in the old-english period, the predominant influence of the scriptures may be seen in the frequency with which the men of letters turned to them for subjects, and in the biblical colouring and texture of thought and style. cædmon’s famous “hymn” and the other poems like “genesis,” “exodus,” “daniel,” and “judith,” which were once ascribed to him; cynewulf’s “crist,” “the fates of the apostles,” “the dream of the rood”; ælfric’s “homilies” and his paraphrases of certain books of scripture—these early fruits of our literature are all the offspring of the bible.
in the middle-english period, that anonymous
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masterpiece “pearl” is full of the spirit of christian mysticism, and the two poems called “cleanness” and “patience,” probably written by the same hand, are free and spirited versions of stories from the bible. “the vision of piers the plowman,” formerly ascribed to william langland, but now supposed by some scholars to be the work of four or five different authors, was the most popular poem of the latter half of the fourteenth century. it is a vivid picture of the wrongs and sufferings of the labouring man, a passionate satire on the corruptions of the age in church and state, an eloquent appeal for a return to truth and simplicity. the feeling and the imagery of scripture pervade it with a strange power and charm; in its reverence for poverty and toil it leans closely and confidently upon the example of jesus; and at the end it makes its ploughman hero appear in some mystic way as a type, first of the crucified saviour, and then of the church which is the body of christ.
it was about this time, the end of the fourteenth century, that john wyclif and his disciples, feeling the need of the support of the bible in their work
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as reformers, took up and completed the task of translating it entirely into the english tongue of the common people. this rude but vigourous version was revised and improved by john purvey. it rested mainly upon the latin version of st. jerome. at the beginning of the sixteenth century william tindale made an independent translation of the new testament from the original greek, a virile and enduring piece of work, marked by strength and simplicity, and setting a standard for subsequent english translations. coverdale’s version of the scriptures was published in 1535, and was announced as made “out of douche and latyn”; that is to say, it was based upon the german of luther and the zurich bible, and upon the vulgate of st. jerome; but it owed much to tindale, to whose manly force it added a certain music of diction and grace of phrase which may still be noted in the psalms as they are rendered in the anglican prayer-book. another translation, marked by accurate scholarship, was made by english puritans at geneva, and still another, characterized by a richer latinized style, was made by english catholics
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living in exile at rheims, and was known as “the douai version,” from the fact that it was first published in its complete form in that city in 1609-1610.
meantime, in 1604, a company of scholars had been appointed by king james i in england to make a new translation “out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised.” these forty-seven men had the advantage of all the work of their predecessors, the benefit of all the discussion over doubtful words and phrases, and the “unearned increment” of riches which had come into the english language since the days of wyclif. the result of their labours, published in 1611, was the so-called “authorized version,” a monument of english prose in its prime: clear, strong, direct, yet full of subtle rhythms and strange colours; now moving as simply as a shepherd’s song, in the twenty-third psalm; now marching with majestic harmonies, in the book of job; now reflecting the lowliest forms of human life, in the gospel stories; and now flashing with celestial splendours in the visions of the apocalypse;
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vivid without effort; picturesque without exaggeration; sinewy without strain; capable alike of the deepest tenderness and the most sublime majesty; using a vocabulary of only six thousand words to build a book which, as macaulay said, “if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.”
the literary excellence of this version, no doubt, did much to increase the influence of the bible in literature and confirm its place as the central book in the life of those who speak and write the english tongue. consider a few of the ways in which this influence may be traced.
