P053 The Authorized Version.

P053 The Authorized Version.

How far these rules were observed it is impossible now to say. They were, doubtless, followed in the main, but there is reason to believe that some latitude was allowed. When the translators had done their work a copy each was sent from Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster to London, where two from each place, six in all, gave another revision, and Dr. Miles Smith, and Bishop Bilson, whose name does not appear among the forty-seven, superintended the work as it passed through the press. The former wrote the Preface, which is entitled "The Translators to the Reader." The expenses of the work were borne, not by the king, who pleaded poverty, and apparently with good reason, but by voluntary contributions from bishops and others who had fat livings; at least such was his majesty’s desire, as expressed in a circular issued by his order, though it seems that the responses were not very generous. The king, however, rewarded the translators by bestowing good livings on them when vacancies occurred, and by ecclesiastical promotion. The work was given to the public in 1611, in a folio volume, printed in black letter, and with the title as follows:— The | HOLY | BIBLE, | Conteyning the Old Testament, | AND THE NEW, | Newly Translated out of the Originall | tongues : & with the former Translations | diligently compared and revised by his | Maiesties speciall Comandement. | Appointed to be read in Churches | Imprinted at London by Robert | Barker, Printer to the Kinge | most excellent Maiestie | Anno Dom. 1611. The same year the New Testament, in 12mo.,was issued, and in 1612 the entire Bible, in 8vo., and in Roman type. The printing of the Bishops’ Bible, an edition of which had appeared in 1606, was never resumed, though the New Testament of that Bible continued to be printed as late as 1619. The Genevan Bible, however, had a firmer hold on the popular favor, and it required the life-time of a whole generation to displace it. A very singular fact about this "Authorized Version" is, that it never was authorized by royal proclamation, by order of Council, by act of Parliament, or by vote of Convocation.

Whether the words "appointed to be read in churches" were used by order of the editors, or by the will of the printer, is now unknown. The popularity which the version so soon achieved is, however, sufficient proof that it was "authorized" in the best sense of the term.