The greatest story
ever translated
by
Howard
Richler
You can't always be of be
of good cheer and not
suffer from sour grapes.
The stumbling block
may be your holier than thou
attitude and your feet of clay
that won't allow you to either fight the good
fight or eat, drink
and be merry.
While I'll admit that the
above paragraph I concocted does not represent inspired prose, at
least it has the distinction of containing italicized phrases that
have been immortalized in an English language book that has
provided inspiration to billions. Surprisingly, this book is a
translation, written by a committee. In case you haven't divined yet
the book`s title, I am referring to the King
James Version of the Bible (KJB) and 2011
commemorates the 400th anniversary of its release.
King James I commissioned
fifty-four Bible scholars for a new version of Scriptures. They were
divided into six nine man teams, two at Cambridge, two at Oxford and
two at Westminster. The project took seven years to complete and
this joint venture created one of the masterpieces of English
literature.
The authors believed they
because they were translating the word of God; mistranslating
anything would be tantamount to heresy. Scholars marvel not only at
the accuracy from Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew but also at its
lyricism. Its euphony is striking and it is clear that the ruling
organ of the prose is the ear. The Bible was meant to be read aloud
in churches to the laity and the committee members were conscious
that a melodious word flow would attract a larger and more devout
following.
A good book must have a
snappy beginning and right from the book`s genesis the language is
gripping:
In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form ,
and void and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters. And God said Let there be light: and there was
light.
The
KJB translation
team were also able to render down to
earth language in a majestic manner. Take the following passage from
1 Corinthians that
appeared in William Tyndale`s 16th
century Bible:
Now we see in a glass
even in a dark speaking but then we shall see face to face.
In the
KJB the passage is rendered with greater
conciseness and is far grander and clearer: For
now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.
For
those who find the language of the KJB
archaic with expressions such as “art in heaven” and its
multitudinous goeths and knoweths, I counter that these touches
actually add power to the writing and convey the sense that we are
not dealing with ephemeral content. Even during the early part of
the 17th
century when the KJB
was being compiled some of the grammar and phraseology were out of
date. For example, the expression “yea, verily” had been passé
for half a century. This, however, was done
deliberately because its authors were aware that word fashions change
and they wanted a book dedicated to an eternal God to transcend any
particular era.
Although I am an atheist,
I recognize that the Bible, and other sacred texts, have brought
great solace to many people during life`s inevitable dark moments. In
the BBC documentary The Making of the King
James Bible, narrator
Adam Nicolson speaks to a fisherman whose twenty-four year old son
had recently perished off the coast of the Outer Hebrides. When he
asked the fisherman how he was coping with the loss he told him that
Psalm 77 “expressed
everything he could think or feel.” Intrigued, Nicholson read the
passage in his KJB:
“Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no
more?” Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fall for
everyone?... Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great
waters,
and thy footsteps are not known.”
It is remarkable that
verses penned millennia ago in Hebrew and translated four hundred
years ago into English can speak so poignantly to the human heart.
I therefore
heartily offer sweet counsel
(Psalm 55:14) to read a segment of the King James Bible, even if it
represents a mere drop of the bucket of
its contents. (Isaiah-40:15)
Howard
Richler's latest book is Strange
Bedfellows: The Private Lives of Words.
