"What do the following have in common?
Let there be light - A fly in the ointment - A rod of iron - New wine in old bottlesLick the dust - How are the mighty fallen - Kick against the pricks - Wheels within wheelsThey are 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."" So wrote David Crystal in 2004. In Begat
he returns to the subject not only to consider how a work published in 1611 could have had such influence on the language, but how it can still do so when few regularly hear the Bible and fewer still hear it in the language of Stuart England.
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 influence. David Crystal shows how its words and phrases have over the centuries found independent life in the work of poets, playwrights, novelists, politicians, and journalists, and how more recently they have been taken up with enthusiasm by advertisers, Hollywood, and hip-hop. Yet the King James Bible owes much to earlier English versions, notably those by John Wycliffe in in the fourteenth century and William Tyndale in the sixteenth. David Crystal reveals how much that is memorable in the King James Bible stems from its forebears. At the same time he shows how crucial were the revisions made by King James's team of translators and editors. ""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. Begat shows how true that remains. It will be a revelation to all who read it."
By:
David Crystal (University of Wales Bangor)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 141mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780199585854
ISBN 10: 0199585857
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 December 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
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
Wonderful book. The Guardian Entertaining. Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph
