Difference between revisions of "CrossWire KJV"

Revision as of 17:42, 28 January 2016

This page is a work in progress.

Introduction

This page is intended to provide a more detailed background and description for the one module for which the OSIS XML source text is maintained by CrossWire volunteers. All other modules are based on source text from external providers.

The KJV module was one of the earliest to be released and distributed by CrossWire after The SWORD Project was launched. It remains one of the most frequently downloaded modules in all our repositories.

The KJV module text is based substantially on the 1769 Oxford Edition (the basis for all modern editions), not the original 1611 first edition. See our FAQ.

Provenance and Acknowledgements

Strong's numbers provide a useful means for looking up the exact original language word in a lexicon that is keyed to Strong's Concordance.

Morphology data provides a means to understand the structure of the original language's morphemes and other linguistic units.

• The Strong's numbers in the OT were obtained from The Bible Foundation
• The Strong's data in the NT was obtained from the KJV2003 Project at CrossWire.

Special thanks to the volunteers at Bible Foundation for keying the Hebrew/English data and of Project KJV2003 for working toward the completion of synchronizing the English phrases to the Stephanas Textus Receptus, and to Dr. Maurice Robinson for providing the base Greek text with Strong's and Morphology.

We are also appreciative of formatting markup that was provided by Michael Paul Johnson.

Their time and generosity to contribute such for the free use of the Body of Christ is a great blessing and this derivitive work could not have been possible without these efforts of so many individuals. It is in this spirit that we in turn offer the KJV2003 Project text and its successors freely for any purpose.

We are also appreciative for the feedback reports over the years from several individuals that have enabled us to fix minor text and markup issues by comparison with the reference texts.

Reference Text

The CrossWire KJV is meant to be the faithful e-text edition^[1] of the Benjamin Blayney's 1769 Oxford edition of the KJV^[2] (hereafter called 1769 KJV). To that end we required it to be diligently checked against a reference standard for accuracy. Finding a reference text was a daunting task. What is known today as the KJV has been changed on a regular basis since it's first publication to today.^[3] Some of these changes are well known others are quietly done by publishers.

There also was a need to have a reference for red-letter text. This too varied from one KJV to another.

See also User:Dmsmith/KJV_2.6#Reference_text_policy.

Need for a reference text

Ideally, the reference standard would be a faithful electronic copy of 1769 KJV. When CrossWire's KJV2006 Project was started there was no such text either as a facsimile or eText. In lieu of that, finding an acceptable text was needed to arbitrate the claims that "my KJV is right and it is different from what you have."

We compared our text with two independent 1769 KJV eTexts (CCEL and InterLeaf). All of the other eTexts we found seemed to be one of these three. Those comparisons yielded differences that needed to be verified in an independent text. Thus the need for *a* dead tree text. While working on the KJV2006 release, several websites that were dedicated to producing a "true" text were abandoned with chagrin that it is not a doable task apart from having a facsimile of the 1769 KJV, which was not known.

One criteria was finding a text that the KJV-only adherents felt was more accurate 1769 KJV text. Using various listings of differences between current and "true", dozens of dead tree texts in several stores were examined. Also, it was important to avoid copyright claims based upon minor changes in the text. Both combined to come up with the Public Domain Old Scofield Study Bible^[4]. The Biblical text was thought to be one of the most faithful copies of the 1769 Oxford Edition.^[5] It was published in 1917, which was important in terms of USA copyright law. It was also considered to be a faithful red-letter text.

We are in the process of obtaining a hard copy facsimile of the "Blayney" 1769 KJV text. This will be the reference text going forward.

Need for a reference red-letter text

Red-Letter text is a fairly recent addition to the 1769 KJV. In 1899, Louis Klopsch proposed rendering the words of Christ in red letters. His work was published in 1901. Recently (2016-01-28), we've obtained Louis Klopsch's 1901 edition of the KJV and will use that as the future reference for red-letter text.

Notes:

1. ↑ With added features suited to the digital age we live in.
2. ↑ Excluding the Apocrypha.
3. ↑ Refer to F H A Scrivener and to the New Cambridge Paragraph Bible.
4. ↑ The use of the Scofield in no way implies our endorsement of the extensive non-canonical study notes therein.
5. ↑ i.e. Even by those in the KJV Only movement.

