Christopher Yetzer on the KJV Preface

The Translators to the Readers link

Historically speaking the KJV preface was the work of one translator, Miles Smith.29 To understand it best, one must understand the context in which it was written. That context was first and foremost a commercial product of the early 17th century. As such Smith had several important audiences and for each one different objectives to accomplish. He had to prepare the general public for the acceptance of a new translation without maligning the ones which they believed to have been accurate representations of the words of God and which were defended as such.30 He also had to prepare them for the criticisms which Smith knew would come, as well as inform them on some particulars of the book. The most consuming portion of the preface was a defense against the Anglicans’ primary rivals whom Smith calls “Adversaries”, “Papists”, “Romanists” and not without objection “Catholics”. Smith also had to create unity among the theologians of differing positions in England whom he refers to as “brethren”, “Puritans” and twice describes them as “scrupulous”. 

Apart from those audiences which Smith was actively working to refute or convince, he also had a few audiences which he was simply trying to honor. Possibly the most important of these was King James who had his own dedication printed separately from the general preface, but also had a place in that preface where Smith referred to him as “Majesty”, “King” and “Sovereign”. Lastly Smith had to represent the other translators. The word “we” appears 143 times in the text, although a fair amount of them are simply inclusive with the general Christian reader.31

Notes: 

29 “...this Reverend Bishop, Doctor Smith, ...who happily concluded that worthy Labour. Which being so ended, for perfecting of the whole worke as now it is; he was commanded to write a Preface, and so he did in the name of all the Translators, being the same that now is extant in our Church Bible, the Originall whereof I have seene under his owne hand.” Smith, Miles. “The Preface.” Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God Miles Smith, Elizabeth Allde, London, 1632.
30 Fulke, William. A Defence of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue. Henrie Bynneman, 1583.
31 Throughout this article the preface I am using for the text is found at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/

Preface as well as images of a 1611 KJV preface found at https://archive.org/details/1611TheAuthorizedKingJamesBible/page/n7/mode/1up?view=theater.

Christopher Yetzer, The Very Vulgar, pp. 3-4