The King James Version, which is known in as the Authorised Version, is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1611.  It was translated by scholars of the Church of England.

When King James I came to the throne there were two favored English Bibles in use.  One was the popular Geneva Bible, and the other was the Bishops Bible, the official Bible of the church.  King James didn?t like either, and with growing pressure from the Puritans who were demanding changes in the church, he decided to authorize the project of producing a new and less controversial translation.  While King James I was not personally involved in translation, his authorization was legally necessary for the translation process to begin.

King James gave the translators instructions, which were designed to discourage footnotes, and to guarantee that the new version would conform to the doctrine of the Church of England.

The King James Version New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus (the version used was the 1550 edition of Stephanus), but much of the book of Revelation appears to be translated from the Latin Vulgate.  The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text, and the Apocrypha was translated from the Greek Septuagint.

Eventually, different editions of the King James Version were produced in 1611,1629, 1638, 1762, and 1769. It is the 1769 edition which is most commonly cited as the King James Version (KJV).

Copyright and usage information
The King James Version is public domain.