Honors the 400th anniversary of the book's publication by telling its dramatic story and exploring its inherent literary excellence and unparalleled influence on English and American culture.

Leading scholars chart the complex, multifaceted cultural impact of the King James Bible over its 400 years.

The King James Version has shaped the church, our worship, and our mother tongue for over 400 years. But what should we do with it today? The KJV beautifully rendered the Scriptures into the language of turn-of-the-seventeenth-century England. Even today the King James is the most widely read Bible in the United States. The rich cadence of its Elizabethan English is recognized even by non-Christians. But English has changed a great deal over the last 400 years—and in subtle ways that very few modern readers will recognize. In Authorized Mark L. Ward, Jr. shows what exclusive readers of the KJV are missing as they read God's word.#In their introduction to the King James Bible, the translators tell us that Christians must "heare CHRIST speaking unto them in their mother tongue." In Authorized Mark Ward builds a case for the KJV translators' view that English Bible translations should be readable by what they called "the very vulgar"—and what we would call "the man on the street."

The King James Bible has often been called the "Book of Books," both in itself and in what it stands for. Since its publication in 1611, it has been the best–selling book in the world, and many believe, it has had the greatest impact. The King James Bible has spread the Protestant faith. It has also been the greatest influence on the enrichment of the English language and its literature. It has been the Bible of wars from the British Civil War in the seventeenth century to the American Civil War two centuries later, and it has been carried into battle in innumerable conflicts since then. Its influence on social movements—particularly involving women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—and politics was profound. It was crucial to the growth of democracy. It was integral to the abolition of slavery, and it defined attitudes to modern science, education, and sex. As Lord Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English explored the history of our language, so The Book of Books reveals the extraordinary and still–felt impact of a work created 400 years ago.

Oxford is proud to publish a limited edition of the 1611 text of the King James Bible, with real leather binding, gilt edging, ribbon marker, gift presentation plate, and protective cloth slipcase. This is the most authoritative edition of the King James Bible available. The text of the 1611 edition differs from modern editions of the King James Version in thousands of details, and this edition is the most authentic version of the original text that has ever been published. It follows the 1611 text page-for-page and line-for-line, reproducing all misprints rather than correcting them. The volume also reprints the large body of preliminary matter, which includes genealogies, maps, and lists of readings, as well as the translator's preface to the reader. The text features an easy-to-read modern font instead of the black-letter type of the original, with the exception of the original decorative letters and early page ornaments, which have been reproduced. The volume concludes with an essay by Renaissance Studies expert, Gordon Campbell, on the first edition of the King James Bible. This beautiful Anniversary Edition is an elegant keepsake as well as a marvelous gift for anyone interested in the Bible.

For 400 years the King James Version of the Holy Bible has been the most influential book to be published in the English language. Now Bible collector and expert Donald L. Brake brings to life the fascinating story of its creation and proliferation throughout the English-speaking world. With beautiful and informative photos, illustrations, charts, and sidebars, Brake invites readers to explore the KJV's mysterious beginnings, the men who translated it, the manuscripts upon which that translation was based, the important people and places that influenced its production, and even Shakespeare's involvement in it. In an age where a new translation of the Bible seems to come about every few years, discover what has made the King James Version endure for four centuries.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “This scrupulously elegant account of the creation of what four centuries of history has confirmed is the finest English-language work of all time, is entirely true to its subject: Adam Nicolson’s lapidary prose is masterly, his measured account both as readable as the curious demand and as dignified as the story deserves.” — Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa In God's Secretaries, Adam Nicolson gives a fascinating and dramatic account of the era of the King James Bible and its translation, immersing us in an age whose greatest monument is not a painting or a building but a book. A network of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.