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By his Majesty's special commandment?

Discussion in 'Bible Versions & Translations' started by Logos1560, Apr 20, 2008.

  1. Logos1560

    Logos1560 Well-Known Member
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    Who was responsible for putting the words "by his Majesty's special commandment" on the title page of the 1611 KJV and were these words completely accurate?

    I recall at least one source suggesting that the title pages of Bibles in that day were left up to the printers. If that source is correct, that would suggest that the words were not necessarily put there by the KJV translators themselves.

    What specific words made up this "special commandment" and when was this commandment made?

    Do you think that these words on the title page were perhaps based on James' acceptance of John Reynold's request for a new translation and proposal for such a translation made at the Hampton Court Conference?
     
  2. Logos1560

    Logos1560 Well-Known Member
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    I had asked the questions in first post because of the following statements I recently read in some histories of our English Bible.

    John Eadie observed that the clause "appointed to be read in Churches" on the 1611 title page “has, so far as is known, no authority, no edict of Convocation, no Act of Parliament, no decision of the Privy Council, no royal proclamation” (English Bible, II, p. 204).

    Christopher Anderson asserted that the acceptance of the proposal for a new translation by James at the Conference at Hampton Court “actually amounted to no authority at all in point of law; James was not then King of England” (Annals of the English Bible, II, p. 388). Anderson maintained that at that Hampton Court conference that “strictly speaking, or according to the law, he [James] was not yet King of England, nor could he be, till the assembling of Parliament” (II, p. 368). John Eadie also suggested that at the time of that Conference that “Parliament had not met and James had not been crowned” (English Bible, II, p. 171).
     
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