the english translation of the king james bible called the bishop's bible was published in 1602.
the english translation of the king james bible called the bishop's bible was published in 1602.
when was the english translation of the king james bible called the bishop's bible published?
1602
the bishops' bible was first published in 1568, but was then re-issued in an extensively revised form in 1572. in the revision a number of switches were made to the new testament in the direction of more "ecclesiastical" language (e.g. introducing the term "charity" into i corinthians 13), but otherwise to bring the text more into line with that found in the geneva bible; and in the old testament, the psalms from the great bible were printed alongside those in the new translation, which had proved impossible to sing. from 1577 the new psalm translation was dropped altogether; while further incremental changes were made to the text of the new testament in subsequent editions. the bible had the authority of the royal warrant, and was the second version appointed to be read aloud in church services (cf. great bible, king james bible). it failed to displace the geneva bible as a domestic bible to be read at home, but that was not its intended purpose. the intention was for it to be used in church as what would today be termed a "pulpit bible". the version was more grandiloquent than the geneva bible. the first edition was exceptionally large and included 124 full-page illustrations. the second and subsequent editions were rather smaller, around the same size as the first printing of the king james bible, and mostly lacked illustrations other than frontispieces and maps. the text lacked most of the notes and cross-references in the geneva bible, which contained much controversial theology, but which were helpful to people among whom the bible was just beginning to circulate in the vernacular. the last edition of the complete bible was issued in 1602, but the new testament was reissued until at least 1617. william fulke published several parallel editions up to 1633, with the new testament of the bishops' bible alongside the rheims new testament, specifically to controvert the latter's polemical annotations. the bishops' bible or its new testament went through over 50 editions, whereas the geneva bible was reprinted more than 150 times.
bishops' bible
so when towards the end of the conference two puritans suggested that a new translation of the bible be produced to unify better the anglican church in england and scotland, james embraced the idea. he could not only be rid of those inconvenient annotations, but he could have greater influence on the translation of the bible as a whole. he commissioned and chartered a new translation of the bible which would eventually become the most famous version of the bible in the history of the english language. originally known as the "authorized version" to be read in churches, the new bible would come to bear his name as the so-called king james bible or king james version (kjv). the first and early editions of the king james bible from 1611 and the first few decades thereafter lack annotations, unlike nearly all editions of the geneva bible up until that time. initially, the king james version did not sell well and competed with the geneva bible. shortly after the first edition of the kjv, king james banned the printing of new editions of the geneva bible to further entrench his version. however, robert barker continued to print geneva bibles even after the ban, placing the erroneous date 1599 on new copies of genevas which were actually printed circa 1616 to 1625.
geneva bible