Lineage Explorer | Bible Lineage Museum

Era:

250 BC – 350 AD

Antiquity & Codices

400 – 1450 AD

Monastic Scriptoriums

1516 – 1525 AD

Renaissance & TR

1526 – 1539 AD

Tyndale & Early English

1560 – 1568 AD

Geneva & Bishops'

1611 AD

King James Version

1881 – 1952 AD

Critical Revisions

1971 – 2001 AD

Modern Translations

Lineage Arrows

Green: Antecedent Source Used

Amber: Future Version Influenced

React Flow

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Curator\'s Dossier

1611 ADKJV• Early Modern English

King James Version (Authorized Version)

Commissioned by King James I at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, translated by 47 scholars in six companies; the most influential book in the English language.

Sources & Antecedents Used (6)

Behind It

The Bishops' Bible (1568 AD)

Official Revision

Rule 1 of the royal charter designated the 1568 Bishops' Bible as the official base text to be followed unless the original languages dictated change.

Approx. 30% textual/phrasing contribution

Tyndale New Testament & Pentateuch (1526 AD)

Primary Base Text

Computer textual analysis demonstrates that approximately 84% of the King James New Testament and 76% of the Old Testament is William Tyndale's phrasing word-for-word.

Approx. 84% textual/phrasing contribution

Geneva Bible (1560 AD)

Consulted Source

The KJV translators extensively consulted the Geneva Bible, adopting its precise linguistic renderings in hundreds of passages despite King James's personal dislike of its marginal notes.

Approx. 40% textual/phrasing contribution

Coverdale Bible (1535 AD)

Consulted Source

The KJV committee drew upon Coverdale's lyrical cadence, especially in the Psalms and lyrical poetic passages.

Approx. 20% textual/phrasing contribution

Erasmus Greek New Testament (Novum Instrumentum) (1516 AD)

Printed Greek/Hebrew Text

The KJV New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus editions of Robert Stephanus (1550) and Theodore Beza (1598), direct descendants of Erasmus's Greek NT.

Approx. 90% textual/phrasing contribution

Bomberg Second Rabbinic Bible (Mikraot Gedolot) (1525 AD)

Printed Greek/Hebrew Text

The KJV Old Testament companies at Westminster and Oxford used the Bomberg Second Rabbinic Bible (ben Hayyim Masoretic text) as their Hebrew foundation.

Approx. 90% textual/phrasing contribution

Future Versions Influenced (2)

In Front of It

Revised Version (English Revised Version) (1881 AD)

Official Revision

The 1881 Revised Version was the first official authorized revision of the 1611 King James Bible in English history.

New King James Version (1982 AD)

Official Revision

The NKJV updated the 1611 KJV's vocabulary and grammar while maintaining complete allegiance to the traditional Textus Receptus Greek text.

Translators & Key Figures

Lancelot Andrewes

Dean of Westminster & Director of KJV First Westminster Company

1555 – 1626 • English

"He is not a preacher that cannot speak to all sorts of people; he is not a scholar that cannot read all sorts of books."

Lancelot Andrewes was Bishop of Winchester and one of the supreme minds of the Jacobean Church. When King James I sanctioned a new translation of the Bible at Hampton Court in 1604, Andrewes was appointed to direct the First Westminster Company, responsible for the Old Testament from Genesis to Second Kings. Renowned for his mastery of Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and Syriac, Andrewes and his committee met regularly in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey, reading every translated verse aloud to ensure that its cadences were magnificent when spoken in church.

View Full Scholar Biography

Historical Context & Craft

In January 1604 at Hampton Court, King James I convened church leaders to address Puritan grievances. When Puritan leader John Reynolds proposed a new translation to replace the defective Great and Bishops' Bibles, James enthusiastically approved, stipulating that no marginal notes be included. Forty-seven leading scholars, including Lancelot Andrewes and Miles Smith, worked in six companies across Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge for seven years. While formally a revision of the 1568 Bishops' Bible, the committee extensively retained Tyndale's vocabulary (over 80% of the New Testament) and drew upon Geneva, Coverdale, the Matthew Bible, Erasmus's Greek, and the Bomberg Hebrew.

Textual Significance:Unrivaled literary and religious monument of the English-speaking world. For over three centuries, it shaped the English language, prose style, and Western cultural imagination.

Surviving Physical Copies & Museums

British Library, London (original Robert Barker 1611 folio)
Museum of the Bible, DC
Library of Congress, Washington DC

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