The Epistle Dedicatory to The Holy Bible, aka The King James Bible, and Its Analysis (3/3)
The Epistle Dedicatory to The Holy Bible,
aka The King James Bible, and Its Analysis (3/3)
True religion consists of works, not merely lip service.
- But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
- If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
- Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
King James, who not only believed in Christ Jesus but practiced Christianity as well, organized the translation, pushed the translators, provided the hefty finances, and everything that was necessary to the production of the new Bible that bears his name. The publishing of the King James Bible and its public release was a great venture, and a sizable amount of finances was involved.
King James proposed the idea of the new translation after hearing the complaints of the Puritan Millinery Petition at Hampton Court. This new Bible would consider the original tongues of Hebrew and Greek, as well as Tyndale, Coverdale, Great, Geneva, and Bishops’ English Bibles, and Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch (German) Bibles. It would consider the Church Fathers such as Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, Bede, Wycliffe, and all the Protestants, but most especially Tyndale.
The words describing the King James Bible as “one more” translation indicate that it was to be the final and exact English Translation, not derived from corruption. When God caused the translation of the Scripture into English, it was remarkable that English also became the global language.
The weightiness of the matter was impressed upon the King James Bible translators, and their work far exceeded its rival, the corrupted Septuagint, previously the most famous translation in history. It would be foolish to esteem lightly God’s word as we are required to know it.
- I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
- And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Not only did the church benefit from the work that produced the King James Bible, but also ultimately, the whole world did. For the fruit to be good, the seed had to be good, and the King James Bible is proven good seed in order to get the godly fruit.
- Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
- For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
- And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
The false religions and teachers so hated the godly fruit of the King James Bible, that they would slander the king, the translators, and KJB itself, twisting the Scriptures to their own hurt.
- As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
- The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
The chief of the traducers, spreading ridicule, were the Romanists. Romanists throughout the Roman Empire in Ireland, France, Spain and Italy were spreading evil reports about the translation.
The statement that the translators were poor instruments was a quoted accusation from the Romanists. The Romanists, as evidenced through the Counter-Reformation, considered it their duty and right to educate the people. The Reformation itself was an unveiling of the Gospel in a time when the Romanists desired to keep the Bible out of the reach of the masses. Whenever anyone attacked the King James Bible or its translators, they were actually aligning themselves with the Romanists, evident from the use of the Romanists’ arguments.
Romanizing ultra-Arminians and hyper-Calvinists, heretics and extremists, were also against the King James Bible. They walked their own way into the way of error. Most especially, extreme Calvinism, who framed false doctrines by misusing Scriptures.
- Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
The extreme Calvinists held their Geneva Version, and had an aversion to any other, chiefly because they loved its marginal notes. The Geneva Version was good, but they would not relinquish it in the face of something better; but, by the end of the time of Oliver Cromwell, the Geneva Version was dead.
While The Translators to the Reader justify the King James Bible, the witness of the conscience is important. The King James Bible had no evil agenda because of force. Witnesses attest to the good and Christian character of the translators, and publications recorded praises of them for scores of years afterwards.
A translator who obeyed the king was not doing it unto the king, but as unto the Lord.
- Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
- Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
- With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
The king, as the Lord’s representative, was doing what the Lord laid on his heart to do.
- ¶ The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
- This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
The translators with spiritual insight knew that the King James Bible’s witness and the name of King James would last through all the ages of men. They were also aware that Christian works, including missionary endeavors, establishment of Christian societies, true revivals of religion and general zeal toward God would be enflamed by the King James Bible. Despite the florid and verbose condemnations in Papal bulls, the Romanist index of banned books, and the disputations of unbelievers, the King James Bible would go on.
King James had a relatively long and successful reign. He had a high degree of learning and knowledge in areas of politics, philosophy and theology. Bible-believing Christians will recognize the King James Bible as the monument that it is in the modern age, which promotes great happiness and liberty to all. The King James Bible is a gift from God for the church and makes growing in grace possible.
- But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
The preface was written by Miles Smith, of Brasenose College, Oxford, one of the translators of the King James Bible. He became the Bishop of Gloucester in 1612. “The reputed author of this noble Preface (for, in spite of the quaintness of its style and the old fashion of its learning, it deserves no meaner epithet) is Dr. Miles Smith of the first Oxford Company, who would naturally be one of the … final revisers.” “His Preface for many years stood at the beginning of the version. But for various reasons—its length, its obscurity, its controversial and academic character—it has gradually come to be omitted by modern publishers of the King James [Bible]”.
It appeared in the first King James Bible printed in 1611, and in later King James Bibles. Since 1769, it has grown more and more rare. All the major publishers have editions with the preface, and it can also be found in various other tracts and books, such as Scrivener (1884), The Trinitarian Bible Society (1911), Goodspeed (1935), Beegle (1960), &c. A vast majority of present King James Bibles do not contain the preface. It was once printed separately and distributed as a tract by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.