Dawkins likes the KJV

Richard Dawkins likes the poetry of the King James Bible.

New Statesman:

Not just literature in the high sense but everyday speech is laced, suffused - riddled, even - with biblical phrases the status of which ranges from telling quotation ("They have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind") to cliché ("No peace for the wicked") and all points between. A word in season and perhaps we can see eye to eye. Although I wouldn't call the Bible my ewe lamb, and I would have to go the extra mile before I killed the fatted calf for it, you don't need the wisdom of Solomon to see how biblical imagery dominates our English. If my words fall on stony ground - if you pass me by as a voice crying in the wilderness - be sure your sin will find you out. Between us there is a great gulf fixed and you are a thorn in my flesh. We have come to the parting of the ways. I fear it is a sign of the times.
...
Hebrew, alas, is a sealed book to me (yes, that's another one: Isaiah 29:11), but I have it on respected authority that Ecclesiastes, at least, is pretty damn good poetry in the original. If so, it certainly doesn't make it through the Good News mangling. But I shall argue that poetry can gain in translation, and I believe this may have been achieved with the King James Bible.

It is often said (though often forgotten) that the Bible is not a book but a library. Obviously unable to cover it all, I shall attend to my two favourite books, neighbours in the Old Testament: Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs.

It's all there for the reading.

Alright, Richard, but must it be the KJV? Don't any modern translations come close poetically? Readers, what sayeth thee?

Posted by John B. Chilton on December 30, 2010 7:29 AM | |
Comments (4)

That's a great question at the end there John. I suppose my response would be to first question whether or not there should be poetic quality to a modern translation.

Some of the books and sections of the books of the Bible are clearly poetry. (Of course they use a different definition of poetry than we English speakers tend to use…) A good translation will have to try to show that quality in the original text in a way that doesn't depart too far from the original meaning.

But there are other parts of the biblical narratives that really aren't poetic. Sometimes the Hebrew is blunt, earthy, and abrupt. Sometime the Greek plays with the temporal tenses so much that you lose all track of time reading it. Should a translation attempt to make these into poetry?

The KJV is a brilliant translation that works best when read aloud in lively worship setting. The RSV and NRSV try their best to maintain that audibility while correcting the howlers in the original text. The ESV is a worthy successor that reads well but isn't afraid to re-tackle a particularly thorny translation puzzle here and there.

For myself lately, I find that I'm returning again and again to the REB (Revised English Bible) for my own private reading. It's kind of leaden when read out loud in liturgy, but it's a brand new translation into modern continental English - I suppose the American equivalent would be the NIV but the NIV makes some translation decisions (like not including the Apocrypha) that make it less useful for Episcopalians than the REB.

Posted by Nicholas Knisely [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 30, 2010 9:21 AM

A very interesting post about R. Dawkins and the KJV. But please, Mr. Chilton, if you're going to use old-fashioned English, learn to do so correctly. Your "Readers, what sayeth thee?" is completely non-sensical, wrong in number, declension and case. I guess you meant to say: "Readers, what say ye?"

Posted by james lodwick [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 30, 2010 10:20 AM

For more on the KJV see Tuesday's Café on the 400th anniversary here

Posted by Ann Fontaine [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 30, 2010 11:18 AM

The Psalter of the 1979 BCP is a good example of a poetic modern translation.

Posted by tobias haller [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 31, 2010 4:10 PM

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