Editing King James Version (section)

===Translation committees===
The task of translation was undertaken by 47 scholars, although 54 were originally approved.{{sfn|Daniell|2003|p=436}} All were members of the Church of England and all except [[Sir Henry Savile]] were clergy.{{sfn|Bobrick|2001|p=223}} The scholars worked in six committees, two based in each of the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and [[Westminster Abbey|Westminster]]. The committees included scholars with Puritan sympathies, as well as [[high church]]men. Forty unbound copies of the 1602 edition of the ''Bishops' Bible'' were specially printed so that the agreed changes of each committee could be recorded in the margins.{{sfn|Daniell|2003|p=442}}

The committees worked on certain parts separately and the drafts produced by each committee were then compared and revised for harmony with each other.{{sfn|Daniell|2003|p=444}} The scholars were not paid directly for their translation work. Instead, a circular letter was sent to bishops encouraging them to consider the translators for appointment to well-paid [[benefice|livings]] as these fell vacant.{{sfn|Bobrick|2001|p=223}} Several were supported by the various colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, while others were promoted to [[bishoprics]], [[deaneries]] and [[prebend]]s through [[patronage|royal patronage]].

On 22 July 1604 King [[James VI and I]] sent a letter to [[Archbishop Bancroft]] asking him to contact all English churchmen requesting that they make donations to his project.

{{blockquote|Right trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we have appointed certain learned men, to the number of 4 and 50, for the translating of the Bible, and in this number, divers of them have either no ecclesiastical preferment at all, or else so very small, as the same is far unmeet for men of their deserts and yet we in ourself in any convenient time cannot well remedy it, therefor we do hereby require you, that presently you write in our name as well to the Archbishop of York, as to the rest of the bishops of the province of Cant.[erbury] signifying unto them, that we do well and straitly charge everyone of them ... that (all excuses set apart) when a prebend or parsonage ... shall next upon any occasion happen to be void ... we may commend for the same some such of the learned men, as we shall think fit to be preferred unto it ... Given unto our signet at our palace of West.[minister] on 2 and 20 July, in the 2nd year of our reign of England, France, and of Ireland, and of Scotland xxxvii.{{sfn|Wallechinsky|Wallace|1975|p=235}}}}

The six committees started work towards the end of 1604. The Apocrypha committee finishing first, and all six completed their sections by 1608.{{Sfn|Norton|2005|p=11}} From January 1609, a General Committee of Review met at [[Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers|Stationers' Hall, London]] to review the completed marked texts from each of the committees, and were paid for their attendance by the Stationers' Company. The General Committee included [[John Bois]], [[Andrew Downes (scholar)|Andrew Downes]], [[John Harmar]], and others known only by their initials, including "AL" (who may be [[Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells|Arthur Lake]]). John Bois prepared a note of their deliberations (in Latin)&nbsp;– which has partly survived in two later transcripts.{{sfn|Bois|Allen|Walker|1969}} Also surviving of the translators' working papers are a bound set of marked-up corrections to one of the forty ''Bishops' Bibles''—covering the Old Testament and Gospels;{{sfn|Norton|2005|p=20}} and also a manuscript translation of the text of the [[Epistles]], excepting those verses where no change was being recommended to the readings in the ''Bishops' Bible''.{{sfn|Norton|2005|p=16}} Archbishop [[Richard Bancroft|Bancroft]] insisted on having a final say making fourteen further changes, of which one was the term "bishopricke" at Acts 1:20.{{sfn|Bobrick|2001|p=257}}

* '''First Westminster Company''', translated [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] to [[2 Kings]]: [[Lancelot Andrewes]], [[John Overall (Bishop)|John Overall]], [[Hadrian à Saravia]], [[Richard Clarke (vicar)|Richard Clarke]], [[John Layfield (theologian)|John Layfield]], [[Robert Tighe]], [[Francis Burleigh]], [[Geoffrey King (theologian)|Geoffrey King]], [[Richard Thomson (theologian)|Richard Thomson]], [[William Bedwell]];
* '''First Cambridge Company''', translated [[1 Chronicles]] to the [[Song of Solomon]]: [[Edward Lively]], [[John Richardson (translator)|John Richardson]], [[Lawrence Chaderton]], [[Francis Dillingham]], [[Roger Andrewes]], [[Thomas Harrison (translator)|Thomas Harrison]], [[Robert Spaulding]], [[Andrew Bing]];
* '''First Oxford Company''', translated [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]] to [[Book of Malachi|Malachi]]: [[John Harding (President of Magdalen)|John Harding]], [[John Rainolds]] (or Reynolds), [[Thomas Holland (translator)|Thomas Holland]], [[Richard Kilby]], [[Miles Smith (bishop)|Miles Smith]], [[Richard Brett]], [[Daniel Fairclough]], [[William Thorne (orientalist)|William Thorne]];{{sfn|DeCoursey|2003|pp=331–32}}
* '''Second Oxford Company''', translated the [[Canonical gospels|Gospels]], [[Acts of the Apostles]], and the [[Book of Revelation]]: [[Thomas Ravis]], [[George Abbot (bishop)|George Abbot]], [[Richard Edes|Richard Eedes]], [[Giles Tomson]], [[Sir Henry Savile]], [[John Peryn]], [[Ralph Ravens]], [[John Harmar]], [[John Aglionby (divine)|John Aglionby]], [[Leonard Hutten]];
* '''Second Westminster Company''', translated the [[Epistle]]s: [[William Barlow (Bishop of Lincoln)|William Barlow]], [[John Spenser]], [[Roger Fenton (clergyman)|Roger Fenton]], [[Ralph Hutchinson (President of St John's)|Ralph Hutchinson]], [[William Dakins]], [[Michael Rabbet]], [[Thomas Sanderson (priest)|Thomas Sanderson]] (who probably had already become [[Archdeacon of Rochester]]);
* '''Second Cambridge Company''', translated the [[Biblical apocrypha|Apocrypha]]: [[John Duport]], [[William Branthwaite]], [[Jeremiah Radcliffe]], [[Samuel Ward (scholar)|Samuel Ward]], [[Andrew Downes (scholar)|Andrew Downes]], [[John Bois]], [[Robert Ward (scholar)|Robert Ward]], [[Thomas Bilson]], [[Richard Bancroft]].{{sfn|Bobrick|2001| pp=223–44}}