In 1980, in the rare book room of Kent State University, I had the opportunity to examine a copy of the King James Bible that had been printed in 1613, just two years after the first printing. I had one page photocopied. This is a scan of that photocopy.
You may not be able to see it well, so I will explain a few of the features that led me to request that a page be copied. Almost any page in the Bible would have illustrated most of the things that I will mention. It is only the last item that caused me to choose this particular page.
· The KJV, when it first came out, had marginal readings. Current copies of the KJV do not have these. The lack of marginal readings leaves the false impression that the KJV translators were always sure of what was the best translation. That is not the case. On this page there were five alternative translations noted in the margin. The KJV continued to contain marginal reading until the mid-1800s. Printers no longer include them, which helps to maximize their profit.
· The spellings are very different from what we know today. The truth is most fans of the KJV could not read the original KJV if they tried.
· In the lower left margin of this page, you see a cross-reference. The reference is to 2 Maccabees 7:7. That's right. For the first two-hundred years of its history, the KJV included the apocrypha.
· This page includes the ending of Hebrews chapter 11 and the beginning of Hebrews 12. In 1613 the KJV of Hebrews 12:1 read, "Wherefore feeing we alfo are compaffed about with fo great a cloud of witneffes, let us lay afide euery weight, & the finne which doth fo eafily befet vs, and let vs runne with patience vnto the race that is fet before vs."
If we update the fonts and spellings to modern fonts and spellings, most people could read that fairly well. But they would notice that there is one word missing in modern printings of the KJV that was there in 1613. It is not significant. Its removal improved the clarity of the meaning. But it is interesting. Many people that use the KJV use it as the basis for criticizing all other translations, when the KJV they hold in their hands is not even like the original KJV.
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