BIBLE

BIBLE A collection of sacred texts usually regarded as a unified whole and published as a book consisting of a number of books. For Christians these are in two groups, an Old Testament (OT), whose original texts are HEBREW (and some Aramaic), and a New Testament (NT), whose original texts are GREEK. The first five OT books are known in Hebrew as the Torah (instruction, law) and in Greek as the Pentateuch (five scrolls). Tradition ascribes them to Moses. The first seven make up the Heptateuch (seven scrolls). The TRANSLATION of all OT writings into Greek, including the Apocrypha or non-canonical texts, is known by the Latinate name Septuagint (seventy), after the number of scholars believed to have engaged in their translation in Alexandria (3–2c BC). The term testament (from LATIN testamentum a witnessed contract) reflects the Christian belief that God made two covenants with humanity, the first with the Hebrews as a chosen people, the second with the followers of Jesus Christ. When, in the 4–5c, St Jerome translated OT Hebrew and NT Greek into one language, Latin, the Christian scriptures in the West acquired a linguistic homogeneity that strengthened perceptions of the Bible as a single text providing an unbroken account of events and prophecies. Although generally aware of the heterogeneous origins of the Bible, Christians in recent centuries have tended not to dwell on them.

The Bible as scripture

The books of the Bible were accumulated over some 1,300 years and are not set out in the order in which they appear to have been written. Although there are names attached to most of them (such as the OT Book of Job, the NT Gospel according to Mark), there is no firm evidence of authorship for most of them and little indication of how they were edited into their present forms. Since the 18c, however, there has been close scholarly scrutiny of the texts and their sources. The Bible is a miscellany of genres: story, history, law, prophecy, song, poetry, and letters, making up a sacred ‘encyclopedia’ which has for centuries been a prime source of reading throughout the world. For Christians, it is the foundation document of their faith; some admit no other authority, while others respect or insist on certain pastoral traditions and later documents. The books of the OT and NT have reached their present number and arrangement by a process of adjustment and elimination over centuries. As a selection from a larger number of texts, they constitute the Christian canon and stand in contrast with the deuterocanonical (secondary) or non-canonical works known as the Apocrypha (Greek: hidden), which may or may not appear as an appendix to the OT in Protestant Bibles. Following a longstanding tradition, The New English Bible (1970, Oxford and Cambridge University Presses) appends the 15 traditional apocryphal works to the 39 canonical books of the OT, but excludes the various apocryphal gospels from the NT, which are regarded as non-canonical by all mainstream Christian groups. Its successor, The Revised English Bible of 1989, excludes both.

The Bible as social archetype

For cultures with their roots in medieval Western Christendom, the word bible is both symbolic and archetypal. The symbolism is explicit when the Longman Dictionary of Geography is reviewed as ‘the geographer's bible’ and Plain English campaigners describe Ernest Gowers's Complete Plain Words as ‘the bible of techniques for clear writing’. It is implicit in the use of the definite article in such expressions as the Dictionary and the telephone directory, as if such works were as fundamental as the Bible. Both name and object are associated in many places with the Christian missions that often paralleled European colonial and commercial expansion. The ties between missionaries and colonialism were lightly touched on by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa on a visit to the US in 1984: ‘When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them again we had the Bible and they had the land.’

The Bible as literature

The Bible, whether in the original or in translation, both in itself and because of its influence, is among the great literary achievements of the world. As such, it can be considered in terms of both its genres (poetry, prose, prophecy, gospels, and epistles) and its many translations. In recent decades, a sense of the uniqueness and inviolability of the Bible has given way to scholarly inquiry and an interest in content for its own sake, and the study of the Bible as a text, apart from and/or in addition to its significance as a religious document, has increased. In addition, interest in its language and rhetoric has been stimulated by scholarly study of how this work relates to and has influenced the culture of the peoples who were once part of Western Christendom. As the Canadian critic Northrop Frye has put it:
My interest in the subject began when I found myself teaching Milton and writing about Blake, two authors who were exceptionally Biblical even by the standards of English literature. I soon realized that a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a great deal of what is going on in what he reads: the most conscientious student will be continually misconstruing the implications, even the meaning (The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, 1981).

