KJV
Religion abbreviation · Religious Term
| Stands for | King James Version |
|---|---|
| Categories | Religion |
KJV stands for King James Version, a religious term abbreviation.
English translation of the Bible commissioned by King James I at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 and published in 1611 by a team of about 50 scholars. Also called the Authorized Version (AV), it shaped English literature and remained the dominant English Bible for more than three centuries.
Example: The verse "Let there be light" in the KJV has entered everyday English.
Usage notes
Most printed KJVs today follow Benjamin Blayney's 1769 Oxford revision of spelling and punctuation, not the 1611 text. Its New Testament is based on the Greek Textus Receptus, which modern critical texts differ from in places. Phrases such as "salt of the earth" and "a law unto themselves" come from it. In the UK the text remains under Crown copyright, administered through Cambridge University Press, while it is public domain elsewhere. "KJV-only" churches regard it as the sole reliable English Bible.
Related abbreviations
More religious term abbreviations
- HCSB – Holman Christian Standard Bible
- IHS – Christogram for the name of Jesus
- INRI – Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)
- ISKCON – International Society for Krishna Consciousness
- JB – Jerusalem Bible
- JW – Jehovah's Witnesses
- LCMS – Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
- LDS – Latter-day Saints
- LXX – Septuagint
- MSG – Message
- MT – Masoretic Text
- NA28 – Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th edition