Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Predecessors
- 2 Drafting the King James Bible
- 3 ‘I was a translator’
- 4 Working on the King James Bible
- 5 1611: the first edition
- 6 Printing, editing and the development of a standard text
- 7 Reputation and future
- Select bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Predecessors
- 2 Drafting the King James Bible
- 3 ‘I was a translator’
- 4 Working on the King James Bible
- 5 1611: the first edition
- 6 Printing, editing and the development of a standard text
- 7 Reputation and future
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
This heading is homage to William Tyndale, who used the same form for his prologue to his 1534 New Testament. It was Tyndale who began the writing in English of what became the King James Bible and did most to make it what it is. Of course he had to have a Bible to translate, so I begin with the Bible itself and a selective look at the resources available to the Reformation translators. The English story of the King James Bible starts with Tyndale, and I explore how he and his successors collectively created it. In part this is done through the history of their work, in part through showing how they developed two brief passages. Then I trace the history of the work on the King James Bible itself, and examine the translators' scholarship particularly through the library of one of the translators and the previously unknown diary of another. At the heart of the story is the first edition of 1611, explored from title page through to minute details of the text. Then comes a survey of the printing history of the King James Bible through to the establishment of the standard text in 1769, followed by a more selective look at later editions. The King James Bible was not always admired as it has been over the last two and a half centuries of its life, so I conclude with a sketch of its changing reputation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The King James BibleA Short History from Tyndale to Today, pp. ix - xiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011