Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants: The Role Of Earlier English Translations
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: THE ROLE OF EARLIER ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
It is impossible to overlook the fact that the King James translators did not begin to translate with blank sheets of paper in front of them. They stood in a long line of translators, and were conscious that their task would be influenced considerably—perhaps more than they cared to admit—by the English translations already in circulation. The fifteen rules by which their translation would be governed specifically directed them to base themselves on earlier versions, especially the Bishops' Bible, but also taking into account others. Thus the fourteenth rule specified that: “These translations to be used when they agree better with the Text than the Bishops' Bible: Tindoll's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's, Geneva.” In that each successive translation drew upon those that preceded it, the earliest of the translations—that of William Tyndale—can thus be seen to have had a considerable effect on its successors. Alterations to translations were generally made only on the basis of increased accuracy—for example, through advances in philology.
Lying behind this is an attitude toward wisdom that has largely been lost in the modern period. Writers of the Renaissance were conscious of standing within a stream of cultural and intellectual achievement, from which they benefited and to which they were called to contribute. The wisdom of the past was to be appropriated in the present. One of the images most frequently used to illustrate this understanding of the human cultural endeavor was that of “standing on the shoulders of giants.” The image is set out particularly clearly in the twelfth-century writer John of Salisbury, who once commented:
We are like dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.
The “Englishing” of the Bible was thus understood to be a corporate effort, in which the achievements of earlier generations could be valued and used by their successors. As the preface “The Translators to the Reader” sets out this point:
Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one, (for then the imputation of Sixtus had been true in some sort, that our people had been fed with gall of Dragons instead of wine, with whey instead of milk:) but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against; that hath been our endeavor, that our mark. To that purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other men's eyes than in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise. Again, they came or were thought to come to the work, not exercendi causa (as one saith) but exercitati, that is, learned, not to learn.
The King James translators saw themselves as standing on the shoulders of giants, those who had translated before them and blazed a trail that they were proud to follow. Certainly alterations had to be made—but the King James translators believed that their predecessors would have approved of those alterations, as they were based on principles (such as a better understanding of Hebrew) that would have led to the same general outcome had these been available earlier.
The King James Bible is, therefore, not to be dismissed as a mere tinkering with earlier versions—the verdict of our modern era, in which originality and novelty often seem to be prized above all other virtues. The King James Bible is an outstanding example and embodiment of the ideals of its own period, by which it must be judged. It is to be seen in the light of the Renaissance approach to human wisdom, in which one generation is nourished and sustained by the intellectual achievements of its predecessors. Each era draws on the wisdom of the past, and builds upon it, before handing a greater wisdom on to its successors. The King James Bible can be seen as one of the most outstanding representatives of this corporate approach to cultural advance and the enterprise of gaining wisdom.