KJV Book Review

I read this book and enjoed it very much.

 

This book has been brought up before here is a link to the discussion... Brother Glen

http://www.baptistboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000138

 

An Oldie But Goodie Thread

I just bought In The Beginning last night.It's wonderfully informative.There's a section heading :"Archaic English Forms In The King James Bible"that I found fascinating.Here goes :

One of the most interesting aspects of the King James Bible is its use of ways of speaking that were already becoming archaic in the standard English of the first decade of the seventeenth century. By adopting these older forms, the King James Bible had the unintended effect of perpetuating ways of speaking that, strictly speaking, were dying out in everyday English speech.

...A careful study of the court records of the nothern English city of Durham suggests that "you" had replaced "thou" as the normal form of address in spoken English by about 1575. (pages 265-267)


Some have suggested that the King James Bible's use of "Thee," "Thou," and "Thy" to refer specifically to God is a title of respect, and argued that modern Christianity should retain this practice. This is clearly indefensible, at least for the following two reasons:

1. These same forms of address are used indiscriminately for God, Satan, and human beings, reflecting the usage of the early sixteenth century;
2. the use of these forms of address was, if anything, derogatory, implying superiority on the part of the user over the one being thus addressed. It is one thing for God to address a human being as "thou"; for this hint of superiority to be returned is quite another.

...The inbuilt conservatism of the translation process, reflecting the concerns of those who sponsored and directed the three "official" English Bibles, thus led directly -- yet unintentionally -- to the retention of older English ways of speaking in religious contexts,creating the impression that religious language was somehow necessarily archaic. (pages 268-269)

... The King James translators simply did not believe that they had the authority to make changes reflecting developments in the English language, and so continued to reproduce the English of nearly three generations earlier. (p.271)

 

My thanks to Rob who started this thread almost 6 and a half years ago! Is EdSutton taking notes? I think this one may be a personal record.I have revived old threads before -- but this one is ancient.

 

THis thread would have been around during the old red theme way back when.

 

I also note that I was a PC user at that time, that was one month before I got my first Mac

 

I shall quote some more from In The Beginning. This time I'll be in the section dealing with "Sayeth' or 'Says'.

What is particularly interesting is that there is strong evidence that, while the older "eth" ending continued to be written it was pronounced as if it were "s." In his Special Help to Orthography, published in 1643, Richard Hodges comments that although it was customary to write such words as leadeth it, noteth it, raketh it, perfumeth it,"and so forth, in everyday speech it was customary to say leads it, notes it, rakes it, per-fumes it, and so on. English not being a phonetic language, words can undergo significant changes in pronunciation without any need for changes in their spelling. The implications of this are, to say the least, remarkable. Would those who read the King James Bible aloud in church have pronunced "knoweth" as "knows"? (272,273)

So why did the King James translators use an archaic verbal form in what was meant to be a modern translation? Again, the answer seems to lie with the rules provided for the translators, which more or less bound them to use the language of 1525 in their translations. A comparison of Tyndale's translation of Matthew 7:1-7 with the King James Bible shows that precisely the same older Middle English verbal endings are found in both translations. In Tyndale's time, they were in general use; by 1611, they were virtually obsolete. (273,274)

 

Hey TinyTim!

This post is for TinyTim. I wasn't able to locate a post of his where he spoke of reading the KJV and used the "s" sound for the verbs ending with "eth".

 

This Is For Pilgrim's Benefit

The info above negates Pilgrim's false claims.