This article provides an outline historical-educational analysis of the King James Bible from its 1611 publication through to its four-hundredth anniversary commemoration in 2011. With particular focus on England, the article traces the educational impact of the King James Bible and charts, in the country of its origin, its progressive decline in religious education. It is argued that state involvement in English religious education (from 1870 onward) must be held partly responsible for this chronic and now acute waning of the Bible's wider educational influence.