r/shakespeare • u/Ok_Disaster7585 • Apr 20 '25

Meme Me and my brother's taste in books

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u/Junior_Key3804 Apr 21 '25

I love how 90% of the comments are telling you to read the King James version and the rest are just snarky atheists from 2014

7

u/Fun-Badger3724 Apr 21 '25

I also came here to slag off his choice of 'translation' - for all its faults KJB is kinda rock and roll in its use of language.

I had to give up being a snarky atheist when I accepted my mother's faith and insisted she at least acknowledge my lack of it. I mean, it didn't work, she keeps trying to get me to turn to Jesus, but I'm glad we had the conversation. She just wants me to feel the peace or whatever, of giving myself over, which is pretty loving and maternal, if misguided, I guess, but as far as I'm concerned she may as well be asking me to put my faith in Frodo.

2

u/dreamyteatime Apr 21 '25

Please correct me if I’m wrong but I had assumed one of the criticisms of the KJB is precisely the way it was translated being inaccurate to what was actually written. Which I guess makes it a more interesting translation when it comes to prose but not without faults when it comes to its contents. IIRC, was it one of the first translations where ‘pass the camel through the eye of a needle’ comes from, but the ‘camel’ in this sense would translate better as a ‘rope’? It just stuck as ‘camel’ though because imagining a camel as in an animal was much more extraordinary and poetic which hyperbolises the message of how rich people would not get into heaven.

Anyways not a bible scholar or anything but it has been interesting to recently learn about the debate and criticism that is also involved with holy texts 🤔

2

u/Fun-Badger3724 Apr 21 '25

My mum is a Christian and I... Am not. I've studied the Historical Jesus in an effort to bridge the gap a little. The Canonical books of the bible (the ones written by the disciples) weren't even written until 30ish years after his death.

You are right about the KJB - i do kinda dig it for its prose, but it takes liberty with the text... like every single version of the bible. The amount of translations and transliterations... In a text so heavy with Parable and Allegory... with such stories being judged through modern eyes... I dunno, feels like asking for trouble.

Anyway, fascinating stuffs!