E I B 



E I B 



■ "tes having been, in his opinion, "very partial, untrue, 

 icdit'.ous, and favouring too much of dantrcrous and traite- 

 rous conceits." In 1604, the king Gonuniffioiicd fifty-foiir 

 learned men of the two univtrfuies, and of othtr places, to 

 confer together, fo that nothing Ihould jjafs without a general 

 content, in order to make a new and more conccl tranfla- 

 tion of the Bible. Such of thtfc as furvived till the com- 

 ' mencement of the work were divided into fix cl^iflep. Ten 

 were to meet at Wcftininfter, and to tranflate from the Pen- 

 tateuch to the end of the fecond book of Kings. Eight, 

 afTemhled at Cambridg^e, were to finifh the reiT: of the hifto- 

 rxal books, and the Hagiographa. At Oxford, f-ven wtre 

 to undertake the four greater prophets, wiih tiic lamenta- 

 tions of Jeremiah, and the twelve minor propliets. The 

 tpiftles of St. Paul, and the remaining canou'cal epifllcF, 

 were allotted to another company of icven, at Wtftmir.Rcr. 

 Another company of cigiit, at Oxford, were to tranflate the 

 four gofpels, the Acts of the Apolths, and the Apocalypfe. 

 Laftly, another company of feven, at Cambridge, hiid afiign- 

 (d to them the Apocryphr, including the prayer of Manaffeh. 

 The king prefcribed certain rules, which the tranflators 

 were required carefully to obferve. The Bidiop's Bible 

 was to be the Itandard, from which as few deviations as pof- 

 lible were to be allowed ; the names of the prophet?, and 

 the holy writers, with the other nam.cs iu the text, were to 

 be retained as near as pofllble to their vulgar ufe ; the old ec- 

 clefiaftital words were to be retained, as the word " church," 

 which was not to be tranflatcd " congregation," &:c. ; of 

 words admitting divers fignifications, thofe were to be retained 

 which had been moft commonly ufed by the moil eminent, or 

 moil ancient fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the 

 place, a:id the analogy of faith ; the divilion of the chapters 

 11 as to remain with as little alteration as poffible ; no marginal 

 notes were to be introduced, except for the explanation of He- 

 brew or Greek words, which could not without circumlocution 

 be duly expreffed ; quotations were to be annexed in the mar- 

 gin, forthe purpofe of referring from one fcripture to another ; 

 every particular perfon of each company was to take the fame 

 chapter or chapters, and having feparately tranflated his 

 appropriate part, all were to meet, to compare what they 

 had done, and to agree as to that which fliould remain ; when 

 any part was {inilhcd by the company, it was to be referred 

 to the rell for their ferioiis and judicious confideration ; if 

 any doubt or difference occurred, it was to be fettled at a 

 general meeting ; with refpefl to places of fpecial obfcurity, 

 the opinion of learned peri'ons was to be obtained by letters 

 addreffed to them for this purpofe ; and ikilful perfons were 

 requeftcd to iranfmit any obfcivations that might be of ufe 

 to the company, either at Wellniinller, Cambridge, or Ox- 

 ford ; the ditettors in each company were to be the deans of 

 Weftminller and Cheller, for that place, and the king's pro- 

 fciTora in the Hebrew and Greek, in each univerfity : and 

 the following tranilations, if they agreed better with the 

 text than the Bifhop's Bible, were to be ufed, viy. Tln- 

 dal's, iVIatthewe's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's, or the Great 

 Bibk, printed in ij'^gand 1540, by Whitchurch and Grat- 

 ton, and the Geneva Bible. The king alfo irtimated his 

 pleafure, that three or four of the moil eminent and grave 

 divines of the univerlity, alTignedby the vice-chancellor, upon 

 conference with the reft of the heads, ihould be overfecrs of 

 the tranllations, as well Hebrew as Greek. The tranlla- 

 tion was begun in the fpring of l6o~, and the completion 

 of it occupied almoft three years. When the whole was 

 tiniihcd, and three copies of it wtre fent to London, one 

 from Cambridge, it fecond from Oxford, and a third from 

 Weftminller, two were choien from the joint companies 

 which had aflembled at thofe places, to revic^v a?.d poliih it. 

 Vol. IV. 



