Bruce Gordon, a professor of ecclesiastical history at Yale Divinity School, told Live Science, "the KJV didn't really succeed while James was alive." That's because the market for James' version didn't really arise until the 1640s, when Archbishop William Laud, who "hated the Puritans," suppressed the Geneva Bible that the Puritans followed.”
The article at Live Science who interviewed Gordon, goes on:
In short, the KJV's influence has waxed over the centuries because, Gordon said, it was the version that was most widely read and distributed in countries where English was the dominant language and that its translation was "never really challenged until the 20th century." In that time, the KJV became so embedded in the Anglo-American world that "many people in Africa and Asia were taught English from the KJV" when Christian missionaries brought it to them, Gordon said. "Many people weren't even aware that it was one of many available translations," he added, "they believed the King James Version was the Bible in English."
Source:
https://www.livescience.com/why-king-james-bible.html
Towards the end of the article, Gordon admits using other words that he is not a KJV-onlyist.
Then there is Kenneth Curtis’s article. He states in his article that the 1660s is when the KJV began to become popular in Britain. Kenneth Curtis, who founded the Christian History Institute said that the KJV did not truly become popular until the 1660s after the (Puritan Led) British Civil War in the 1640s, and 50s had ended.
Kenneth Curtis said, I quote:
“The King James did not finally begin to supplant the Geneva in its native land until the period of Restoration (1660s), and in Scotland the Geneva lasted even longer—as late as 1674 at least one Scottish parish was still using it in worship."
Again, keep in mind that Kenneth Curtis was not a KJV-onlyist.
Source:
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/no-overnight-success
In 1637, in America: The Antinomian controversy involving Anne Hutchinson in the Puritan church led to the Puritans eventually favoring the King James Bible over the Geneva Translation. By the 1700s, the KJV became the dominant Bible translation in America. This information comes by way of a Historian.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=religion_pubs
As for your claim that the King James Version (KJV) only became popular after a 1920s campaign:
Well, this claim is not accurate. While there was a resurgence of advocacy for the KJV during the early 20th century, the KJV had already been widely used and popular long before that.the claim that the King James Version (KJV) only became popular after a 1920s campaign is not accurate. While there was a resurgence of advocacy for the KJV during the early 20th century, the KJV had already been widely used and popular long before that.
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