Biblical poetry

The Bible's poetic aspect is most obvious in the Psalms, an anthology of pieces which have for centuries formed part of Jewish and Christian liturgies. There is also poetry in the prophetic books, the Book of Job, and elsewhere, but it has often been concealed by the prose form of the older English translations. The Song of Solomon is a cycle of love poems to which allegorical meaning was given by the early Church, and in the Authorized Version (AV) has the intensity of medieval and Tudor love lyrics (original spelling):13 A bundle of myrrhe is my welbeloued vnto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.14 My beloued is vnto me, as a cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.15 behold, thou art faire, my loue: behold, thou art faire, thou hast doues eyes.16 Behold, thou art faire, my beloued; yea pleasant: also our bedde is greene.17 The beames of our house are Cedar, and our rafters of firre.Classical Hebrew poetry depends not on rhyme and metre but on parallelism. The phonetic pattern is almost impossible to reproduce in English, but the parallelisms of thought can be seen in familiar versions (modern spelling):

Synonymous.

The second half-line emphasizes the first: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament showeth his handywork’ (Psalms 19: 1).

Antithetical.

The second half-line contrasts with the first: ‘I see that all things come to an end: but thy commandment is exceeding broad’ (Psalms 119: 96).

Synthetic.

The second half-line supplements the first with a consequence or example: ‘I did call upon the Lord with my voice: and he heard me out of his holy hill’ (Psalms 3: 4).

Progressive.

Building to a climax by repetition: ‘Hear the right, O Lord, consider my complaint: and hearken onto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips’ (Psalms 17: 1).

Stepped.

Each statement reinforced by a refrain, similar to many Border ballads: ‘O give thanks unto the God of all gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. / O thank the Lord of all lords: for his mercy endureth for ever’ (Psalms 136: 2–3).The poetry of the Bible is expressed not only in formal structure. There is much use of imagery, usually direct and simple in keeping with the concrete thought and limited lexical range of OT Hebrew. It reflects the life of a people close to the wilderness, exposed to extremes of climate, and the constant threat of enemies. NT Greek imagery, however, shows a more settled life of agriculture. Much of the linguistic power of the Bible lies in the archetypal nature of its imagery: fire and water, night and day, wind and sun. Similes and metaphors are common and animals and birds are frequent sources of analogy: ‘He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap’ (Malachi 3:2); ‘His truth shall be thy shield and buckler’ (Psalms 91: 4); ‘They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions’ (2 Samuel 1: 23).

Biblical prose

Much of the Bible is narrative and its style immediate, like unadorned speech:
OT. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not (Genesis 4).
NT. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him (Mark 1).The force of the stories lies not in embellishment or subtle plotting but in sequential events moving to a climax. They can be exciting and dynamic, often moving to a violent or tragic end like the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter or the death of Absalom, or to rescue by divine intervention like the story of Abraham and Isaac. There is little detail of characterization; people are described mainly in brief physical terms. The good and the bad, Moses, David, Jezebel, Elijah, Jonah, and the rest come to life as they are seen acting and responding to the consequences of action.

There are some more sophisticated compositions: the Book of Ruth is a compelling and well-knit novella, with a few interacting characters and the finale of a fruitful marriage after tribulation. The Book of Job has the qualities of epic drama as Job (with a background chorus of friends) wrestles with disaster and his changing attitude to God, who at the end intervenes like a classical deus ex machina. Even the historical books have tragic attributes: David is punished for his hubris in numbering the people; Samson wins great victories but a fatal weakness exposes him to the wiles of a false woman and the catastrophe of blindness and captivity, followed by triumph in death. The constant wars and feuds of the ancient world have the grim vigour of the heroic sagas.

The books of the NT were written with urgency and immediacy, to spread the good news (gospel) of recent events and in expectation of the end of the world. The parables of Jesus, based on a tradition of moral tales, contain many vignettes of contemporary life: the sower, the shepherd and his flock, the woman seeking a lost coin, the farmer hiring labourers. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are a genre without counterparts in the ancient world, written not so much as biography but to awake belief. Much of the NT is in the form of pastoral letters (the Epistles), written with conviction rather than in the forms of strict classical RHETORIC.

