King James Version

Commissioned in the reign of James I and first printed in 1611, the King James Version — also known as the Authorized Version — is widely regarded as the most influential English Bible in literature, worship and the later history of translation. It covers the complete Bible, historically including the Apocrypha, and was made from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, drawing on the Masoretic Hebrew text, the Textus Receptus Greek text and earlier versions. Its translation philosophy renders the text in formal, literary ecclesial English, and it is best classified as a substantial revision undertaken with fresh comparison against the original languages, its predecessor and base translation being the Bishops' Bible. It thus stands within the sequence of sixteenth-century English translations rather than apart from it. Among its distinctive features, the 1611 printing differs in spelling, punctuation and some readings from the standard KJV in use today, and it long served as the standard English Bible in Protestant use.