The tvro from the Cambridge companies were Mr. Joha 

 Boi?, fellow of St. John's college, and Mr. Andrew Downes, 

 proftfibr of Greek. Thcfe daily met their fellow-labourers 

 in Stationers' hail, London ; where, in nine months, tliry 

 completed their taflc, and received, each of them, by ti;c 

 week 30I. from the Company of Stationers, whereas, " be- 

 fore they I'.ad rcothing." The whole wa'', at lafl, reviewed 

 byBilfor, I»ilhop of Winchefter, and Dr.Myles Smyth, after- 

 wards bifhop of Gloucefter, who prefxed arguments to the 

 feveial bocks ; and the la'ter was ordered to write the pre- 

 face. This edit'on of the Bible, with the preface and a dedi- 

 cation to the king, was firll publiHied in London, 'n tiie 

 ■year 161 1 ; and is commonly called " King. James's Bible." 

 Several editions of it wtre pnblifhed in 4to. and in Svo. ; 

 and particularly one by R. Barker, in 1613. In fome 

 editions of this Bible, betwixt 1638 and 1685, an alteration 

 is introduced in Acls vi. 3. where, inlkead of " f/t: may ap- 

 point," is inferted " ?V may appoint," which has been 

 charged on the Independents. But as the full Bible in 

 which it was obferved is that printed at Cambridge by Buck 

 and Daniel, in 1638, it is probably an error of the pref , 

 without any dcfign to favour ary particular party. In 1663, 

 a beaulifnl edition of this Bible in folio, with chorographical 

 cuts, enffravcn by Ogilby, was printed at Cambridge, by 

 John Vield ; and another edition was printed in Ss-c. at 

 Amftcidani, in 1664, by John Canne, a leader of the Eng- 

 li Ih Broivnifls, with marginal notes, ihowing Scripture to 

 be the beil interpreter ot Scripture. The editor l)as pre- 

 fixed a preface; and the Apocrypha is omitted. A very I'ne 

 edition of tins Bible was publilhed in a large tolio, in 1701, 

 under the diretlion of Dr.Teniion, archbifhop of Canteibnry, 

 with chronological dates, and an index, by bilhop Lloyd, and 

 tables of fcripture meafurts by biihop Cumberland ; but this 

 edition abounds with typographical errors. After this tranfr 

 latinn, all the other verfions dropped, and fell into difufe, ex- 

 cept the Epiilles and Gofpels in the Common Prayer Book, 

 which were ilill continued, according to the Bilhop's tranf- 

 lation, till the alteration of the liturgy in 1661, and the Pfalms 

 and Hvmns, which are to this day as in the old verfion. 



About the tim.e when king James refolved on a new tranf- 

 lation of the Bible, another trantlation was finiilied by Mr. 

 Ambrofe Ulher, elder brother of the learned primate of 

 Armagh of the fame name. It was never printed ; but is 

 preferved in MS. in 3 vols. 4to. in the hbrary of Trinity 

 college at Dublin. In 1764, Mr. Anthony Pin-ver publilhed 

 a new tranflation of the Bible, at London, in z vols, folio. 

 We have- alfo had feveral tranflations of the New Tillamer.t, 

 (fee Testament) and of particular books and parts of the 

 Old and New Tcilamcnt, the principal of whicit will be 

 noticed in their proper places. 



Learned perlons have entertained very different opini.Mis 

 concerning the accuracy and value of the tranflation, made bv 

 order oi ki'..g James, and now in common ufe. Bilhop Nevi- 

 corae, the late much refpeAed primate of Ireland, has given an 

 abilraCl of thefe opinions. Selden recommends it as the " bell 

 tranflation in the world." Tht committee for religion in the 

 time of Cromwell, A. D. 1656, whilil they pretended to dif- 

 cover fome miilakcs in it, allowed it to be the " bell extant ;'' 

 Walton in his " Prolegomena," highly commends it ; and 

 Poole in his " Synoplis, &c." fays, that " in this royal 

 veiilon occur veiy numerous fpecimens of great learning and 

 dull in the original languages, and of an uncommon acf-. 

 men and judgment." In the " Bibliotheca Literaria," 

 A. D. 1723, it is obferved, that " it made its way by generi-l 

 confent and approbation, without the intcrpolition of auti.o- 

 rity to enforce it. A fure argument that it is generally 

 eileemed the bell we Lave ; though it has iliil many c n- 

 U u fide ruble 