Literary and popular impact

In addition to its literary quality, the Bible has been an influence on ENGLISH LITERATURE and culture. Stories and characters from the Bible have been treated imaginatively by writers ranging from John Milton (Paradise Lost 1667, Paradise Regained 1671, Samson Agonistes 1671), to Christopher Smart (A Song to David 1763), Lord Byron (Cain 1821), and in the 20c James Bridie (Jonah and the Whale 1932) and Christopher Fry (A Sleep of Prisoners 1951). The style of the AV has influenced many, most noticeably John Bunyan's use of a Biblical style of narrative in The Pilgrim's Progress (1678–84). Swift praised the simplicity of Biblical English in A Proposal for Correcting the English Tongue (1712). The complex and eclectic style of Thomas Carlyle has the Bible as one of its strands. John Ruskin acknowledged the effect of frequent Bible reading in his early life and his prose sometimes echoes its more sonorous and stately passages. The language of hymnology has often been strongly biblical, especially in the compositions of John and Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts.

Because the Bible was for so long a part of the common cultural heritage of English-speaking people, ALLUSIONS and direct quotations are frequent in all literary genres. The speech of fictional characters includes many such references, often incidentally and naturally, but sometimes satirically exaggerated, as in Dickens's Bleak House (1853) and the Evangelical Cambridge group in Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh (1903).

Popular usage continues to incorporate biblical allusions such as coals of fire, a soft answer, a broken reed, the root of all evil, a word in season, the eleventh hour, a thorn in the flesh, cover a multitude of sins, the old Adam, riotous living. Page headings in the AV have contributed the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, the latter adopted in part by the helping organization, the Samaritans. Many English forenames are derived from the Bible: the continuingly popular John, Mary, Peter, James, Elizabeth, Thomas, David, and the less frequent or once fashionable Abraham, Isaac, Daniel, Rebecca, Enoch, Nathaniel, Martha. The less virtuous characters of the Bible, like Jezebel, Herod, and Judas, have not been adopted, but Thomas Hardy introduces a character christened Cain in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), because his mother got confused and thought that it was Abel who killed Cain.

Translation

Much of the literary quality of the Bible is lost in translation, even in the ‘biblical’ prose of the King James Version. English cannot reproduce the cadence of Hebrew poetry, such puns as the comparison of Peter to a rock (Greek Pétros/pétra), or the acrostic in the closing verses of Proverbs. However, in the 1611 version and other translations, writers have created a Bible tradition native to English, in which such themes as conflict and triumph, suffering and joy, can seize the imagination of readers with no knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, just as translation has served, in secular terms, to pass on through English the epics of Homer. The vigour and simplicity of OT Hebrew and NT Greek have to a great extent been successfully conveyed in biblical English, especially in narrative. Both often had a direct paratactic style, with strong, concrete images and vivid, physical metaphors. There is often repetitive and incremental emphasis, as in: ‘Hast thou not knowen? hast thou not heard, that the euerlasting God, the Lord, the Creatour of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is wearie?’ (Isaiah 40: 28), and balanced antithesis, as in: ‘The Lord will not suffer the soule of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. Hee becommeth poore that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich’ (Proverbs 10: 3–4).

Translators

The early translations were made at a time of change, as the language moved from its ‘Middle’ to its ‘Modern’ phases, when printing and standardizing were becoming central elements in the spread of literacy, and when religious protest then reformation inspired the translators. They preferred the vernacular to a high Latinate style, because they wished their work to reach, and be understood by, the mass of the people. In the view of the martyred 16c translator William TYNDALE, ordinary English was better suited to translate both Hebrew and Greek than Latin and German, because: ‘In a thousand places thou needest but to translate it into English word for word’ (in ‘Obedience of a Christian Man’, 1528). Like the originals, Tyndale's style was paratactic and immediate. His frequent use of ‘and’ (following the Hebrew) may have influenced later generations of writers of English prose (compare the AV rendering of Mark, on p. 70). The early translators also influenced general vocabulary: the common word nowadays goes back to WYCLIFFE, and Tyndale's use of beautiful rather than the earlier and commoner belle and fair helped establish the word. Peacemaker, long-suffering, and scapegoat are other examples of his inventiveness. The vocabulary of the AV is relatively small, some 6,000 words of which a high proportion are vernacular.

