Who Translated the King James Bible?
About four dozen translators, organized into six companies, produced the King James Bible. The translators included many of the best scholars in England; all but one of them were also clergymen, like many scholars of the time.
Researchers today are sure of most of the translators’ names and identities, but not all of them. Surviving lists of the translators are similar, but not identical. A handful of the original translators died before the project ended; some were replaced, but it is not always clear by whom.
John Rainolds, shown here, was one of the leading translators, although he did not live to see the Bible completed. Rainolds had proposed the new translation to King James at a religious conference early in James’s reign.
The King James Bible translators also drew on earlier English translations, including the 1539 Great Bible and the 1568 Bishops’ Bible. In a real sense, the pioneering translators who produced the earlier English Bibles contributed to the King James Bible, too.
Learn more about the translators: Meet the Translators
Find out about earlier English Bibles: Timeline: The Road to Hampton Court
Discover who didn’t translate the King James Bible: Myth or Reality?
John Rainolds. © Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UK, The Bridgeman Art Library International
