CHAPTER VIII

THE TRANSLATION

I

So far we have been considering the distinct types of literature which are to be found in the English Bible; in discussing them I have tried to throw light on their form and other characteristics by some of the facts that have been gathered concerning their probable source and history. These facts, which have been collected and arranged by the science which is technically known as the Introduction to the Old Testament and the New Testament or as the Higher Criticism, show that the various books of the Bible, especially those of the Old Testament, are of various origin, and sometimes of a kind of compilation unknown to us to-day. To understand how much perspective there is in these books and how illuminating that perspective is one must follow out a considerable course of study in this subject: in such an essay as this I have been able only to refer to results which scholars have reached after long and devoted labor. Now, in

order to lead on to a study and understanding of the literary character of the English Bible as a whole I must sketch first the processes by which all these separate books became one book; and then the various stages of translation and revision which ended in the Authorised Version, otherwise known as the King James Bible. This is for English literature, in our times at any rate, the form in which the Bible stands as the great monument of English literature.

To understand the literary character of this great translation we must not forget that it is a translation, and that at the same time it has, what one hardly looks for in a translation made to-day, unequalled vitality and freshness of expression. It is one of the few examples in English of a translation which is complete on both sides; for it renders not only the meaning of the single words and sentences, for the most part with great accuracy, but it communicates to us also the spirit and vigor of the original. In other words, it not only gives us the denotation of the books which it translates, but it clothes its own language with the rich connotation of the original and with the less definable but no less potent expressive power of sound. Our study of the power of the Bible in English literature would be incomplete if we did not at least make an effort to find some of

the causes for this especial success of the Authorised Version.

I will begin the consideration of this part of the subject by bringing together a few facts about the collection of the original books into a single book, and then, before going on to discuss the actual translation into English, consider briefly two intermediate translations which have had some influence on the present form of the English.

II

The collection of the books of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, which were so varied in origin and date and character, into a single book thought of as "the Scriptures" occupied a considerable length of time and was the result of processes which can be traced only vaguely. We know that by the end of the first century A.D. the Jews of Palestine accepted the books of the Old Testament as we read them in the English Bible, and that by the end of the second century A.D. the books of the New Testament, nearly as we have them, were accepted by the Christians. In the case of the Old Testament the Greek-speaking Jews admitted more books into the Scriptures than did the Jews of Palestine, and in the case of the New Testament the Eastern and

Western Churches differed on the acceptance of Revelation and some of the Catholic Epistles. But the idea of a closed list of books which alone should be considered the inspired word of God, and in the main the list of the books which were to be so accepted, were established at these dates.

In the case of the Old Testament this acceptance of a definite set of books to the exclusion of all others came about in three stages of growth which are reflected in the well-known phrase "The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings." The first stage in this acceptance of certain books as an authoritative statement of the will of Jehovah above and beyond all other books goes back ultimately to the discovery and promulgation of the original Deuteronomy by Josiah in 621 B.C. When that book was once accepted as authoritatively stating the covenant between Jehovah and his people, it undoubtedly acquired a veneration different from that of all other books. It was now thought of as "the Law." During the Exile this idea of a definite statement by Jehovah of the Law which his chosen people were to fulfil was developed and crystallized by the priests; and after the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah Deuteronomy was merged in the larger, more comprehensive, and more fully developed book of law and history which we know as the Pentateuch. Henceforth the Law became the central and

dominant fact in the religion of the Jews and in their Scriptures. The Pentateuch, which arose from the amalgamation of the history of the world and of the people of Israel down to the final giving of the Law through Moses, was known to the Jews as the "fivefifths of the Law"; and it maintained a sanctity and authority above all other parts of the Scriptures.

The other two layers of the canon, as the technical term is, gradually came into existence through a process of growth which we can understand only by

inference from a few scattered facts. We know that by the second century B.C. the Jews were accustomed to speak of "the Law and the Prophets," and that the books of the prophets were quoted by a formula which implied that they were now recognised as part of the Scriptures. These books of the prophets included for the Jews the Former Prophets, which are our books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, and the Latter Prophets, which are our books of the prophets-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve. The reason that these historical books were included in "The Prophets " lay in the fact that their composition was controlled by the prophetic theory of history set forth by Deuteronomy. All these books must have assumed their place beside the Law because they were looked on either as illustrations of the working of the Law in the history of Israel or