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Bancroft's 14 changes of KJV text

Discussion in '2005 Archive' started by Logos1560, Jan 26, 2005.

  1. Logos1560

    Logos1560 Well-Known Member
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    It was KJV translator Miles Smith, final editor of the KJV with Thomas Bilson, who reported and protested that after he and Bilson had finished the editing Archbishop Bancroft made 14 more changes. Henry Jessey, a Baptist in the 1600's,
    complained about the KJV for its episcopacy and said that Bancroft "who was supervisor of the present translation, altered it in fourteen places to make it speak the language of prelacy" (Williams, THE COMMON ENGLISH VERSION, p. 53).
    John Eadie maintained that the report of these 14 changes became part of the preamble of a bill in Parliament around 1657 (ENGLISH BIBLE, Vol. II, p. 272). Conant also noted that Bancroft "was publicly charged with having altered the version [KJV] in fourteen places" (ENGLISH BIBLE, p. 440).

    The two examples of these 14 that I know of
    are in the book of Acts.

    Smith gave as an example Bancroft's insistence on using "the glorious word bishopric even for Judas in Acts 1:20" (Paine, MEN BEHIND THE KJB, p. 128).

    As noted in another thread, another of Bancroft's changes involved Acts 19:37. Alexander McClure noted: "Bancroft, that he might for once stick the name [church] to a material building, would have it applied, in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, to the idols' temples"
    (KJV TRANSLATORS REVIVED, p. 221).

    So far, I have not come across a complete list of the 14 changes.
     
  2. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
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    Thanks. Look forward to others helping with the list. Those two alone have bred grievous error in interpretation.

    How did this one unsaved Anglican priest get so much power?
     
  3. Logos1560

    Logos1560 Well-Known Member
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    McClure and Paine did not footnote or indicate from which of their sources they obtained these two examples of Bancroft's 14 changes.

    In his new book TRIAL BY FIRE: THE STRUGGLE TO GET THE BIBLE INTO ENGLISH, Harold Rawlings cited
    that "Dr. Hill, a contemporary of the KJV translators, is reported to have declared in open assembly, 'It was commonly reported that Bancroft, in order that the translation [KJV] should 'speak prelatical language,' had altered it in fourteen places" (pp. 202-203).

    The source he cited might be one place
    to check for more examples:

    Anderson, Christopher. THE ANNALS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. Vol. 2 London: William Pickering, 1845. p. 378.

    I have seen an American edition of this book at a large theological library, but do not
    presently have access to it. This American edition is published in New York by Robert Carter & Brothers, 1849.

    There may have been more than 14 changes that some [at least one] of the KJV translators did not agree with.

    Charles Butterworth wrote: "Dr. Bret [Richard Brett, a KJV translator] reported that the Bps
    [bishops] altered very many places that the translators had agreed upon" (LITERARY LINEAGE OF THE KJB, p. 213). Olga Opfell also confirmed that Richard Brett "complained that the bishops had altered many places in which the members of the company had agreed" (KJB TRANSLATORS, p. 62).
     
  4. robycop3

    robycop3 Well-Known Member
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    Dr. Bob: How did this one unsaved Anglican priest get so much power?

    He was a tyrant with his underlings, but a toady for KJ.
     
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