Much has been written, and said, about English Language Bible Translations. It has even been said, by persons claiming to be Protestants and who should know better, that the Tyndale Translation of the Bible, the English Language Bible Translation of the Reformation, and the Geneva Translation of the Bible, the English Language Bible Translation by the Reformers, were “not the Word of God”. This claim, that the Tyndale and Geneva Translations were not the ‘Word of God’, is the same as was made by the Roman Catholic Church, That is arrogance and ignorance.

KING JAMES’ INSTRUCTIONS TO THE TRANSLATORS

This important document, drawn up by Bishop Bancroft and issued by King James, is not currently available. It is suppressed by the advocates of the King James Version of the Bible. The extracts are reproduced without comment.

Rule 1. The ordinary Bible, read in the church, commonly called the Bishop’s Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the original will permit.

Rule 3. The old ecclesiastical words to be kept; as the word church, not to be translated congregation, &c.

Rule 4. When any word hath divers significations, that to be kept which has been most commonly used by the most eminent fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place, and the analogy of the faith.

Rule 6. No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek words, which cannot, without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the text.

Extracts, THE TRANSLATORS NOTES TO THE READER
of the King James Version of the Holy Bible

This important document is not included in any current edition of the King James English Bible. However, it is readily available to any who require it, though many King James Version devotees have never seen it and even fewer have studied it. The following are extracts from what Miles Smith wrote on behalf of King James’ Translators, but do read the entire eleven page document for yourself. Comment is unnecessary and the implications are awesome. However, one factor is frequently overlooked, all the KJV translators were all Church of England, with a predominance of Anglo-Catholics.

“Now --- we answer, that we do not deny, nay ,we affirm and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, --- containeth the Word of God, nay, is the word of God. --- --- No cause therefore why the Word translated should be denied to be the Word, or forbidden to be current, notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be noted in the setting forth of it.”

“ Therefore as St. Augustine saith, that variety of translations is profitable for the finding out of the sense of Scripture; so diversity of signification and sense in the margin, where the text is not so clear, musts needs do good, yea is necessary, as we are persuaded.”

“ - we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing, or to an identity of words, as some peradventure would wish that we had done, because they observe that some learned men somewhere have been as exact as they could that way. - But that we should express the same notion in the same particular word; as for example, if we translate the Hebrew or Greek word once by ‘purpose’, never to call it ‘intent’, etc.”

“ But we desire that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in the language of Canaan, that it may be understood by the very vulgar (i.e., the common people).” And “How shall men meditate in that which they cannot understand.”

“ Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the scrupulosity of the Puritans [Reformers] who leave the old Ecclesiastical words and betake themselves to other [literal translations] as when they (render) Baptism and Church [more correctly].--- We have shunned the obscurity of the Papists in their --- Pasche [Passover] ---.”

EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO KING JAMES 1/6

This letter is printed in the front of many current editions of the KJV Bible and is currently available to all.

Header, “To the most high and mighty prince, JAMES, etc.” Then, end para, “Your Highness with many singular and extraordinary graces. You may be the wonder of the world --- for true felicity to the honour of God and the good of his Church.”
[This is blatant obsequiousness by a group of sycophantic man-pleasing High and Low Anglicans. The Anglo-Catholic King James 1/6 was a most unchristian, arrogant, obnoxious and immoral, man. John Calvin, John Knox, or indeed any of the Bible translators in Geneva (“men who feared neither man nor devil, Queen nor Emperor”), would never have written that! In fact the fearless Andrew Melville told King James, to his face, that he was ‘a silly vassal’ and though a king in Scotland he could never be more than a member in the Kirk of Christ. Indeed, it is beyond understanding why such dreadful drivel should preface a Holy Bible. J.C.]

“ So that if --- we shall be maligned by selfconceited Brethren, who run their own ways, and give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves, and hammered out on their (own) anvil, etc.”
[This is an open attack on the Puritans (Reformers, Calvin, Knox, etc.) who King James detested, and the Baptists, who King James despised and were called Anabaptists by both Anglicans and Catholics. It is also an attack on the very explanatory, Puritan, foot-notes in the Geneva Translation of the Holy Scriptures. This led to persecution of Nonconformists and continues a divisive sectarianism. J.C.]