Begat

Inept or what?

BEGAT
The King James Bible and the English Language
By David Crystal
Oxford University Press. 327pages. £13.99
ISBN 978-0-19-958585-4

This book is acceptable, even handsome, if you know what you are getting; scanning the Index may provide a clue.

Its aim is narrower than the subtitle suggests. The ‘world’s greatest authority on the English language’ has skimmed the 1611 Authorised Version (‘King James’ or ‘KJB’ throughout), glancing at seven other classic translations and unearthing familiar phrases. These often comprise two or three words only, like ‘reap the whirlwind’ from Hosea. He then asked Google to find all the variations, in this case including a ‘Star Trek’ novel and some financial news: ‘Speculators reap the whirlwind’. Elsewhere ‘we find people reaping storms, tempests, hurricanes and tornadoes’.

After Hosea, apparently, ‘There is a ten-book-long wilderness’; no punch lines, then, in Joel, Amos or Jonah. Similarly, the author gives no credit to Leviticus for ‘Love thy neighbour’ until he notices it in the Gospels.

So, even on its own terms, the book has gaps; what about those terms? Expert Professor Crystal may be, but surely ‘the English language’ consists of more than popular sound bites. Begat shows no feel for any flow, rhythm or structure beyond the popular phrase. So while you can find James Bond, Monty Python and Barak Obama (11 times), there is no space for Bunyan, Burke, Baxter or Blake, and the only Johnson quoted is Boris.

More seriously, we may wonder why people wrote or read the AV in the first place. Is this an unrivalled collection of cutely adaptable catch phrases, or the word of the Lord at which we do well to tremble? As ever, computers prove a mixed blessing.

Some details: Paul never actually said ‘God forbid’; Francis Bacon was probably not reversing Matthew 12.30 but using Luke 9.50. ’Iambic’ means a weak syllable followed by a strong one; ‘Revelation’ is rarely known as ‘John the Divine’; and the final sentence is a howler. Even the Index is incomplete; Arsenal and Spurs both come in the text, but (inexcusably) only the latter is Indexed.

Christopher Idle,
Bromley, Kent

© Evangelicals Now - January 2011
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