Quotation and allusion

For centuries, the Bible was read both aloud and silently, and people were used to hearing long excerpts from it in sermons and speeches. After the establishment of lectern Bibles in all churches in 1538 and then the publication of the AV in 1611, the Bible was so well known that even unattributed quotations and allusions were instantly recognized. When Sir Richard Grenville said, ‘Let me fall into the hand of God not the hand of Spain’ (1591), he was adapting David's words in 2 Samuel (24: 14). The style of the AV directly influenced many writers, most prominently John Bunyan in The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), which opens:
As I walked through the wilderness of this world I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a man clothed with rags standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.

The early translations

The translations of the Bible in the 15–17c have been a powerful influence on the development of English. The entire corpus of Modern English prose has grown up since, and been influenced by, the works of Tyndale and Coverdale, and during the formative period of the early translations there was little other widely available reading matter. Through private and public reading, the successive early translations introduced the general population to a range of genres, styles, and subjects distinct from song, folk-tale, and popular romance. The 16c Bible in particular provided a model of expression which was the chief written source of formal English for many people well into the 19c. There were translations of parts of the Bible in Anglo-Saxon times, associated with ALFRED and AELFRIC. Between the 11c and 13c, when Norman French was the dominant language and Latin the language of religious authority, translation into English lapsed, and though copies of earlier translations appear to have circulated, they have not survived. The translation into the 14c dialect of the East Midlands and London by John Wycliffe and such helpers as Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey was the first attempt to produce the complete Bible in English. It was hugely popular and widely circulated by itinerant bible-men, with manuscript copies of the NT selling for six months’ wages; one copy of a few chapters sold for a load of hay. This translation was also important in helping to fix the dialect used as standard and spread it through England. Wycliffe's Bible was more often heard and listened to than read privately, and so influenced both those who could and those who could not read. Despite its being proscribed with severe penalties, some 170 manuscripts have survived.

Sixteenth-century Bibles

Wycliffe's translation was from the Vulgate and was not printed until after it had been superseded by the translations of Tyndale and Coverdale. These were made under the influence of the ‘new learning’ from Greek and Hebrew; Coverdale's was the first published translation into English and both translations had to be printed abroad, being at first smuggled into England as ‘waste paper’. The first translation printed in England, in 1536, was a reprint of Tyndale's NT of 1534. Once Bible printing in England was legalized in 1537, publishing enterprise resulted in fresh editions such as Matthew's Bible (a synthesis of Tyndale and Coverdale with a commentary) and Taverner's Bible, a revised printed version of Matthew's.

The Great Bible of 1539 was the first officially authorized version, produced by a group headed by Coverdale and based on Matthew's. Largely printed abroad, where the technology was more advanced, this work went into seven editions in two years, because it was required in all churches and other versions were proscribed by law. The division of the Bible into chapters dates from the 13c, attributed both to Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1228), and Hugo de Sancto Caro, who produced a concordance of the Vulgate in 1244. OT verses were numbered in the early 16c in Hebrew and in Latin, and Robert Estienne numbered the verses in his French NT in 1551. The numbering of verses was adopted in the English NT of 1557, the work of refugees in Geneva who undertook the revision of the entire English Bible, culminating in the Geneva Bible of 1560, which had both chapter and verse numbered. This work was also known as the Breeches Bible, because it described Adam and Eve as sewing themselves breeches. It included marginal notes which commended it to the Puritans, who wished to study it without need of priestly interpretation.

The King James Bible

(also The Authorized Version; short forms KJB, AV). The popularity of the Geneva Bible prompted Archbishop Parker to revive a long-discussed project for an authorized revision approved by the English bishops. The Bishops' Bible was first published in 1568, a revision of Coverdale's Great Bible of 1539. One of the first acts of James VI King of Scots, on accession to the throne of England in 1603 as James I, was to approve a suggestion for a new translation, ‘as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek … and only to be used in all churches of England’. He apparently appointed 54 ‘learned men’ to work on the project, 50 of whom have been identified. They included scholars from Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster (prominent among them Lancelot Andrewes, John Hardinge, John Harmer, John Reynolds, Henry Saville, Miles Smith, and Robert Spalding), working in five committees which invited comment and observations from the clergy in general as the work progressed. The rules for the project included: (1) Following the 1572 edition of the Bishops' Bible so far as fidelity to the original sources would allow. (2) The division into chapters to be altered only where strictly necessary. (3) Where specially difficult passages occurred, consultation to follow with ‘any Learned Man in the Land, for his Judgement of such a place’ (Rules to be Observed in the Translation of the Bible). (4) Where a Hebrew or Greek word admitted of more than one possible meaning, one to be in the text, the other in the margin. (5) Any words that had to be inserted for colloquial reasons to be printed in italics. The new work appeared in 1611.

