Six companies, one Bible
King James I commissioned the translation in 1604 and placed it under the direction of Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London and soon Archbishop of Canterbury. The scholars — drawn from the universities, cathedrals, and parishes of England — were divided into six companies, two each meeting at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge, with each company assigned a portion of Scripture.
| Location | Portion assigned | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Westminster | Genesis – 2 Kings | Lancelot Andrewes |
| Cambridge | 1 Chronicles – Ecclesiastes | Edward Lively |
| Oxford | Isaiah – Malachi | John Harding |
| Cambridge | The Apocrypha | John Duport |
| Oxford | The Gospels, Acts, Revelation | Thomas Ravis |
| Westminster | The Epistles | William Barlow |
Notable translators
Lancelot Andrewes, Dean of Westminster and later Bishop of Winchester, directed the first Westminster company and was renowned as one of the finest linguists and preachers of his generation, reportedly fluent in fifteen languages.
John Rainolds (Reynolds), the Puritan president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, first proposed the new translation at the Hampton Court Conference and led the Oxford company translating the Prophets until his death in 1607.
Miles Smith and Thomas Bilson reviewed the completed translation as a whole and prepared the original 1611 preface, “The Translators to the Reader,” which candidly discusses the translators’ aims and the inevitability of imperfections in any human translation project — a document still read by scholars today.
Henry Savile, a mathematician and classicist, and John Bois, famed for reading Greek fluently by age six, represent the breadth of learning the project drew on: not only theologians, but linguists, scientists, and antiquarians.
The rules that shaped the translation
Bancroft issued a set of fifteen rules to guide the companies. They were designed to produce continuity with existing English Bibles, doctrinal consistency with the Church of England, and — notably — a cross-checking process unusual for its time.
- Follow the Bishops’ Bible as closely as the original languages allow, altering it only where accuracy requires.
- Keep traditional theological and ecclesiastical words (such as "church," not "congregation").
- Use the most commonly used, plainest English words rather than obscure alternatives.
- Preserve chapter divisions except where clarity truly demands otherwise.
- Add no marginal notes except brief explanations of Hebrew or Greek words.
- Supply words not in the original but needed for sense in a different type (later rendered in italics).
- Have each company review and critique the work of the others before final approval.
Why this matters: unlike a single scholar’s translation, the KJV passed through company review, cross-company review, and a final joint revision by twelve delegates before publication — a collaborative process KJV-only believers point to as evidence of the translation’s unusual care and accountability. Read the fuller argument on the Why KJV page.
Working from the received text
For the New Testament, the companies worked from the Greek text tradition associated with Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza — printed editions representing the broad, continuously copied manuscript stream used by the church for centuries, later named the Textus Receptus. For the Old Testament, they relied on the Masoretic Hebrew text, the same textual family preserved and transmitted by Jewish scribes for a thousand years.
Curious how their finished work compares to modern translations? See the comparison page, or trace the whole story on the history page.