Seven major purifications of the KJB

[bibleprotector]

The Pure Cambridge Edition is the seventh major purification revision of the King James Bible.

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” (Psalm 12:6, 7).

Just as there are seven recognised purifications of the Protestant English Bible, so there are seven major editions of the King James Bible which are in a succession of purification. With the English Bibles it began with Tyndale, and the text and translation was finalised in the King James Bible. With the editions, counting begins from the first one.

PURIFICATION ONE. The First 1611 Edition was the first printed representation of the King James Bible, which presented for the first time the gathering of all that went before it, from the other English translations, the original languages and other sources. However, this first edition suffered because of printers’ typographical errors.

In 1611 the language was not standardised, and certain amount of work was required to regularise the AV, which only took place at a later stage.

PURIFICATION TWO: The Second 1611 Edition was the second printed representation of the King James Bible, which corrected the first edition, lest any reading of the AV from the first should thought to be correct when it was a typographical error. However, this second edition, while a purification, also suffered because of printers’ typographical errors. This would lead to another problem: was a difference in the Second 1611 Edition a typographical error or a deliberate correction?

PURIFICATION THREE: The third major edition of the King James Bible, and the third purification took place in the 1613 Edition. This 1613 Edition resolved what was a typographical error in either of the two editions before it, though of course, the 1613 Edition made mistakes of its own. But with these three, already there had been much testimony as to what was the actual text of the King James Bible. When Oxford reprinted the First 1611 Edition in 1833, they made particular reference to differences among the First Edition, Second Edition and 1613 Edition.

Over the years, the London Printers made various runs of various sizes of Bibles, each edition with slight errors or variations.

PURIFICATION FOUR: In 1629, Cambridge University Press, by its power of “Cum Privilegio”, presented its own edition of the King James Bible. The first Cambridge Edition of 1629 was the product of a concerted revision which took place at Cambridge, taking into account the whole array of printed editions beforehand, and being a culminating work to begin a long history of the presentation of a much more typeset accurate text and authority in presentation. The beginnings of the standardisation of the language were first manifested in the 1629 Edition too. Thus, the fourth major edition in the succession of the purification of the King James Bible.

PURIFICATION FIVE: In 1638, by order of King Charles I, the King James Bible was revised once again at Cambridge. Two surviving translators are known to have taken part, as well as the learned Puritan, Joseph Mede. They also had recourse to the Translators’ Master Copy. This edition, which brought in more standardisation, and other careful corrections, became the standard edition upon which all Bible publishers began to use as the basis of the King James Bible. The 1638 Edition contained some misprints too.

With the advance of history and all the various factors that occurred, numerous King James Bible editions appeared over the years, some specialised with various marginal material. The Puritans accepted the 1638 Edition of the KJB. Oxford began printing Bibles as well. Bishop Lloyd’s revision of 1701 was so botched by the press that his edition did not make real impact. In the 1750s, there was a general movement toward the standardisation of the English language. Thomas Paris (sometimes wrongly attributed to F. S. Parris) edited the King James Bible at Cambridge in 1762. This grand revision was thwarted by many copies being burnt during a warehouse fire, and others were damaged by water when the fire was doused.

PURIFICATION SIX: In 1769, Blayney completed editing the King James Bible, and it was printed at Oxford. What Blayney discovered, in furthering Paris’ work, was that Paris had missed numerous things in his corrections. And so Blayney had the credit of standardising the King James Bible, which became the basis of all King James Bible editions afterward to the present time. This sixth major purification was concerned with standardising the language, and was concerned with making many corrections to various typographical errors that had appeared in the King James Bible over the years. It took into account various worthy editions which came before it.

However, the 1769 Edition was not final: one of the editions printed that year was more perfect than another, and various errata appeared. While London soon adopted the 1769 text, it required a minor edit in 1817 D’Oyly and Mant at Oxford, and the passing until about 1835 before Cambridge printed its Bibles based on the 1769 Edition. And Cambridge ensured that it did not reproduce the novelties of spelling that Oxford had always had. So the 1769 Edition was perpetuated through the reign of Queen Victoria, in the three Guardians, namely, the Oxford, London and Cambridge succession of editions. As time progressed, very slight adjustments were made in all their editions, and at times some sort of alignment occurred to bring a slight uniformity between Cambridge and Oxford.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the idea that there should be some sort of revision of the King James Bible had gained momentum. Of course, “revision” meant different things to different people. Some thought that it would mean correcting a few errors and perhaps updating a few archaic words. Others thought about revising the underlying Textus Receptus. Others thought a bit more, and of course, history shows how far away the Revised Version really was from anything to do with the King James Bible.