Bible publication

In England, the publishing rights of the AV are vested in the Crown and in practice limited to the printing house holding the royal appointment, together with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, whose privilege under their 16c charters allowed them to publish bibles. This exclusive right of printing the Bible had earlier come into being in the reign of Elizabeth I. Since 1769, the Royal Printers have been Eyre and Spottiswoode, in London. In Scotland, the Lord Advocate, representing the Crown, holds the patent and approves the choice of publishers, in practice the Glasgow publisher William Collins (now part of HarperCollins). In the US, no such restrictions have been placed on the publishing of the Bible; many publishers have brought out editions of the AV, amending it on their own initiative and responsibility.

Later translations

The publication of the AV, though intended to be definitive, did not put an end to Bible translation, especially by Protestant nonconformists and would-be popularizers: for example, John Wesley, founder of Methodism, who in 1755 published his own NT for ‘unlettered men who understand only their mother tongue’. Subsequent translations, from the Revised Version (1884) through to late 20c versions, have not had the aim of producing work in an improved literary style, but of claiming greater fidelity to the original Hebrew or Greek as understood by the most recent scholarship. Some of these claims have been contested and the translations have made no special impact on the language. The Revised Version was the result of over ten years' work by Protestant scholars in the UK and US, following a decision in the Church of England in 1870 to set up a group of its members to work with others, irrespective of nation or religious affiliation. The revised OT was based on virtually the same Hebrew text as the AV, but the NT translators worked on a considerably reconstructed Greek text (itself the subject of controversy) and adopted the plan (rejected by the 1611 translators) of always translating the same Greek word by the same English word, which it was claimed preserved the meaning more faithfully. This version was less well received than had been hoped.

The Presbyterian scholar James Moffat brought out a colloquial translation in 1913 and the Anglican priest J. B. Phillips produced a NT in contemporary English in 1958. By contrast, The New English Bible (1961), The Good News Bible (1976), and the New International Version (1978) were produced by panels of scholars, each with the aim of a Bible in the language of the present day. NEB resulted from an interdenominational conference initiated by the Church of Scotland and had the aim of aiding private study and scholarship rather than reading aloud. GNB was produced by William Collins and the United Bible Societies, based on the latter's simplified and colloquial versions originally aimed at the mission field, where users were mostly not speakers of English as a first language. NIV was intended to attract readers without prior religious commitment. All three followed the precedent of the RV in relying to an increasing extent on reconstructed or rediscovered texts unavailable to, or rejected by, the translators of the KJB.

Inclusive language

In the last two decades, efforts have been made to produce ‘non-sexist’ versions of the Bible in English, to meet the theological and social contention of feminists and others that male terms for the Deity are inadequate and inappropriate, for example Give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds (Psalm 105: 1), because they attribute maleness to a being believed to be above considerations of gender. The problems of reconciling fidelity to the original Hebrew and Greek with inclusive late 20c usage have proved considerable and controversial, relating not only to specific biblical texts but also to general assumptions in Christianity and other religions about the nature and naming of Divinity.

Conclusion

The existence of vernacular Bibles was important for the growth, enrichment, and even preservation of many of the languages of Europe, and the early translations into English were profoundly important for the development of the language. In English, both the established churches and nonconformists in 17–18c Britain, Ireland, and North America emphasized Bible study and reading aloud, and so encouraged a culture focused on the printed word. Bible translation in its most active stage coincided with both the development of printing and the need for STANDARD LANGUAGES in the nation-states of late medieval and Renaissance Europe. Because the Protestant nonconformists took the Bible (Geneva or AV) as their standard, it strongly influenced such writers as John Milton, George Fox, John Bunyan, and Richard Baxter, and through them later polemical and political writers in the UK, USA, and elsewhere. Its influence is also evident in the works of 19–20c writers as diverse as John Betjeman, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Sean O'Casey, Dylan Thomas, Mark Twain, Evelyn Waugh, and P. G. Wodehouse. At least three factors contributed to the vast influence of the Bible on English from the 16c to the 20c century: the 16–17c legal requirement that all should attend the parish church, later transmuted into a widely respected social custom; the use of the Bible in legally required school assemblies till well after the Second World War; and compulsory church parades in the armed services of the British Empire until the 1950s. These ensured that vast numbers of people for generation after generation were exposed to the English of the King James Bible as a living variety. It is to these factors, as much as to studies and use by scholars and writers, that the widespread survival of biblical usage and allusion can be attributed.

