The Bible in English

To own and treasure

THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH
By David Daniell
Yale UP. 900 pages. £29.95
ISBN 0 300 09930 4

The Bible in English is a natural sequel to Prof. David Daniell's excellent critical biography of William Tyndale and his modern spelling edition of Tyndale's New Testament which many will already know.

Here we have a comprehensive survey of English translations of the Bible from Anglo-Saxon times up to the present day. The widely admired English Standard Version arrived just too late to be included in his survey, but we may readily expect that the author would have welcomed this most recent addition to the sequence of revisions that, starting with Tyndale and Coverdale, continued through the King James, on to the Revised Version, the RSV, and ultimately to the ESV. For Dr. Daniell's ongoing thesis is that Tyndale remains the master, setting the standard that others must imitate if they are to fulfil the demands of accuracy with respect not only to the Greek vocabulary but also to its grammatical structures.

Other versions are always judged by this criterion and where they match up they are fully commended. For example, in speaking of the New English Bible he refers to the NEB translation of Romans 12.11-15, commenting, 'It is absolutely not KJV, nor RV, nor RSV. It is a fresh English voice, and good for the Greek. This is something that can be seen everywhere in NEB, and be valued' (my italics). But Daniell goes on, 'On the other hand, there can also be seen everywhere in NEB places where things went wrong'.

This massive book is much more besides. No stone is left unturned, and the reader is constantly amazed at the sheer number of English translations that have appeared over the centuries. England was later than Germany, France and Spain in having a vernacular Bible, but rapidly outpaced them. By 1611 there were ten versions, either complete or of the NT; in Germany just two. After that date, despite the growing dominance of the KJV, private revisions, translations, and especially paraphrases poured out of England. Once America became significant, the steady stream turned into a flood.

As well as giving us an exhaustive (and, if read as a consecutive exercise, a rather exhausting) study of the English Bible, the author is to be praised for opening out many little facts concerning the century of revision and translation that fell between Tyndale and KJV. He demonstrates the vital importance of Miles Coverdale, who, working from the Latin Vulgate, translated those parts of the OT - the Prophets, Proverbs and Psalms - which Tyndale did not live to complete. Many of the familiar echoes that have come down from the KJV are owed to him. For example, 'Why do the heathen so furiously rage together?' and 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork' and 'Seek the Lord while he may be found'. Other phrases have not found lasting favour, some perhaps rightly. 'Is there no balm in Gilead?' (KJV) is in Coverdale, 'For there is no more treacle at Galaad (sic)' (p.183). In a similar way Daniell reveals the debt we owe to the Geneva Bible of 1560, and he explains the odd insistence of the KJV revisers on basing their version on the Bishop's Bible of 1568, which Dr. Daniell shows was indeed a very bad model. Happily, Tyndale and Coverdale shine through in KJV, where in the New Testament Tyndale is retained for about 80% of the time.

Inevitably, much space is given to the Revised Version of 1881, the American Standard Version of 1901, and the Revised Standard Version of 1952. This latter is examined alongside the popular NIV, on which the author is more ready to comment than some other critics. But he quotes a reviewer who comments that because 'at times it is so close to RSV, one wonders why all this energy and money should have been spent on another version'.

As well as his critical survey of the wealth of versions that have appeared over the centuries on both sides of the Atlantic, the author devotes space to hymns (especially psalm paraphrases), popular songs, and prose and poetry, where they are influenced by the English Bible. Shakespeare, who (elsewhere) has been variously described as an atheist and a crypto-catholic, is shown here to have clear knowledge of the English Bibles of his time.

Nevertheless, this book is so much more than an academic survey. In his introduction, Dr. Daniell speaks of 'Four Glories'. Inevitably for a retired Professor of English, he speaks first and principally of 'the range and power and versatility of the English language ... which has, as well as flexibility, an ancient strength which is thrown away at real cost; strength to carry the most difficult theological truths with ease' (pp.13-14). Another glory is that 'in its multiplicity of English versions ... it is open to everyone who can read it ... what Tyndale opened has never been shut' (p.15).

For another glory shines through this book. Daniell illustrates with great authority how Tyndale's Bible and its immediate successors were the powerhouse of the English Reformation that gave us Cranmer's Prayer Books and the Elizabethan Settlement, which established England once and for all as a nation with a Reformed Church. Although the author rightly avoids all confessional controversy, he shows that a translation must above all be a source of theology, not for the academic, but for the common man - Tyndale's ploughboy, indeed. Almost the final words of this masterly and compelling study dwell on the words of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, showing the true meaning of the Greek dedikaiomenos as 'justified', that is, 'now in a proper relation with God'. Daniell observes (speaking especially of Tyndale): 'Paul wrote of the horror of sin, of separation from God, and, in Tyndale's enduring translation, of now being justified by faith' (pp.773-4). This is clearly the author's faith as well as ours.

This is a book to own and treasure. Too costly for many purses, perhaps, but I would encourage everyone to look out for the paperback which must surely follow.

To own and treasure

Richard Carter, Sittingbourne, Kent

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