sabath wrote:
I am not . I follow the Church of God, the king James vir. written by God before he became Jesus.
William Tyndale published the first printed edition of the New Testament in English in the year 1525.
Previous English Bibles to the King James, after the Tyndale, was the Matthews Bible, the Coverdale Bible, The Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the Bishops Bible.
These previous six English Bibles are part of the form and substance that provided the English words of The King James Authorized Version.
The King James translators started their construction with The Bishops Bible as a base and incorporated other biblical building material.
But they didn’t limit themselves to these. They also used Greek and Hebrew editions as well as foreign language versions:
Many foreign language Bibles and Testaments were examined.
It was a translators intention not only to improve presentation of God’s words in English but also to improve the presentation of God’s words that had previously appeared in other Reformation era Bibles.
They had a multitude of sources from which to draw.
Here’s what they said:
. . .we are so far off from condemning any of their labours that travelled before us in this kind, EITHER IN THIS LAND OR BEYOND THE SEA, either in King Henry's time, or King Edward's, (if there were any translation, or correction of a translation, in his time) or Queen Elizabeth's of ever renowned memory, that WE ACKNOWLEDGE THEM TO HAVE BEEN RAISED UP OF GOD FOR THE BUILDING AND FURNISHING OF HIS CHURCH, and that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting remembrance.
. . . we do not deny, nay, we affirm and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English set forth by men of our profession. . . containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God: as the King's speech which he uttered in Parliament, being translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and Latin, is still the King's speech, though it be not interpreted by every translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense, every where. . . .
"Yet for all that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time. . . so, if WE BUILDING UPON THEIR FOUNDATION THAT WENT BEFORE US, AND BEING HOLPEN BY THEIR LABOURS, do endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we persuade ourselves, if they were alive, would thank us. . . .
"Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one; (for then the imputation of Sixtus had been true in some sort, that our people had been fed with gall of dragons instead of wine, with whey instead of milk;) but TO MAKE A GOOD ONE BETTER, OR OUT OF MANY GOOD ONES ONE PRINCIPAL GOOD ONE, NOT JUSTLY TO BE EXCEPTED AGAINST; THAT HATH BEEN OUR ENDEAVOUR, THAT OUR MARK."
What About The Printed English Bibles Before 1611?
The King James Bible itself is a revision of the Bishops Bible. Each translator was provided with a copy of the 1604 Bishops.
The testimony of history shows that the compilation of Scripture in the various languages of the world is a process and not a one-time event. In other words, the Lord didn’t present his final version in any particular language on the first pass.
The meaning of words changes with time, as in any culture new words appear, and old words discarted. The Greek in which the New Testament was written in the 1st century was called "koine" Greek, the word koine meant vulgar, as it was the common Greek used by the common, everyday citizens, rather than a more formal, scholarly Greek used only by highly trained Academics.
This is because the Word of God is written for all men, not some elitist, highly educated class. No matter how imperfect man's translations and publications of God's perfect word might be, the Holy Spirit illuminates its meaning to our minds, just as Jesus promised in the 16th chapter of John:
John 16:13 "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
The first New Testament translated from a 1st century Greek text into English was produced in 1525. If you could get a Tyndale New Testament you would have the New Testament Scripture as God provided it at that time.
Coverdale’s complete first edition of the Bible in English was published in 1535. You could have “the Scripture” as God provided it at that time in the form of the Coverdale Bible and Tyndale’s New Testament.
In 1537 you could add Matthews Bible to the list. Likewise, the Great Bible in 1539 and forward.
In 1560, you could get “the Scripture” that God provided in the English language in the Geneva Bible, developed in Switzerland by John Calvin and his fellow pastors.
God first presented the King James Version of his word in English in 1611, printed by Robert Barker in London. Two issues were published that year, the printing being done possibly in two different shops to meet the expected large demand. The first two printings were large folio Bibles for use in churches, but smaller editions were soon produced for personal use, starting in 1612.
With the proliferation of printings, early printer errors crept into each edition. For instance, in one printing, the word "not" was left out of the seventh commandment, in what eventually came to be called the "Wicked Bible," for it said "Thou shalt commit adultery." As well, if some printed sheets were left over from one printing, they were incorporated into the next printing.
Almost no two still existing "original 1611" King James Bibles are exactly the same.Eventually there was a need to correct and revise the King James Version because of printer's errors over the years and the changes in spelling and word usage. Corrected editions were published by the Cambridge University Press, the first being in 1629, followed by another in 1638. Several of the revisers were part of the original group of translators of the King James Version. Imperfectly printed copies continued to appear, some printed on the European continent in Holland.
There were almost 1000 editions printed from 1611 to 1769, all with minor corrections. In 1762, the most significant corrections were completed in an edition overseen by Dr. Thomas Paris of Trinity College in Cambridge. The work of Dr. Paris was then refined by Benjamin Blayney in 1769; this edition became the standard King James Bible in use until the middle of the 19th century.
None of this in any way, hindered the Holy Spirit in using God's Holy Word to convict men of their sinful condition, of their need to receive Christ, and for personal repentance.