"What do the following have in common?
Let there be light - Whited sepulchres - A rod of iron - New wine into old bottles
Lick the dust - How are the mighty fallen - A thorn in the flesh - Wheels within wheelsThey're all in the King James Bible. This astonishing book has 'contributed far more to English in the way of idiomatic or quasi-proverbial expressions than any other literary source.' wrote David Crystal in 2004. In Begat he returns to the subject: he asks how a work published in 1611 could have had such an influence on the language and looks closely at what that influence has been. He comes to some surprising conclusions. No other version of the Bible however popular (such as the Good News Bible) or imposed upon the church (like the New English Bible) has had anything like the same impact. David Crystal shows how its words and phrases got independent life in the work of poets, playwrights, novelists, and politicians, and how more recently they have been taken up by journalists, advertisers, Hollywood, and hip-hop. He reveals the great debt the King James Bible owes to its English forebears, especially John Wycliffe's in the fourteenth century and William Tyndale's in the sixteenth. He also shows that the revisions and changes made by King James's translators were crucial to its universal success. ""A person who professes to be a critic in the delicacies of the English language ought to have the Bible at his finger's ends,"" Lord Macaulay advised Lady Holland in 1831. David Crystal shows how true this is. His book is a revelation."
By:
David Crystal (University of Wales Bangor)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 209mm,
Width: 131mm,
Spine: 21mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780199695188
ISBN 10: 0199695180
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 30 August 2011
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Prologue 1 Prologue 2 1: In the beginning 2: Let there be light 3: Be fruitful and multiply 4: My brother's keeper? 5: Two by two 6: A coat of many colours 7: Fire and brimstone 8: Begat 9: Thou shalt not 10: Manna, milk, and honey 11: Eyes, teeth, and loins 12: What hath been wrought 13: Bread alone 14: How are the mighty fallen! 15: The skin of one's teeth 16: Out of the mouths of babes 17: Pride goes before a fall 18: Nothing new under the sun 19: Fly in the ointment 20: No peace for the wicked 21: Be horribly afraid Interlude 22: Seeing the light 23: Eyes, ears, cheeks 24: Speaking, shouting, wailing, writing 25: Shaking, turning, moving 26: Many and few, first and last 27: Fights, foes, fools, friends 28: Praising famous men 29: Sheep, goats, swine 30: Money, wages, pearls, mites 31: Blessed are the servants 32: Heal thyself 33: Times and seasons 34: Birth, life, and death 35: Countries, kingdoms, Armageddon 36: Building houses, mansions, sepulchres 37: Millstones, crosses, yokes, pricks 38: Sowing seeds 39: Salt and wine 40: The law, judges, thieves, swords 41: Love and charity 42: Peace and patience, wrath, whore Epilogue Appendixes Indexes
Reviews for Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language
a book which has insights and delights on every page. * David Norton, Scottish Journal of Theology * illuminating * The Independent *
