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1994-02-11
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THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER
Preface to the King James Version 1611
Thesis by
EDGAR J. GOODSPEED
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO - ILLINOIS
(Not Copyrighted)
No book means so much to religion as the Bible. In all its forms it has
greatly served religion, and in its modern forms its meaning comes out more
clearly and more tellingly than ever. It has more to teach the modern world
about religion than even its strongest advocates have realized. Few of them
have fully explored the wealth and depth of its contribution to modern
religious attitudes.
Of all the forms of the English Bible, the most distinguished and widely
cherished is the King James Version. Its value for religion is very great,
and it is on that account all the more important that its origin and place in
the history of the Bible be understood, so that false ideas about it may not
prevail, for in so far as they do prevail they are likely to impair and to
distort its religious usefulness.
There can be no doubt, however, that widespread and serious misappre-
hensions as to its origin do very generally prevail, and that these seriously
condition its religious value. The literary interest and the liturgical value
of that version are of course universally recognized. It is a classic of 16th
and 17th century English, and it is a treasure of Christian liturgy, deeply
freighted with religious associations. These are values every man of culture
will at once acknowledge and approve.
It is, moreover, deeply imbedded in the affection and devotion of great
groups of people, not all of them religious. They find in it the final
embodiment of moral, social, and literary values which they greatly prize.
This is in itself a fact of great importance. Even if the version were itself
less eminent as an English classic or a liturgical masterpiece the extra-
ordinary prestige it enjoys would give it a consequence all its own.
The tremendous significance thus generally attached to it by the public
makes it imperative that the facts as to its origin and ancestry be well
know, or the most fantastic misconceptions about these matters will arise
and prevail. But these facts are not well known, and misconceptions conse-
quently do prevail to an amazing extent.
The King James Version is predominantly the Bible of the layman, and
it will undoubtedly continue to be so for a long time to come. This fact
makes it doubly important that it be presented to him as intelligently
and as intelligibly as possible. This well-recognized fact has led its
publishers through the generations to have it tacitly revised from time
to time, so that the obsolete words and spellings might not confuse the
ordinary reader. This commendable activity began immediately upon the
first publication of the version in 1611 and continued intermittently until
1769 when, under the hands of Dr. Blayney of Oxford, it reached its present
form. It has cleared the text of the version of innumerable antique spel-
lings, such as Hierusalem, Marie, assoone, foorth, shalbe, fet, creeple,
fift, sixt, ioy, middes, charet and the like. Comparatively few verses
in the version have escaped such improvements and modernizations, and
most verses contain several such changes.
It has also corrected the numerous misprints of the version, so that
it is now of the most accurately printed books in the world. The one
original misprint to survive is the famous "strain (straine) at the gnat"
in Matthew 23:24 (for "strain out a gnat"), which has so endeared itself
to users of the King James that no modern publisher has the temerity to
set it right.
The omission of the Apocrypha from most modern printings of King
James and the insertion of Archbishop Ussher's chronology, which first
appeared in its margins in 1701, were more serious changes from the
original King James; the chronology in particular has certainly out-
lived its usefulness and, as at best a late accretion upon the version,
ought not to continue.
But it is the omission of the great Preface, "The Translators to
the Reader," that is most to be regretted. The makers of the version
in their day felt that the work called for some explanation and defense,
and entrusted the writing of a suitable preface to Myles Smith, of
Brasenose College, Oxford, afterward Bishop of Gloucester. His Preface
for many years stood at the beginning of the version. But for various
reasons -- its length, its obscurity, its controversial and academic
character -- it has gradually come to be omitted by modern publishers
of the King James, which is thus made to present itself to the reader
abruptly and without explanation or introduction of any kind.
The result of this upon the hosts of ignorant and untrained people
who use the version is disastrous in the extreme. My own correspondence
abounds in letters from well-meaning people who have been led into the
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