In 1604 work began on a new translation. King James supported the work which gained some fifty scholars. They were given a list of rules and procedures. They were to alter the Bishops' Bible as little as possible (... "to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one" ...) as permitted by the truth of the original. They were to consult other translations where they agreed better with the text including Tyndale, Matthew, Coverdale, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible. Old ecclesiastical words were to be kept (church versus congregation). The preface explains the translator's intent to only use marginal notes to indicate uncertainties in original wording. They intended to be reserved about uncertainties rather than dogmatic when the uncertainties did not relate to doctrinal issues of salvation. One goal was to use a variety of English synonyms to translate the same word in the original Greek or Hebrew as much as possible. Unfortunately, this variety has led to ambiguity at times and precludes the use of exactly the same word for clarity and emphasis when appropriate.

The work was divided among the men in six panels. As one panel completed a section, they distributed it to the other panels for review. Chief members of each panel made final decisions. The strong team of revisers included professors of Hebrew and Greek from Oxford and Cambridge. The actual work began in 1607 and was printed in 1611. It was made under royal authority and bore the title page statement of "being appointed to be read in churches," but was not officially authorized by ecclesiastical or legislative sanction. Its popularity eventually obtained its "authorized" status. It was dedicated to King James and included a preface explaining its purpose, procedures and principles.

Subsequent printings (1629, 1638, 1762 and 1769-today's standard, differing in an estimated 75,000 details) corrected numerous typographical errors including eliminating multiple lines, inserting omitted words and correcting wrong wording. The 1611 version appealed to both scholars and the common people. In 1847 the American Bible Society intended to prepare a standard text from among the 24,000 variations, but they decided that none of the variations hindered the integrity of the text or affected any doctrine or teaching of the Bible. In 1861 various changes (mostly spelling) were introduced. In 1932 further spelling changes (along with pronunciation marks over names) were made to conform to American usage. No further changes were made until 1962 when changes such as a paragraph format, section headings and a new system of references were instituted.

The KJV helped develop the lineage of the Tyndale tradition. Tyndale contributed much of the idiom and vocabulary, Coverdale contributed the melody and harmony and Geneva contributed the scholarship and accuracy. The six panels produced varying qualities. It was the best English Bible then available and had a conservative evangelical theological bias. Its literary and punctuation style lends it to public reading.