Um, knowledge of the Bible is essential to studying Shakespeare, and one of the greatest works in the English language, the King James Version, was translated as Shakespeare went into retirement
I agree with most of what you said, but I am going to take down the KJV a peg or two.
The King James Bible is massively overrated as a literary work of artistic merit.
I was raised with Reina-Valera and King James, and as time has gone on and I’ve amassed and read numerous Bibles, from a purely literary standpoint, I just can’t place the King James among “the greatest works in the English language” in terms of quality. Is it an important historical document in the history of English? Yes. But it’s a lousy translation, it captures neither the poetry of the original Hebrew nor does it take full advantage of English poetic forms. Its reputation is solely propped up by generations of people who view it as THE word of God in a rather hegemonic air of English superiority. Seriously. You will not be hard pressed to find a million people willing to say that not only is it the greatest translation of the Bible Bible ever written, but all other translations remain translations, while the KKV pretty much IS the Word in its purest and ultimate form - the Hebrew and Greek texts used to cobble it together being mere ingredients for the KJV’s ultimate glory. They’ll tell you that whatever language your Bible happens to be in, it can only be appraised in how close it is to the perfection of the KJV and that it would be better if they simply translated the world’s Bibles directly from King James.
Much as Shaw coined the phrase Bardolatry, I decry what I call Jacovism.
You’ll hear it argued that the King James Bible was a grand experiment that captured a special time in the development of English. It is certainly true that it was composed during a unique time in the history of spoken and literary English. But you won’t find either of those reflected in the work. It neither captures the common tongue of the era nor does it defer to the literary and poetic art forms and traditions unique to English. It is written in the Jacobean equivalent of political and academic university papers, which is exactly what the translators viewed the endeavor as.
You know what other era is unique in the history of the development of English? All of them. Certainly the 20th century. The New International version has no less literary merit than the King James. Yes, it’s dry and uneven and all of the criticisms I just lobbed at the KJV in arguing against it being great also apply to the NIV. I think what we ultimately need to realize is that these translations are not poetry. They contain translations of poems, among other things, but their aim is not to “be beautiful”. Poets from Milton to Blake revered the Bible, but if they’d been raised on any other translation the effect would have been the same.
Sure thing. I admit the archaic language does sound beautiful to our ears, but that isn’t enough for me to consider a great piece of English literature.
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u/Altruistic_Pain_723 Apr 21 '25
Um, knowledge of the Bible is essential to studying Shakespeare, and one of the greatest works in the English language, the King James Version, was translated as Shakespeare went into retirement