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How the King James Version (KJV) Bible Originated:
A Simplified History of the Printing of the Bible
1450 C.E. - 1633 C.E.*
*C.E. designates the Common Era, called A.D. (Anno Domini) by Christianity

1450 C.E. Johannes Gutenberg published Jerome's Latin Vulgate at Maypence (Mainz).

1488 C.E. Soncino Press printed the first complete Hebrew Bible in Lombardy.

1514 C.E. Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, cardinal primate of Spain, planned the edition in 1502 C.E. Printed in Alcala (which is called Complutum in Latin), the Polyglot contains texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin.

1516 C.E. + Desiderius Arasmus was a Dutch scholar and humanist from Rotterdam. Basically, Erasmus fabricated his own Greek text ( he 'corrected' texts of manuscripts). Found within his text are readings which cannot be found in any known and extant Greek manuscript. Biblical scholarship proves that those readings are still being perpetuated today in printings of the so-called Textus Receptus of the Greek New Testament (N.T.). The oldest and best manuscript Erasmus used was Codex I, a miniscule written in the 10th century. His bible was the first on the market that was printed, bound, and available in a cheaper and a more conveniently handy form, resulting in greater circulation than its rival (the bulky and cumbersome Complutensian Polyglot). Its influence became greater and was therefore accepted because of one economic reason: its marketability and resulting sales.

Aldine Press of Venice published the entire Bible in Greek and in three parts. The N.T. was dedicated to Erasmus, and it follows Erasmus' 1st edition so closely as to reproduce many typographical errors - even the many errors which Erasmus had corrected in his list of errata.

1456 C.E.-1551 C.E. Robert Estienne was a Parisian printer and publisher, who later became a monk and latinized his name as Stephanus. He issued four editions of the Greek Testament, three at Paris and his last at Geneva. The text of the first two editions was a compound of the Polyglot and Erasmian editions. His third edition followed Erasmus' fourth and fifth editions very closely. He became the first person to divide the text into numbered verses, which he accomplished while journeying on horseback. He did this to his fourth edition, which contains two Latin versions (the Vulgate and Erasmus' text) printed on either side of the Greek text.

1565 C.E.-1611 C.E. Theodore de Beza published nine editions of the Greek text. His tenth edition appeared post humously in 1611 C.E. His printed Greek text differs very little from Stephanus' fourth edition. de Beza's editions tended to popularize and stereotype the Textus Receptus marketing ploy (which, by this time, had been established as a lasting memorial to Erasmus' text), and therefore has been the lasting importance of his work.

1624 C.E.-1633 C.E. Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir published a smaller and more convenient edition of the Greek text. Their text was taken primarily from de Beza's smaller 1565 edition. In the preface to the second edition the boast of Textus Receptus was made, that '[the reader has] the text which is now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or corrupted.'

Martin Luther's German version was based on Stephanus' second edition.

1611 C.E. The King James Version's textual basis is essentially a handful of late and haphazardly collected miniscule manuscripts, and in a dozen passages its reading is supported by no known Greek witness. This version is a debased form of the Greek text, and was essentially reproduced faithfully from Erasmus' 'corrected' text. For almost four hundred years the KJV has resisted all scholarly efforts to displace it in favour of an earlier and more accurate text.

The history of the printing of the Bible reveals more than the layman might care to learn. The motivating force behind the publication of most editions of the Bible has been that of money and profitibility. Since the revolutionary advent of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, publishers and bible makers with marketing strategies (such as size and readibility) and clever advertising slogans (such as Textus Receptus) have produced the most popular Bibles. Promulgating the "infallibility" of these versions will insure continued sales and profitability. History proves that Truth was not and is not the real reason for printing most Bibles. The real reason: money.

Suggested additional reading: B.M. Metzger's A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament.

KJVHistory11x17.pdf (1,982KB) You have permission to print this document, but you may not resale it for profit.

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