Was the King James Bible written in Old English

People often say the KJV was written in old English and in a sense yes was written in an archaic form of English (Jacobian English would be the technical term) but not old English.The King James version of the Bible or KJV for short was written in 1611 and that version went out of print in 1911 ,the KJV’s you buy today are a watered down version of the original.The time period of 1611 was the early modern English time period ,the style was often called Jacobian ,Elizabethan or Shakespearian but Jacobian is more accurate because James (which is Greek for Jacob) was king at that time and the person who brought about it’s inception.So no, the KJV was never in old English.

What is old English?

After the fall of Rome and what was then Britannia (now England) became vulnerable to invaders from Saxony,Juteland,Frisia Anglia and Denmark ,hence the term Anglo-Saxon.The term Saxon came from the word for battle ax “sax” and the term Anglo from the word angle because fish hooks were angled in order to snag fish and the Angles were mighty fishermen.These groups started invading Britannia and had success without Roman protection and by the year 600 CE ruled all of what is modern England.All of these mentioned groups mixed languages and old English was a mixture of Saxon,Frisian and old Norse and many many old English words had a old Norse root.Old English was first written in Runes Symbols , you know like the famous Led Zeppelin record.After the Saxon conversion to Christianity old English was written with Latin script although very little was ever written in old English ,most poor people were illiterate and the educated all spoke Latin then.Beowulf ,being the most famous OE opus along with the Anglo-Saxon chronicles.Not much is known about old English really ,the name Beowulf ,literally Bee wolf or that is a bear, because bears eat honey.In those days those who were mighty in battle were often called bear,the Norse name Bjorn means bear and so does the Welsh name Arthur means Bear man as well.

Did King Arthur speak old English? No ,he lived right around when the Saxon invasions sort of began and did win the battle of Baddon Hill in 519 CE .However by the 550’s CE Britannia succumbed to the Germanic invaders and King Arthur was a Briton, a Celt and spoke a proto dialect of Welsh and his real name was likely Owyen(Owen) Arthur was likely given to him for his battle prowess.

What is middle English?

In 1066 CE the Norman French lead by William Duke of Normandy conquered England in the battle of Hastings( at least that was the major one)

Now in England the nobility spoke French in conversation and Latin in documentation and after 50 to 75 years the influx of Norman French and Latin made it’s way to the peasantry or common folk and the mixture of old English ,French and Latin became middle English.

Very little was ever written in middle English because most of those who spoke it were not literate.There were Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and the Wycliffe Bible ,the first ever Bible in English (google search the Lollard rebellion ,an proto protestant movement quickly crushed by the Roman Catholic Church)

The Canterbury tales are brutal and tell of the hardship of medieval life very bluntly and drop modern swear words like nothing and would put gangster rap to shame.King Edward the III gave one speech in middle English and started the transition to England making English it’s language.It took time for the nobility to embrace English and forget Norman French and Latin.

Modern English ,I would early modern English was officially in full swing with the 1485 coronation of King Henry the VII ,the first of the Tudor dynasty.In this early modern English period we would see Shakespeare most famously and the King James Bible in 1611.

Here is an overview of English language time periods and this all may surprise you.

these are all CE or AD times

550-700 Old English runic or Futhorc period

700-1125 Old English Latin script period

1125-1485 Middle English

1485-1800 Early modern English

1800-1945 (end of WW2) Late modern English

1945- to present time , Post modern English

I myself would even argue that after the fall of the soviet union in 1991 were now in the “ultra post modern era” but that is not an absolute consensus.