From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Wed Sep 18 2002 - 09:48:27 EDT
George writes:
> As Burgy points out, issues of translation don't affect the extreme
"KJV
> only" translation. But the absurd veneration that version is given by
some
> shouldn't lead anyone to think that KJV was not, for its time, an
excellent
> translation. Though they didn't have some important mss and resources we
have
> today, King James' men were excellent scholars well versed (for 1611) in
the
> original languages and, of course, in English.
One mark of their excellence is their recognition of the great contributions
of earlier English translations. About 90% of the KJV New Testament is
either verbatim from or closely follows William Tyndale's superb version of
1535. Tyndale once said that he wanted the Bible to be translated in such a
way that "every ploughman" could read it with comprehension. He certainly
succeeded, with such translations as "You cannot serve God and mammon."
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." "out of darkness into his
marvelous light." Anther translation, which in fact for several decades
rivaled the KJV in popularity, was the Geneva Bible, issued in 1560 by
English Puritan exiles living on the Continent. A significant portion of
the KJV version of the prophets was taken, often verbatim, from the Geneva
Bible. Some familiar phraseology from the GB NT: "in all these things we
are more than conquerers through him that loved us"; "we have the mind of
Christ"; "so great a cloud of witnesses."
The translations of the OT that Miles Coverdale produced to complete
Tyndale's Bible, and the version of the entire Bible he himself issued, were
also highly prized. Although Coverdale's command of the ancient languages
was not as strong as Tyndale's (and his version is based primarily upon the
Vulgate), he had an unerring sense of what works in English, and much of his
phraseology was carried over. Consider these phrases which came into the
KJV: "till heaven and earth pass away"; "death is swallowed up in victory";
"the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Episcopalians who
grew up with the 1928 Prayerbook love Coverdale's translation of the
Psalter; it was the liturgical psalter of that prayerbook, and I believe is
still in the authorized 1662 Prayerbook of the Church of England. Many of
its verses are burned into my brain: I cannot sing the "Venite" in any
version but Coverdale's.
To me, one of the ironic things about those who claim supreme authority
for the KJV is that this version (of which there is no evidence that it was
ever "authorized"), had tough going among the English populace for several
decades; they prefered the Geneva Bible, which continued to be printed in
England into the 1640s. The KJV was vociferously attacked by English
critics, one of whom wrote an 800 page screed pointing out its errors. It
took nearly a century and a half for this version to gain the admiration
that it finally would obtain. Its history illustrates well that people
don't like to have their Bible messed with.
Bob Schneider
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