Oh, You Want Reasons?

Reading Verily, Verily, a book which recounts the circumstances around which the translation of the Bible into “vulgar” English that became the King James Version is a true delight for any number of reasons. If you’re a historian, it’s a careful study of the conditions which precipitated the translation, and if you’re a lover of language, there’s a smorgasbord of delights in it.

Here’s an excerpt I just finished this morning, thought enough of it to copy here:

Translation into the vernacular is necessary, they [the translation committee] conclude despite any possible objections. “But how shall men meditate in that which they cannot understand?” they plead. Even if a person reads and understands Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, that person must understand that the vast majority of Christian people cannot. Beautifully, the translators continue their case; it’s easy to see how there were a few poets on the committees:

Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water; even as Jacob rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, by which means the flocks of Laban were watered. Indeed without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacob’s well (which was deep) without a bucket or something to draw with; or as that person mentioned by Isaiah, to whom when a sealed book was delivered with this motion, “Read this, I pray thee,” he was fain to make this answer, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

Pretty good, aye what?

By the way, the title of this post is uttered by none other than Samuel (don’t forget the L.) Jackson in Jackie Brown. A good Saturday to ye!