who wrote the king james bible

The King James Bible was not written by a single person; it was translated by a large team of scholars commissioned by King James I of England in the early 1600s.

Quick Scoop

• King James I did not personally write or translate the Bible.
• Around 47 leading scholars and churchmen of the Church of England translated it between 1604 and 1611.
• Richard Bancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, acted as the main overseer or “general editor” of the project.
• The translators worked in several companies (teams) based in Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster, each assigned different biblical books.
• The King James Version (KJV) is therefore best described as a committee translation, not the work of one author.

In short, King James authorized and lent his name and royal authority to the project, but the actual wording of the King James Bible comes from a collective effort by dozens of scholars, not from the king’s own pen.