The Bible in English: Its History and Influence Review

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The Bible in English: Its History and Influence ReviewIs it possible to recommend a book of almost a 1,000 pages? Can it be worthwhile to buy a book that long? Should anyone really read the whole thing?
Yes, yes, and no. I strongly recommend this book, because it literally contains revolutionary new information about the development of the English language, and about perhaps the greatest period of literary creativity in the history of English--roughly 1550 to 1650. David Daniell, a Shakespeare scholar by training, persuasively demonstrates how William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek into brilliantly vivid English, and half the Old Testament from Hebrew (all he could complete before he was strangled and burned at the stake), triggered a great burst of literary creativity (and political revolution) in England. Note that Tyndale was killed in 1536, a generation before Shakespeare's birth in 1564. During that period, Tyndale's translation was smuggled into England and provided the language, images and ideas for the brilliant generation of literary geniuses in the latter sixteenth century. In short, modern English was invented by the two Williams, Shakespeare and Tyndale. 99.9% of all educated people only understand the importance of Shakespeare--and he was actually the second William.
I've read Christopher de Hamel's "The Book: A History of the Bible", Benson Bobrick's "Wide as the Waters", and Alister McGrath's "In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Version". None of these books tell so clearly the story that Daniell has to tell. Daniell solves the old mystery of how a committee could produce such an excellent result as the KJV: by essentially plagiarising Tyndale. 90% of the KJV is taken from Tyndale's translations of the same passages. Daniell is a gifted reader of English prose and poetry, and he vividly evokes the importance of the many inter-relationships between Tyndale and the other translators of the Bible into English. Daniell has a fine ear and is a graceful and vivid writer about language's meanings and beauties.
The bottom line is that we should all get the 1599 Geneva Bible available in a reprint version. I've always known that the 1611 KJV couldn't have influenced Shakespeare, but after reading "The Bible in English", I became convinced that in order to understand my favourite 16th and 17th century writers, I have to get the Geneva Bible (essentially the Tyndale translation, with notes, upgraded with the best Greek and Hebrew scholarship available in the generation after Tyndale's execution). This is the book that is the hidden root of the best literature in English.
Of course, like all revolutions, this book is unfair to its enemies. The Catholic position is repeatedly parodied by Daniell. This discussion of key figures like Reginald Pole and Stephen Gardiner is two-dimensional, and ignores the powerful impact on the Catholic Church of the scriptures (exemplified in figures like Pole, a convinced Catholic who was immersed in the Bible). Peter Donaldson's book "Machiavelli and the Mystery of State" is a required antidote to Daniell's distortions about Tudor Catholics.
And it seems clear that Daniell has no really interest in events outside the period that clearly fascinates him, from the birth of Tyndale in approx. 1494 to 1611, when the KJV was published, which Daniell convincingly demonstrates was a victory of the good over the best. This is the superb heart of the book, extending from the forward to page 460.
After this period, there are some interesting passages in the book, which emerge startling out of the stereotypes and shallow scholarship, such as his discussion of Bunyan, and his funny little thesis about the relationship between the composer Handel and Alexander Pope. There is a bizarre, long section about Blake which has no place in this book. And the chapters on America are worthless. Daniell seems to get his understanding of contemporary America from TV, and historically his discussions of Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and their times are innocent of any knowledge of the relevant scholarship. Daniell's views on America and Americans are literally not worth reading.
But in the context of his great theme, I consider these flaws minor, even if they repeatedly mar the last 1/3 of the book. The first 460 pages of this book are magnificent and wonderful. I'd pay ten times the price of this book to learn what is in the first half of the book, and I'm grateful to David Daniell for teaching me what he knows about Tyndale and the Geneva Bible. He has revolutionised my understanding of English literature.The Bible in English: Its History and Influence Overview

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