John William Burgon (1813-1888)

“Whatever may be urged in favor of Biblical Revision, it is at least undeniable that the undertaking involves a tremendous risk.

Our Authorized Version is the one religious link which at present binds together ninety millions of English-speaking men scattered over the earth’s surface. Is it reasonable that so unutterably precious, so sacred a bond should be endangered, for the sake of representing certain words more accurately, here and there translating a tense with greater precision, getting rid of a few archaisms?

It may be confidently assumed that no ‘Revision’ of our Authorized Version, however judiciously executed, will ever occupy the place in public esteem which is actually enjoyed by the work of the Translators of 1611, the noblest literary work in the Anglo-Saxon language. We shall in fact never have another ‘Authorized Version.’

John W. Burgon, The Revision Revised, 113