The Oxford 1611 KJV, Quartercentenary Edition

A review of Oxford’s Quartercentenary Edition of the King James Version (ISBN 9780199557608). This large volume includes the text of the 1611 KJV, printed in a 10 point Roman font. Words are spelled as they were in the original KJV, so that Genesis 1.2 reads, “And the earth was without forme, and voyd, and darkenesse was vpon the face of the deepe: and the Spirit of God mooued vpon the face of the waters.”

Text is formatted in a verse-by-verse manner, and the words of Christ are in black ink. The Apocryphal books are included in a separate section between the testaments, as was typical in KJVs until the 1820s. No concordance is included in this volume, but there is one black-and-white map of Canaan.

This edition of the KJV includes a table of readings for Morning and Evening Prayer, used by the Church of England in that timeframe, and by KJV translators themselves. As a bonus, to give a sense for how the KJV translators worshiped God, I show the order for Morning Prayer from the 1559 Book of Common Prayer.

Contents:

00:00 Dimensions, margins, layout, font (four charts)
01:10 Size compared to Young’s Analytical Concordance, the Schuyler Canterbury, the CBP Turquoise, and the R.L. Allan 53BR
02:14 Page layout
03:35 Font in the text
04:50 Paper qualities
07:13 The words of Christ are in black
07:38 The Apocryphal books are included
08:09 An essay on the King James Version by Gordon Campbell
10:41 The list of errata
11:16 The head and tail bands, and the ribbons
11:43 The binding is sewn; it lies flat
12:36 The copyright page
12:53 The original title page
13:03 The Epistle Dedicatory
13:19 The Translators to the Reader
13:40 The Calendar: readings for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer
14:23 The Almanac, showing dates for Easter and related feasts from 1603 to 1641
14:54 The table for calculating Easter
15:32 Holy days
16:03 The books of the Old and New Testaments (together with the Apocrypha)
16:17 The Great Seal of the Realm
17:05 Genealogies (not endless genealogies, but close: 35 pages!)
17:26 The map index and map of Canaan
17:54 The font compared to that in Nelson’s 1611 KJV
18:37 The font compared to that in the R.L. Allan Longprimer
19:12 The font compared to that in the CBP Turquoise
19:30 The font compared to that in the Schuyler Canterbury
21:05 An excursus on Morning Prayer – how the KJV translators worshipped God
24:31 Summary

[snowpuppy]

Thanks to this excellent review I received a copy of this Bible today. As you mention it is a big Bible for sure. Good for reading at a table or desk. Makes sense for a 1611 edition to be large. And you are right it is much easier to read than the Thomas Nelson 1611 as I have that one also. I paid about $57 for mine new and it really is an amazing Bible for that price or even much more. I am so happy with it! Wonderful paper. Such a pleasure to turn through and read. It is really like the 1611 edition I have been wanting all along. I only wish I had known about it sooner. Thanks to you I was able to understand what it was about and what a blessing it would be to have one.

[srfgrn]

Best Bible review I've ever found (including Mark Bertrand's reviews). You couldn't have been more thorough and informative -- great video work as well.

[AnHebrewChild]

I have this bible. So happy I opted to buy it a few years back! Initially, I had no interest in the included apocryphal books it, _but now_ these books' inclusion is the thing I value most about this bible. These writings have helped me develop a better understanding of Inter-testamental history and an appreciation for broader Christianity.

Whether a person considers them 'canonical' or not, they _are_ edifying; I think the removal of these books from the Protestant bibles (in early 19th cent) is a real shame.

[inTruthbyGrace]

Excellent review! Thank you for your attention to detail, your insight into how they worshiped back then and the time you took to prepared this video for us!

[ietcetera]

Superb review! Thank you for putting in the time to go through the product. I made my purchasing decision of this Bible because of this review.

[AmericanShia]

Always excellent reviews. No exception this time. I love this edition of the KJV.

[kent]

Very thorough review.
Thx for posting this.

[thomasbanholzer]

As others have mentioned, excellent review and incredibly comprehensive.

[EdgeOfLight]

This is a great review. I am a fan of old literature including the bible which looks so quaint in this old edition. I ordered it.

[augustinusaurelius]

This is such an affront on good taste frankly, what kind of sick mind takes a book beautifully set in blackletter and uses a font meant for carving into walls, I don't go around selling seemingly normal copies of Oxford Annotated Bible but then secretly put all the text into Tironian notes just to mess with the customer... audacious, great video though

[craigmouldey]

That as well as the Thomas Nelson rendition are beautiful. I like the format with the double columns and margins divided off for cross-references. They also offer good supplementary information.
I'm curious as to how many bibles you have?

[davidninolasaycordova]

Good day, does it have all that the original 1611 KJV had? Does it also contain all the geneolgies that the original KJV had? The original had 34 pages.

[gypsylane]

I really like this bible thanks for sharing, you did a great job on the review.

[SultanTwbh]

Could anyone tell me what pen he was holding? I really like the way it looks.

[stevechristie]

I hope that you gain access to a Baronius Press Douay-Rheims leather bound Bible.

[BibleBelievingChristian]

Excellent review of a very neat Bible.

[-johnny-deep-]

Great and thorough review! I want it. Still only $66 on Amazon, but I'm worried they won't protect it enough in shipping: this book is HEAVY! <sigh> Two questions: how come the genealogies and map don't show up in the table of contents? And are the pages *really* sewn in signatures? Have you espied the actual stitching?

[SteveM]

For some reason I'm bothered by being printed in China. I think due to my assumptions of the quality of materials used (eg. is the paper truly acid free). This appears to be a fine example though and at an affordable price.

[tomf]

Love your unique & detailed reviews, Rick! Always enjoy how you take the time to break things down for the viewer, even translating the Oxford theme from Psalm 27 or the Cambridge/Royal Seal of the UK - God in my right? Seen this before & never knew what it meant or took the time to research it & here you are decoding with explanation, much appreciated! 😁 Just had to pause for the comment. Ok, now back to your video... Thanks for including the book of common prayer also. Do you know of churches or denominations that still use this format when they gather for worship?

[ryansantoni]

Great review, thanks. I should like to go through the year in a more liturgical manner. I was considering getting myself a copy of the Cambridge book of common prayer enlarged edition for Christmas, though I’m not sure if that’s the best version. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks again, God bless.