
biblio-graphical
notoriety
as
'The
Vinegar
Bible'
from
a
misprint
in
the
headline
over
Lk
20.
In
1762
a
carefully
revised
edition
was
published
at
Cambridge
under
the
editorship
of
Dr.
T.
Paris,
and
a
similar
edition,
super-intended
by
Dr.
B.
Blayney,
appeared
at
Oxford
in
1769.
These
two
editions,
in
which
the
text
was
carefully
revised,
the
spelling
modernized,
the
punctuation
corrected,
and
considerable
alteration
made
in
the
marginal
notes,
formed
the
standard
lor
subsequent
reprints
of
the
AV,
which
differ
in
a
number
of
details,
small
In
importance
but
fairly
numerous
in
the
aggre-gate,
from
the
original
text
of
1611.
One
other
detail
remains
to
be
mentioned.
In
1666
appeared
the
first
edition
of
the
AV
from
which
the
Apocrypha
was
omitted.
It
had
previously
been
omitted
from
some
editions
of
the
Geneva
Bible,
from
1599
onwards.
The
Nonconformists
took
much
objection
to
it,
and
in
1664
the
Long
Parhament
forbade
the
reading
of
lessons
from
it
in
public
;
but
the
lectionary
of
the
English
Church
always
included
lessons
from
it.
The
example
of
omis-sion
was
followed
in
many
editions
subsequently.
The
first
edition
printed
in
America
(apart
from
a
surrepti-tious
edition
of
1752),
in
1782,
is
without
it.
In
1826
the
