History of the King James Version of the Bible

The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, King James Version also known as KJV. In 1604 James VI, King of Scotland from his youth, became King James I of England, the first ruler of Brittain and Ireland. Because of the growing animosity of James toward the Puritans, a leading Puritan spokesman, Dr. John Reynolds, proposed that a new English Bible be issued in honor of the new King. King James saw an opportunity to bring about a unity with the church service in Presbyterian Scotland and Episcopal England. King James appointed 54 learned scholars in the making of this new translation from the original Greek and Hebrew into English. For the Old Testament they used the ben Asher text, and for the New Testament they used the Greek text of Erasmus and a Greek and Latin text of the 6th Century found by Theodore Beza. They used Chapters (developed by Archbishop Stephen Langton in 1551) and Verses (the verse divisions of Robert Estienne). It was completed and published in 1611 and became known as the "Authorized Version" because the making of it was authorized by King James. It became the "Official Bible of England" and the only Bible of the English church. There have been many revisions of the King James Bible ie. 1615, 1629, 1638, and 1762. Some of them include marginal notes containing the chronology of Biblical events laid out by Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656), which dates Adam and Eve at 4004 B.C. The 1762 revision is what we now presently know as the King James Version.