Translators' Preface

Here is a full-text reprint of the translators' preface to the 1611 KJV.

Key sections that undermine the KJVO argument:

• Why translation is necessary
• Why the Bible should be in an understandable language
• Why translations, including this one, can differ from each other without harming the message
• Why ambiguity or impossibility in translating required their addition of marginal notes
• Why the Catholic Bible was faulted for not being understandable enough
  

"For is the kingdom of God become words or syllables?" the 1611 translators asked (17.5).

Indeed! I say. Indeed.

Changes to the KJV, and Defects Unchanged

Here is a list of changes made to the KJV from 1611 to 1769, including alterations to the text. Here is a sampling of outright translation errors, some with significant implications for proper understanding.

1st Ed. KJV Online

Wow! Page by page scans of the 1st edition KJV.

King James and the Translators

Just read rule #1: Use the Bishop's Bible whenever possible. Thus, KJV is not really a fresh translation from the Greek and Hebrew, and God's Word was already believed to exist in another Bible.

Of course, the translators themselves were fine with other translations being called God's Word: "Nay, we affirm and avow that the meanest translation of the Bible in English is the word of God."

What else was in the original 1611 KJV, you ask--besides margin notes and the Apocrypha?