Includes bibliographical references and index.

Rendering voices: a poem for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible / Christopher Southgate -- The KJV at 400: assessing its genius as Bible translation and its literary influence / David Norton -- The King James Bible in early modern political context / Lori Anne Ferrell -- The KJV and the rapid growth of English in the Elizabethan-Jacobean era / Seth Lerer -- English printing before the King James Bible: a reconsideration / David J. Davis -- The King James Bible and the language of liturgy / Robin Griffith-Jones -- The KJV and women: soundings and suggestions / Katharine Doob Sakenfeld -- John Speed's "Canaan" and British travel to Palestine: a journey with maps / Joan Taylor -- Luther's approach to Bible translation and the KJV / Graham Tomlin -- Revising the KJV: seventeenth through nineteenth century / Harold P. Scanlin -- The role of the metatexts in the King James Version as a means of mediating conflicting theological views / Jacobus A. Naudé -- Priorities, principles, and prefaces: from the KJV to today (1611-2011) / Richard A. Burridge -- The KJV and the development of text criticism / David Trobisch -- The KJV translation of the Old Testament: the case of Job / David J.A. Clines -- The KJV New Testament: what worked for the translators and what did not? / James D.G. Dunn -- The KJV and Anglo-Jewish translations of the Bible: a unique and uniquely fruitful connection / Leonard J. Greenspoon -- The influence of the KJV in Protestant Chinese Bible work / Kuo-Wei Peng -- The monarchs and the message: reflections on Bible translation from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century / N.T. Wright -- The question of eloquence in the King James Version / Robert Alter -- The King James Bible Apocrypha: when and why lost? / Andrew E. Hill -- "Not of an age, but for all time": King James and Master Will, words with thoughts / C. Clifton Black -- The Word and the words: Andrewes, Donne, and the theology of translation / Malcolm Guite -- The KJV and the seventeenth-century religious lyric / Barbara K. Lewalski -- The King James Bible: messianic meditations / Deborah W. Rooke -- America's king of kings: the King James Bible and American civil religion / Jon Pahl -- The KJV in Orthodox perspective / Simon Crisp -- African Americans and the King James Version of the Bible / Rodney Sadler Jr. -- "A new garb for the Jewish soul": the JPS Bible in the light of the King James Bible / Naomi Seidman -- The master copy: postcolonial notes on the King James Bible / R.S. Sugirtharajah.

In this collection of essays, thirty scholars from diverse disciplines offer their perspectives on the genius of the King James Version. In part 1 the essayists look at the KJV in its historical contexts--the politics and rapid language growth of the era, the emerging printing and travel industries, and the way women are depicted in the text (and later feminist reponses to such depictions). Part 2 takes a closer look at the KJV as a translation and the powerful precedents it sets for all translations to follow, with the essayists exploring the translators' principles and processes (with close examinations of "Bancroft's Rules" and the Prefaces), assessing later revisions of the text, and reviewing the translation's influence on the English language, textual criticism, and the practice of translation in Jewish and Chinese contexts. Part 3 looks at the various ways the KJV has impacted the English language and literature, the practice of religion (including within the African American and Eastern Orthodox Churches), and the broader culture.--From publisher's description.

Print version record.