Scrivener also, on the basis of a new theory, decided to edit the King James Bible supposing that the Second 1611 Edition had been printed first, and that the First 1611 Edition typographical errors were really were “corrections” of the Second, and by an unusual method he also revised spellings and so on, producing a “classical edition” like one would produce by textual criticism of Shakespeare. Scrivener’s edition was too different for the normal conservative or evangelical Christian, and although it was used in some commentaries, it was never taken as the normal Cambridge text.

Considering what outcry the Revised Version had caused, and that Scrivener’s Edition was being rejected by scholars such as W. Aldis Wright, Cambridge embarked on a quiet and very conservative revision.

PURIFICATION SEVEN: Around the year 1900, the scholarly and thoroughly anti-modernist H. A. Redpath (parson who moved to London, Septuagint concordance editor, Oxford lecturer, held a position in Swete’s Society of Sacred Study, wrote for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and became examining chaplain to the Bishop of London) edited the King James Bible, adding the pronunciation scheme, and this was consequently printed at Cambridge and by William Collins in Scotland. This edition made various corrections to the 1769-following Cambridge Edition of the late Victorian Era, probably with reference to Scrivener’s work, but with consultation of other editions, most notably the First 1611 Edition. Numerous corrections included the spelling of names, for which the most inexactness had been allowed in the Bible, probably because of the complexity of them. Other corrections, which are defended to this day, were the restoration of “or” in Joshua 19:2, “whom ye” in Jeremiah 34:16 and “flieth” in Nahum 3:16.

The Pure Cambridge Edition of circa 1900 was afterward the normal Cambridge and Collins text, and though no particular exemplar impression edition of it may be upheld, the general attestation to it and the agreement of witness in various King James Bibles of the twentieth century shows that a common text was present, regardless of typographical errors in various ones, and regardless of any slight textual variations that severally appeared.

It was on the basis of the general acceptance of the Cambridge Edition as the standard or superior presentation of the King James Bible among the host of editions that may have appeared or been contemporary with the modern King James Bible only movement, and with the further and exacting studies into the textual criticism of the Bible, including reference to (but not reliant upon) Norton’s studies, and with the advent of worldwide dissemination of King James Bible texts by the internet, and by the utilisation of the developments in word processing technology, and with providentially supplied factors and events and most importantly revelation from the Spirit, the Pure Cambridge Edition has been presented in its correct form, with complete reference to the existing extant historical printed editions of it, resulting in a standard text of the Pure Cambridge Edition without any variation and free from all particular accidental typographical errors.

While traditional copies of the Pure Cambridge Edition may still be available from some publishers (not Cambridge since about the 1970s though), and while second hand copies of it abound, and its presence detected on various internet sites, the standard text of the Pure Cambridge Edition may be freely obtained, along with further information, at www.bibleprotector.com

The Bible prophecy of seven purifications has been fulfilled multiple times, and we can be sure that the seven purifications of the King James Bible has been accomplished by the providence of God. Prophetically, through history it is as if a mighty angel has come, and has at last delivered a little book to the Church (see Revelation 10).





Several interesting differences between the Pure Cambridge Edition and the first 1611 Edition.

1. Exodus 14:10
1611
... "the children of Israel lift up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid: and" ...
PCE
Omitted. Already corrected in Second 1611 Edition.

2. Exodus 23:23
1611
"the Hivites"
PCE
"and the Hivites"
Already corrected in 1616, 1629 Cambridge, etc. But not all present editions.

3. Ezra 2:26
1611
"Gaba"
PCE
"Geba"
Seems to be introduced in the PCE, was in the 1602 Bishops' Bible.

4. Job 4:6
1611
"the uprightness of thy ways and thy hope?"
PCE
"thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?"
Already regularised in 1638.

5. Acts 4:17
1611
"farther"
PCE
"further"
Already corrected in 1616 and 1629 Cambridge. Some errors of this kind still linger in Oxford-agreeing Editions.

6. 1 John 5:8
1611
"Spirit"
PCE
"spirit"
Already changed in or before 1638, the 1611 has many differences on "spirit"/"Spirit" with all present 1769-following editions.