See AMERICAN ENGLISH, ARCHAISM, BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, CHAUCER, INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE, KRIO, LETTER 2, PROSE, PROVERB, PUN, RASTA TALK, SAXONISM, SHIBBOLETH.

WELL-KNOWN QUOTATIONS FROM THE KING JAMES BIBLE

The AV has been acclaimed as a landmark in both religious literature and the evolution of the English language, an achievement that comprises all earlier Bible translation and that has served for many as a standard against which all subsequent Bible translation must be judged. Many also consider that its verbal beauty is unsurpassed in the whole of English literature. It has provided many quotations and allusions which have become proverbial, and has been quoted, knowingly and unknowingly, in literature and in conversation at every level for centuries, from pubs to Parliament. Well-known quotations include:

Genesis.

And the evening and the morning were the first day; Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth; bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

Exodus.

Let my people go; the burning bush; the golden calf; Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

Ruth.

For whither thou goest I will go.

Job.

Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Proverbs.

Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

Ecclesiastes.

Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Isaiah.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

Jeremiah.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Matthew.

Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (quoting Isaiah).

Mark.

My name is Legion; Suffer the little children to come unto me.

Luke.

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; For the labourer is worthy of his hire.

John.

In the beginning was the Word; I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Paul

(I Corinthians). Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels; For now we see through a glass darkly.

Revelation.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.

THE STRATA OF BIBLICAL TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH

The following translations of the Gospel of Matthew (25: 14–15) show how language, style, and interpretation have changed over six centuries of translation from Greek into English.

1380.

Sothely as a man goynge fer in pilgrimage, clepide his seruauntis, and bitoke to hem his goodis; And to oon he ʒaue fyue talentis, forsothe to an other two, but to an other oon, to eche after his owne vertu; and went forth anoon. ( Wycliffe)

1526.

Lykewise as a certeyne man redy to take his iorney to a straunge countre, called hys seruantes to hym, and delyvered to them hys gooddes; And vnto won he gave v. talentes, to another ij, and to another one, to every man after his abilite; and streyght waye departed. ( Tyndale)

1611.

14 For the kingdome of heauen is as a man trauailing into a farre countrey, who called his owne seruants, and deliuered vnto them his goods. 15 And vnto one he gaue fiue talents, to another two, and to another one, to euery man according to his seuerall ability, & straightway tooke his iourney. ( King James)

1913.

For the case is that of a man going abroad, who summoned his servants and handed over his property to them; to one he gave twelve hundred pounds, to another five hundred, and to another two hundred and fifty; each got according to his capacity. Then the man went abroad. ( Moffat)

1941.

14. For it is as when a man, about to take a journey, got his servants together, and gave them his property. 15. And to one he gave five pounds, to another two, to another one; to everyone as he was able; and he went on his journey. (Basic English)

1983.

Or again, it is like this. A man at wis gaein out of the kintra ca's up his servans an haundit his haudin owre tae them tae gyde. He lippent ane wi five talents, anither wi twa, an a third wi ane—ilkane wi the soum confeirin til his capacitie. Syne he gaed his waas out o the kintra. ( William L. Lorimer, The New Testament in Scots)

1989.

¹⁴‘It is like a man going abroad, who called his servants and entrusted his capital to them; ¹⁵to one he gave five bags of gold, to another two, to another one, each according to his ability. Then he left the country.’ (The Revised English Bible)

1958.

It is just like a man going abroad who called his household servants together before he went and handed his property over to them to manage. He gave one five thousand pounds, another two thousand and another one thousand—according to their respective abilities. Then he went away. ( Phillips)

1970.

‘It is like a man going abroad, who called his servants and put his capital in their hands; to one he gave five bags of gold, to another two, to another one, each according to his capacity. Then he left the country.’ (New English Bible)

1982.

‘For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.’ (Reader's Digest Bible)