Chosen Texts

The public domain Old Scofield Study Bible was used for version 2.3 to 2.10 for text and for version 2.3 to 2.9 for red-letter markup. The Louis Klopsch 1901 KJV is used for red-letter markup for 2.10 and later. The 1769 KJV facsimile is used for text, front-matter, notes, cross-references, titles, .... for versions after 2.11.

Copyright

Any copyright that might be obtained for this effort is held by the CrossWire Bible Society © 2003-2016 and the CrossWire Bible Society hereby grants a general public license to use this text for any purpose.

CrossWire's KJV module is an amalgamation of different source material. Each has its own copyright or is in the public domain.

• The actual text validated against 2 independent eTexts and found differences against our hard-copy reference for such.
• The Red Letter markup of the words of Christ have been validated against our hard-copy reference for such.
• The Strong's numbers in the OT are from The Bible Foundation.
• The Strong's numbers in the NT are from Dr Maurice A. Robinson, Senior Professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina.
• The OSIS XML markup is a unique effort that began with our KJV2003 project – Copyright © 2003-2016 The CrossWire Bible Society.
• The tagging of Strong's numbers to the NT text is a unique effort of our KJV2003 project – Copyright © 2003-2016 The CrossWire Bible Society.

Crown copyright, Letters Patent and the KJV

In the United Kingdom, the text of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible is protected by royal prerogative. "There is a small class of materials where the Crown claims the right to control reproduction outside normal copyright law due to Letters Patent issued under the royal prerogative. This material includes the King James Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer." See Crown copyright.

In most of the world, the Authorized Version has passed out of copyright and is freely reproduced. In the United Kingdom, the British Crown restricts production of the Authorized Version per transitional exemptions from the Copyright Act 1775 (which implemented this clause) in the Copyright, Designs and patents Act 1988 (Schedule I, section 13(1)), which expire in 2039. Cambridge University Press^[1], Oxford University Press, HarperCollins and the Queen's Printers have the right to produce the Authorized Version. See King James Bible.

The British & Foreign Bible Society (based in the UK) respects this copyright status, although many American organisations do not respect it and treat it wrongly as if it were public domain. In reality, the many editions of the KJV used in the USA are a revision of the text made by the American Bible Society and the rights for this revision are still held by ABS.

Notes:

1. ↑ Cambridge University Press wrote to Go Bible several years ago, acting as agents of Crown copyright. Their request was simple and straightforward, viz., that we include a clear statement about Crown copyright for the KJV. After we did that, and informed them, they seem to have been satisfied.

Road Map

List briefly the further enhancements we would like to make in the future beyond the next release.

• Update Strong's numbers and lemma.TR to the latest TR from Maurice Robinson. (3.0) As a side benefit, update CrossWire's TR module to match.
• Add Greek equivalent to Strong's numbers. (3.0)
• Update to match Louis Klopsch's 1901 red-letter markup. (2.10)
• Build KJV and KJVA from same kjvfull.xml file. (The KJVA is not being rebuilt when the KJV is updated. It should.)
• Split KJV into KJV and AV where AV is an orthographic representation of the 1769 KJV. E.g. long s, ae, oe, fl, ffl, ....

Other thoughts based upon having the Blayney edition:

• Add front-matter: dedicatory and preface, OT intro, NT intro, ....
• Add print page breaks. Tying to the dead-tree edition. These would be internal markers.
• Add chronology as note to chapter starts (probably in first verse or verse 0.)
• Add NT chapter descriptions.
• Add OT chapter descriptions.
• Add xrefs and notes to NT.
• Validate OT notes.
• Add xrefs to OT.

History

Text Development Stages

From the time the KJV module was first released, text and markup development has been done in several major stages:

• The original KJV2003 Project – user page no longer exists
• The KJV2006 Project
• The KJV2011 Effort
• The KJV 2.6 Effort – begun in 2013 and ongoing...

Module Versions

While the KJV was a module at CrossWire prior to version 2.0, this is the earliest for which dates can be determined.
Dates prior to version 2.3 are best estimates. (For changes in versions 1.x, refer to the file kjv.conf)

See also

• Reporting module issues
• English: KJVA module – KJV with Apocrypha

External links