In the Beginning Quotes

“Tyndale was strangled in October 1536, and his dead body then burned at the stake. Tyndale's fate is an important reminder that biblical translation was more than just a scholarly challenge in the early sixteenth century—it was, in Tyndale's case, illegal, dangerous, and ultimately fatal.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The English of 1611 is not the English of the twenty-first century. It can mislead us, simply because English words have changed their meaning. For example, consider the sentence: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep (1 Thessalonians 4:15). A modern reader would find this puzzling, in that the 1611 meaning of the word “prevent” does not correspond to its modern sense. For the King James translators, “prevent” meant what we now understand by “precede” or “go before”—not “hinder.” In that linguistic change now means that the King James Bible has the potential to mislead and confuse, there is a clear case for revision of the translation.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Noah Webster, responsible for an influential dictionary that helped establish the distinctive aspects of American spelling. Webster was alarmed by a series of biblical passages that he regarded as “offensive,” “unseemly,” and “distasteful.” Words to which he took particular exception include “piss,” “privy member,” “prostitute,” “teat,” “whore,” and “womb.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The evidence strongly suggests that the first English Bible to be brought to the New World was the Geneva Bible. Not only had this been available longer, it was the translation of choice for the Puritans, who valued its extensive annotations. The Geneva Bible offered both text and commentary, which served as a framework to interpret the hand of providence that had delivered them from Egypt and brought them to this new Canaan.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The real problem lay with the extensive marginal notes, which offered guidance to the reader as to how the text was to be interpreted and applied. Although the Geneva Bible dated from two generations earlier, its critique of the abuse of monarchical powers might have been written with Charles I's reign in mind.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“So why did the King James translators use an archaic verbal form in what was meant to be a modern translation? Again, the answer seems to lie with the rules provided for the translators, which more or less bound them to use the language of 1525 in their translations. A comparison of Tyndale's translation of Matthew 7:1–7 (see above) with the King James Bible shows that precisely the same older Middle English verbal endings are found in both translations. In Tyndale's time, they were in general use; by 1611, they were virtually obsolete.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“changes—the use of “ye,” “thou,” and so forth remains unchanged. The King James translators simply did not believe that they had the authority to make changes reflecting developments in the English language, and so continued to reproduce the English of nearly three generations earlier.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“A careful study of the court records of the northern English city of Durham suggests that “you” had replaced “thou” as the normal form of address in spoken English by about 1575.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Erasmus had to work on the basis of the criterion of accessibility. As far as we can ascertain, none of the half dozen manuscripts were earlier than the tenth century.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38). The casual reader might gain the impression that quite different Greek words were being translated in each passage; in fact, the Greek text is identical in each case.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Yet there is a final issue that needs to be noted here. The koine Greek of the New Testament is the “everyday” Greek language of working people rather than of self-conscious literary scholars and poets. The King James translators were not aware of this fact. Their location in history denied them access to this knowledge.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Hebrew idiom that the translators interpreted literally and so failed to appreciate the general drift of the text. The idiom “to rise up early to do something” actually means “to do something continually.” Hence the second of the quotations just noted has the following meaning: “They did not listen to my words which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets; even though I sent them continually they still would not listen to them.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The term synoptic gospels is often used to refer to the first three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This term refers to their similar literary structure,”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“There was now a commercial reason for removing the Apocrypha—Bibles without it were both cheaper to produce, and smaller (and hence cheaper to transport overseas). Sensitive to the importance of both production and transportation costs, the missionary societies gradually came to the view that the Apocrypha would be omitted—primarily for financial, rather than theological reasons. As far as is known, the first missionary society to take this decision was the British and Foreign Bible Society. Its decision of 1826 to cease including the Apocrypha in their Bibles is known to have given a major stimulus to the growing trend to publish Bibles without the Apocrypha. In very general terms, Bibles produced for a predominantly Protestant readership now tend to exclude the Apocrypha, and those intended for a Roman Catholic readership include it.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Acts 24:24 in 1611 referred to Drusilla, the wife of the Roman governor Felix, as a Jew; in 1629, this was altered to “Jewess.” The original translation of Mark 10:18 read thus: “there is no man good, but one, that is, God.” This could be misunderstood as implying that God was a human being. A small alteration was introduced in 1638, avoiding this implication: the text now read “there is none good but one, that is, God.