1. The Story of Our King James Bible The 18 th Century

2. John Baskett Obtained half share rights as the queen’s printer in 1710 (Anne) Bought 1/3 of the rights to print in Scotland Leased rights to print books published by Oxford Published 12 editions of the KJV in his career Cambridge didn’t resume printing until 1743

3. His 1 st edition is the best known 2 volumes, 15 X 22 inches A beautifully bound and printed version, it contained many printing errors The most common was heading the parable of the vineyard as “the parable of the vinegar.”

4. Baskett went heavily into debt to obtain printing rights Filed about 40 lawsuits to protect those rights Including one against Cambridge in 1731 The suit dragged on for years, being settled in Baskett’s favor in 1761—16 years after his death His son took over, but the quality of printing was poor

5. John Baskerville Was appointed printer of Cambridge in 1758 Permitted to print one edition of the Bible His 1763 folio (4 pages on one sheet of paper) is believed to be the most elegant edition printed

6. F. S. Parris Authorized by Cambridge (in 1740) to “to serve the public with a more beautiful and correct edition than can easily be found.” Parris sought to correct textual errors, as well as make changes in grammar and word meanings. It was published in 1743

7. 1.He changed “man,” to “men” in Genesis 47.6 2.“Words of Jesus” becomes “word of Jesus,” Matthew 26.75 3.“Hands of the Angel” becomes “hand of the angel,” Acts 7.35 4.“the feast of Passover” becomes “the feast of the Passover,” Exodus 34.25 5.“thou art Christ” becomes “thou are the Christ,” Matt. 16.6

8. He updated words 1.Changed “no” to “not,” I Cor. 13.2 2.“neesed” became sneezed, II Kings 12.18 3.“Crudled” became “curdled,” Job 10.10 4.Changed “fourscore” to “eightieth” in I Kings 6.1 5.Also attempted to more consistently use “ye”

9. Benjamin Blayney Worked at Oxford He was asked to produce for Oxford an edition based upon the principles used by F.S. Parris His edition was published in 1769 Cambridge soon adopted it for their Bibles

10. The KJV had its fans and detractors (in the 18 th century) Jonathan Swift (priest and author) wanted to use the KJV as a “norm” for English language Others argued that its language was old, inaccurate, and obscure Blayney’s text helped end the “obsolete” criticism of the KJV