10MODERN TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLEI TIS POSSIBLE THAT THE READER WHO OPENS THIS VOLUME' on the counter of abookshop may
10
MODERN TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE
I T IS POSSIBLE THAT THE READER WHO OPENS THIS VOLUME'
In the second place, the Authorised Version has ceased to be a good (that is, a clear) translation. It is no longer modern English: the meanings of words have changed. The same antique glamour which has made it (in the superficial sense) so `beautiful', so `sacred', so `comforting', and so `inspiring', has also made it in many places unintelligible. Thus where St Paul says `I know nothing against myself,' it translates `I know nothing by myself.'''
And finally, though it may seem a sour paradox - we must sometimes get away from the Authorised Version, if for no other reason, simply because it is so beautiful and so solemn. Beauty exalts, but beauty also lulls. Early associations endear but they also confuse. Through that beautiful solemnity the transporting or horrifying realities of which the Book tells may come to us blunted and disarmed and we may only sigh with tranquil veneration when we ought to be burning with shame or struck dumb with terror or carried out of ourselves by ravishing hopes and adorations. Does the word 'scourged'3
really come home to us like `flogged'? Does `mocked him'4
We ought therefore to welcome all new translations (when they are made by sound scholars) and most certainly those who are approaching the Bible for the first time will be wise not to begin with the Authorised Version - except perhaps for the historical books of the Old Testament where its archaisms suit the saga-like material well enough. Among modern translations those of Dr Moffatt, and Monsignor Knox';