P051 The Authorized Version.

P051 The Authorized Version.

Dr. Richard Kilbye, Oxford Professor of Hebrew, was reckoned among the first Hebraists of his day. Died 1620.(1)

Dr. Miles Smith had been a student of classic authors from his youth, was well acquainted with the rabbinical glosses and commentators, and well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. He was called a "walking library."

Born about 1568, died 1624.

John Boyse, or Bois, at six years old could write Hebrew elegantly. He was for twelve years chief lecturer in Greek at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Bishop Andrewes, of Ely, made him a prebend in his church in 1615.

He was one of the most laborious of all the revisers. Born 1560, died 1643.

Sir Henry Saville was warden of Merton College, Oxford, for thirty-six years. He devoted his fortune to the encouragement of learning, and was himself a fine Greek scholar.

Born 1549, died 1622.

Dr. Thomas Holland was Regius Professor of Divinity in Exeter College, Oxford, and also master of his college.

He was considered a prodigy in all branches of literature. Born 1539, died 1612. To guide the revisers in their work the following rules were drawn up, probably by Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, at command of the king.

1. The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops’ Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit.

2. The names of the prophets and the holy writers, with the other names of the text, to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were vulgarly used.

3. The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, namely, the word church not to be translated congregation, etc.

4. When a word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been most commonly used by the most of the ancient fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place, and the analogy of the faith.

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(FN1)Shortly after the new translation appeared, Dr. Kilbye, on a visit to Derbyshire, went to the parish church on Sunday, and heard the young clergyman give a long discourse containing three reasons why a certain word should have been differently translated.

Afterward, on being introduced to the preacher, Dr. Kilbye told him that while he had three reasons against the translation of this word, the translators had considered them all, and had found thirteen stronger reasons for the rendering they had adopted.

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