After the King James Bible

The greatest defect of the King James Bible is that the New Testament was translated from an inferior text. This Greek text was made in the Fourth Century and it is now known that it is quite removed from the text of the First Century. Sixteen years after the King James Bible was printed, a Greek manuscript of the Bible was presented to King Charles I. This Fifth Century manuscript is now known as the Alexandrine Codex and is in the British Museum. At that time, this was a much better manuscript than the text prepared by Erasmus and used by the translators of the King James Bible. Unfortunately, it was not available to the translators in 1611.

During the 18th and 19th Centuries, much important work was done on the Bible text. Further manuscripts were discovered, for instance, the Codex Sinaiticus was found in St. Catherine's monastery by Tischendorf in 1844. This Fourth Century Greek manuscript contains the New Testament and most of the Old Testament. The Vatican Codex was made generally available. It became evident that the authorized version of 1611 needed revision to be more in conformity with the Greek text of the New Testament.

This exhibition contains several important Greek New Testament texts; notably those by Grisebach, Tischendorf and Young. Bagster's comparison of manuscripts is also displayed.

The Old Testament, as it is in our Bible, is based on the Masoretic text. The Masoretes were a group of Hebrew scholars who, from the 8th Century onward standardized the text of the Old Testament books. The Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript of the Masoretic text. It was written about 1008 AD.

Source: F.F. Bruce, The English Bible, A History of Translations, Oxford University Press 1961. 234 pp