Authorized Version

The Authorized Version (AV), commonly called the King James Version (KJV), is the English translation of the Bible produced in 1611 at the command of King James I of England. It was prepared by a committee of 47 scholars organized into six groups working at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge, each assigned specific books of the Bible. The translation built on the foundation of Tyndale's pioneering English NT (1526) and subsequent versions — Coverdale (1535), the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva Bible (1560), and the Bishops' Bible (1568) — refining and synthesizing their work.

The KJV's text is based on the Greek Textus Receptus for the NT (following Erasmus's critical edition) and the Hebrew Masoretic Text for the OT. Its influence on English literature, language, and culture has been enormous; phrases and rhythms from the KJV have entered the English language at every level. Modern critical scholarship works from earlier and more numerous manuscripts than were available in 1611, and modern translations (RSV, ESV, NIV, NASB) reflect both text-critical advances and the need to render biblical idiom into contemporary English.