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The first edition of the King James Bible to be published by Oxford University Press appeared in 1675; this was followed in 1682 by a sumptuous edition prepared by the Oxford printer John Baskett. The value of the edition was greatly reduced by its many printing errors. For example, it made reference to the “Parable of the Vinegar” instead of the “Parable of the Vineyard”—an error which led it to being nicknamed the “Vinegar Bible.” Its amused critics panned it as “a Bastkett-full of Printer's Errors.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“More serious was the misprint in an edition of 1631, which rendered Exodus 20:14 as follows: “Thou shalt commit adultery.” The omission of the word “not” was speedily corrected, but not before this had caused some consternation among the Bible's readers. Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the printers of this “Wicked Bible”—as it came to be known—were fined severely for this unfortunate lapse.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“A further difference between the 1611 printing of the work and the 1613 reprint is of interest. Their variant translations of Ruth 3:15 led to the earlier printing being known as the “Great He Bible” (1611) and the later one as the “Great She Bible” (1613) respectively. The passage in question describes how Boaz measured out “six measures of barley,” and gave it to Ruth. The “Great He Bible” then has Boaz going off to a nearby city whereas the “Great She Bible” reports that it is Ruth who made this journey. The “Great She Bible” also caused bewilderment to some of its readers by confusing Jesus and Judas at one point (Matthew 26:36).”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The first printing of the King James Bible in 1611 included a number of printing errors. For example, a small slip in the typesetting of the description of the interior of the tabernacle led to the following reading (Exodus 28:11). And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hoops of the pillars and their fillets of silver. But there were probably few who noticed, let alone cared, that the pillars really bore hooks, not hoops. This error was corrected in the 1613 reprint.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“then reviewed by the Bishops, presented to the Privy Council, lastly ratified by Royal authority.” Yet there is actually no documentary evidence that the 1611 Bible ever received final written authorization from the bishops, Privy Council, or the king. While it is possible that such authorization—which would have taken the form of an Order in Council—may have been lost in the Whitehall fire of January 12, 1618 (which destroyed the Privy Council registers for the years 1600–13), it is more likely that no such order ever existed.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the Text.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Further concerns were expressed over the king's increasingly obvious homosexual tendencies, which led to certain royal favorites being granted favors that were the subject of much comment and envy. Robert Carr, some twenty years younger than James, was one such favorite: he became the earl of Somerset in 1613. Although James fondled and kissed his favorites in what was widely regarded as a lecherous manner in public, the court was prepared to believe that his private behavior was somewhat more restrained.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“The explicit royal stipulation that all forms of annotation would be excluded ensured that the difficulties created for the establishment by the Geneva Bible would be avoided—or so, at any rate, it was thought.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall {i} cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. When tyrants cannot prevail by deceit, they burst into open rage. The suggestion that it was lawful to disobey or deceive kings would hardly have pleased James I of England. Yet it fitted well into the growing trend within Calvinist circles to argue for the resistance to tyrants, whether by force or deception.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“the marginal notes to the Geneva Bible did more than provide theological elucidation at points of difficulty—the “most profitable annotations upon the hard places” mentioned on the title page of the work. They offered political comments on the text, which could easily be applied to the political situation under James I—and James cordially detested what he found in those notes.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Like Matthew's Bible before it, the Geneva Bible alienated the establishment on account of its marginal notes.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“It was this Bible that became known as “the Great Bible.” It included both the canonical and apocryphal books, mistakenly referring to the latter as the “Hagiographa.” The New Testament works were printed in the order set out by Erasmus in his 1516 Greek New”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“In his Bible translations, Tyndale coined such phrases as: “the powers that be” (Romans 13); “my brother's keeper” (Genesis 4); “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5); and “a law unto themselves” (Romans 2). These phrases continue to be used, even in modern English, precisely because they are so well shaped in terms of their alliteration, rhyme, and word repetitions. Tyndale also introduced or revived many words that are still in use. He constructed the term “Jehovah” from the Hebrew construction known as the “tetragrammaton” in the Old Testament. He invented the English word “Passover” to refer to the Jewish festival known in Hebrew as Pesah.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Not everyone could read Latin; in any case, as Erasmus would make clear, there were some big problems with the accuracy of the Vulgate translation. In 1516, Erasmus declared that this traditional Latin translation of the Bible was awash with translation mistakes. Once Erasmus began his scholarly work in earnest, it did not take him long to expose problems with this widely used Latin translation.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture

“Erasmus produced a new Latin translation of the New Testament in 1516, based on the original Greek texts.”
― Alister E. McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and aCulture