Bible (KJV) 00: Introduction

This is the translators' dedicatory epistle from the 1611 King James Bible, addressed to "the Most High and Mighty Prince James." It stands as a remarkable historical artifact: a window into early seventeenth-century England, where religion, politics, and language intersect. The translators explain their approach, express their hopes for the new translation, and pay elaborate homage to the monarch who commissioned their work. Reading it today reveals how profoundly the act of translation was bound up with questions of authority, legitimacy, and divine right. The prose is elaborate, ceremonial, and occasionally moving, full of the formal flattery of the Jacobean court. For anyone interested in the history of the English language, biblical translation, or the cultural world that produced Shakespeare and the Gunpowder Plot, this brief introduction offers surprising richness.