Who named the AV1611 the "KJV"?

I don't know, but I have always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that this name (KJV) originated in the United States.

I have just checked in my PC version ("Personal Computer," not "Politically Correct!" :laugh: ) of McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, published in the late 19th century, where the phrase "King James Version" appears just three times, compared with over 200 occrences of the phrase "Authorized Version". John McClintock and James Strong were both American, so it certainly seems as though the title "King James Version" was only beginning to be used, even in America, in those days.

 

Speed, John, A Cloud of Witnesses: And They the Holy Genealogies of the Sacred Scriptures. 2nd addition, 1620:

On page 90, different Bibles' renderings of Matt. 1:11 are listed; the marginal notes identify the Bibles as "Greeke", "Syriac", "Arabick", etc., ending with "Our Kings Bible".

 

I cannot imagine anyone in those days calling it "KJV". I it is possible that someone might have referred to it as "King James's version" (small v) to distinguish it from other translations into English, but I haven't come across any evidence that Bancroft did even this. (I am not saying he didn't, only that I have not heard of it if he did, which probably doesn't mean much ).


The International Bible Encyclopedia says:

When the first edition came out in 1611 it carried in its title the phrase, "Appointed to be read in churches." This, along with official sponsorship and the known backing of the king, probably helped to give the new bible in England the common name of Authorized Version, although in fact neither the king, parliament nor convocation ever granted formal authorization. In America the title King James Version obviously derives from the important contribution the sovereign made to the venture, which is acknowledged in excessively flattering terms in the dedicatory epistle.

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Parr, Richard, The Life of the Most Reverend Father in God, James Usher, Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh. 1686:

Page 2, "did render much of the Old Testament from the Original Hebrew into English, before King James's Translation was made,"


Baxter, Richard, An Abridgement of Mr. Baxter’s History of His Life and Times. 1713:

Vol. 1, page 470, "Though [Omnibus] be also in the Latin, [All] is left out in King James his Edition."


Harris, Samuel, Observations, Critical and Miscellaneous, On Several Remarkable Texts of the Old Testament. 1735:

Page 134, "This is rendered thus in King James's Bible,"


Llewellyn, Thomas, An Historical Account of the British or Welsh Versions and Editions of the Bible. 1768:

Page 28, "It may be deemed the standard translation for that language, as King James's Version is considered with regard to the English."

 

From the Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall (1636)

“In every church there shall be provided at the charge of the parochin, a Bible of the largest volume, with the Booke of Common Prayer and Psalmes, newlie authorized.
The Bible shall be of the translation of King James; …”

From the Princeton Theological Review, (1911, volume 9, no. 3, page 417)
Notes on the History of the Authorized Version of the Bible in Scotland
by D. Beaton

Rob

 

Do you know if the text of this 1768 book is available at a web site or if it is available in any reprint editions?

 

I would think that this John Speed would be the same man that is said to have arranged with King James I for the rights to have several pages [around 34-35] of his "Geneologies of Holy Scriptures" printed in every Bible for a few years. I think that printers were required to include these pages in the original 1611 edition and perhaps some editions after that, and printers had to pay Speed for the use of his "Geneologies", which likely increased the price of those Bibles. The digital reproduction of the 1611 edition in the original Gothic type by Greyden Press includes them, but they are omitted in the Thomas Nelson 1611 edition in Roman type.

Alister McGrath wrote: "The interesting but totally unnecessary illustrations added as part of the front matter to early editions of the King James Version were the direct result of a royal privilege granted by the crown to John Speed in October 1610" (In the Beginning, p. 168).

McGrath wrote: "This material, which was of little use to anyone, was added on account of an arrangement negotiated with James I by the noted entrepreneur John Speed in October 1610. On the basis of this 'privilege,' every edition of the Bible printed for the next ten years had to include this largely useless material. Speed gained something in the region of sixpence to two shillings per copy for this material, a proportion of which had to be paid to the crown. This increased the cost of the Bible considerably" (p. 211).

 

An Historical Account of the British or Welsh Versions and Editions of the Bible [Google Books LINK]

 

Yes, the same man. He is perhaps best known as one of the most famous map-makers of all time. See http://www.mapforum.com/02/speed.htm where the following paragraph appears:

John Speed, who was bred a Tailor, was by the generosity of Sir Fulk Grevil, his patron, set free from a manual employment and enabled to pursue his studies, to which he was strongly inclined by the bent of his genius. The fruits of them were his Theatre of Great Britain, containing an entire set of maps of the counties drawn by himself, his History of Great Britain, richly adorned with seals, coins & medals, from the Cotton collection; and his Genealogies of Scripture, first bound up with the Bible, in 1611 which was the first edition of the present English translation. His maps were very justly esteemed & his History of Great Britain, was, in its kind incomparably more complete, than all the histories of his predecessors put together ..."

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At http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/SOU_STE/SPEED_JOHN_15521629_.html there is this (emphasis mine):

He died in London on the 28th of July 1629 . Other maps of his, beside those in the Theatre, are in the British Museum . Another edition of the Theatre is Theatrum Magnae Britanniae latine, redditum a P . See also: Holland (London, folio, 1616) . He wrote Genealogies Recorded in Sacred Scriptures (1611), and a similar work, A Cloud of Witnesses (1616) . These passed through numerous editions, and were frequently prefixed to copies of the Bible . An account of Speed's descendants is to be found in Rev . J . S . Davies's History of Southampton (1883), which was founded on MS. material left by John Speed (1703–1781) .

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