KJV Anniversary

It’s a little surprising to me that we are now three months into 2011 and I am not aware of any celebration or even notice that we are in the 400^th year of the publishing of the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible. The King James Version (KJV) is a mainstay of the Protestant church and deserves more notice that it is getting.

My personal study bible is The KJV 1611 put out by Hendrickson Publishers. I am an ardent student of history and when it became known to me about five years ago, I purchased one.

Now mind you, it is not a copy of the original 1611 bible. There are indeed beautiful reproductions of the actual 1611 bible but remember that the first ones were issued to each church in England to be read by the minister at services. They were big. They were also typeset in Old English.

There are a number of reproductions available. The King James Store offers one advertised as a copy of the original.

http://www.thekjvstore.com/product_list.php?mcid=1&scid=3

Their website identifies it as follows:

“The Super Deluxe 1611 King James Bible 400th Anniversary Edition Facsimile with one genuine original leaf of a regular (non-title) page from the original 1611 printing of the King James Bible First Edition, (a $295 value if purchased separately) and FREE GROUND SHIPPING.”

It really does appear to be a beautiful work. The price for this edition is listed at $1495.00. They have two lesser models at $495 and $349. A basic black edition is sold for $179..

The “1611 Edition” that I use is actually the 1833 production. There were a few updates between 1611 and 1833, mainly to address the issue of typographical errors in the original.  I think it is the last one that still uses the original spelling but the typeset is not Old English. I really do enjoy it and do not now find any difficulty in the spelling. In fact I have begun to write my study notes using the old spelling.

The 1611 edition takes very little mental adjustment and it makes me feel a little more in step with my Protestant forebears.