(Excerpts from In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed A Nation, A Language, and A Culture, by Alister McGrath, ebook)

“The two greatest influences on the shaping of the English language are the works of William Shakespeare and the English translation of the Bible that appeared in 1611. The King James Bible—named for the British king who ordered the production of a fresh translation in 1604—is both a religious and literary classic. Literary scholars have heaped praise upon it. Nineteenth-century writers and literary critics acclaimed it as the “noblest monument of English prose.” (page 1 of 328)

“The King James Bible was a landmark in the history of the English language, and an inspiration to poets, dramatists, artists, and politicians. The influence of this work has been incalculable.” (page 1 of 328)

“Yet the Bible is far more than a work of literature. For Christians—the world’s largest religious grouping—the Bible tells the story of the creation of the world by God, and its redemption through Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks words of hope in the face of suffering and death. It tells of a New Jerusalem, in which pain, sorrow, and death are things of the past. Until the Bible was translated, many English-speaking Christians had to rely on their clergy to tell them about such things. The King James Bible allowed them to read them for themselves, and shaped the contours of English-speaking Christianity in a period of unprecedented expansion and growth, as the great missionary undertakings of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries got under way.” (page 2 of 328)

“The importance of the Bible went far beyond personal religious devotion and faith. It was central to the life of Western European society in a way that we cannot begin to imagine today. The story is often told of the great economic historian Jack Fisher, who was being pestered by a student for a reading list on sixteenth-and seventeenth-century economic history. Exasperated, Fisher finally gave his definitive answer: ‘If you really want to understand this period, go away and read the Bible.’ Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Bible was seen as a social, economic, and political text. Those seeking to overthrow the English monarchy and those wanting to retain it both sought support from the same Bible. The Bible came to be seen as the foundation of every aspect of English culture, linking monarch and church, time and eternity.” (page 2 of 328)

“The lives of countless men and women since then have been changed and molded by the King James Bible. Refugees from England, fleeing religious persecution in the seventeenth century, brought copies with them. It would be their encouragement on the long and dangerous voyage to the Americas, and their guide as they settled in the New World. Prisoners in English jails found solace in reciting biblical verses they had learned by heart, in the words chosen by the translators assembled by King James. The King James Bible became part of the everyday world of generations of English-speaking peoples, spread across the world. It can be argued that, until the end of the First World War, the King James Bible was seen, not simply as the most important English translation of the Bible, but as one of the finest literary works in the English language. It did not follow literary trends; it established them.” (pages 2-3 of 328)

The King James Version

“The marked difference in style between the text of the King James Version and its preface verifies that it was not written in the style of that period but in the style of the Greek text. The use of word order in the Greek to indicate emphasis is followed precisely in the sentence structure of the KJV.”
“New versions boast of their substitution of the word ‘you’ for the archaic ‘ye’ and ‘thee,’ but do not notice that the KJV uses the word ‘you’ two thousand times. It only uses ‘ye’ and ‘thee’ when needed, to distinguish between the Greek singular and plural; ‘ye’ is plural, and ‘thee’ is singular. By using those particular renderings, the KJV gives an exact representation of the Greek word.”
“If Jesus walked into a room with a married couple and said, ‘Ye are of your father the devil,’ the husband could not say, He’s talking to you, honey,’ because ‘ye’ is plural. In certain places in the Bible—Matthew 16 and other places—the singular and the plural become very important. In a recent United Bible Society newsletter for translators, a contributor recommended the KJV because of its preciseness in this regard.”

(Gail Riplinger, Which Bible is God’s Word?, Oklahoma City, OK: Bible Belt Publications, 1994, 11)