Four centuries at a glance

A timeline of the English Bible

Every date below marks a real, documented step on the road to 1611 — and to the standardized text still printed as the King James Bible today.

  1. 1382

    The Wycliffe Bible

    The first complete English Bible, hand-copied from the Latin Vulgate under the influence of John Wycliffe, circulated in secret among the Lollards.

  2. 1526

    Tyndale’s New Testament

    William Tyndale prints the first English New Testament translated directly from Greek. He is executed for it a decade later.

  3. 1535

    The Coverdale Bible

    Miles Coverdale completes the first full printed English Bible, drawing on Tyndale’s unfinished work.

  4. 1539

    The Great Bible

    The first English Bible authorized for public reading in every parish church, ordered by Henry VIII and placed in churches by royal decree.

  5. 1560

    The Geneva Bible

    English exiles in Geneva produce a scholarly, heavily annotated Bible with numbered verses — the household Bible of Shakespeare and the Puritans.

  6. 1568

    The Bishops’ Bible

    The Church of England’s answer to Geneva’s Reformed marginal notes — the official pulpit Bible until 1611, and the base text KJV translators were told to follow where possible.

  7. 1604

    The Hampton Court Conference

    Puritan scholar John Rainolds proposes a new translation to King James I, who commissions the project within months.

  8. 1604–1608

    Six companies translate

    Roughly fifty scholars at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge divide the work, translate independently, and cross-check every company’s output.

  9. 1611

    The Authorized Version is published

    The completed translation is printed, dedicated to King James, and appointed to be read in churches throughout England.

  10. 1629 & 1638

    Early Cambridge corrections

    Cambridge University Press issues revised printings correcting typographical errors from the 1611 edition.

  11. 1769

    The Blayney standardization

    Benjamin Blayney’s Oxford edition modernizes spelling and punctuation and refines italics. This is, in essence, the text printed today.

  12. 1800s–1900s

    A global inheritance

    Missionary societies and the British and Foreign Bible Society carry the KJV around the English-speaking world, cementing its place as the most printed book in history.

  13. Today

    Still the pulpit Bible for millions

    Despite more than a century of newer translations, the KJV remains the standard text for KJV-only churches and a widely read translation worldwide.

For the full narrative behind these dates, read the complete history, or meet the translators themselves on the translators page.