The "Authorized" Bible

What does it mean for a Bible to be "authorized"? Based on usage by many in the KJVO camp, authorization refers to the beneficent King James' commissioning of an updated Bible. I am loathe to call it a "new translation," given the instructions they were given.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, authorization actually means

• Legally or duly sanctioned or appointed. Authorized Version of the Bible: a popular appellation of the version of 1611. (The Great Bible 1540, and Bishops' Bible (after 1572), actually bore on their titles ‘authorized and appointed,’ but that of 1611 has never claimed to be ‘authorized.’)
  

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature confirms that authorization was not given for the "Jacobean revision" (see Note 1).

The Bishops' Bible continued to be in official use for the Church of England for decades after the 1611 was published, and the Geneva Bible continued its dominance in Scotland. A strange practice if the king had actually "authorized" a replacement Bible for the church that he was supposed to be the head of.

So, the KJV may be the only proper Bible, but all of the King James "authorization" rhetoric is not a historical reason for believing so. Think of it as more of a red herring in the real Bible translation debate.

Who Burned Whom?

"Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who" (Monty Python).

Calvinist King James, Baptist at the stake burner?

King James and the Pilgrims

King James? Divine Right of Kings? The godly king ... who persecuted the Pilgrims? Something to thank him for, or we might still be British citizens and members of the Anglican church.

Bob Jones on KJVO

Fascinating. Never thought I would be referring people to Bob Jones on this topic. Note the other links--to R. A. Torrey, for example, and Spurgeon.