THE ENGLISH OF THE BIBLE

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1271, 28 October 1911, Page 9

THE ENGLISH OF THE BIBLE

In tiiscussiny tho English of the Bible, the Lentla* "Sy*etet»r says:—Tho stylo of "t!i« msTalest example of the English tsngue" will bear analysis as it-s subject-la-atter has Iwrce criticism. It is a lamentable fact that we do not possess, as the Greeks possessed, any scientific 'treatise on the dynamics of our own tongue. The completion of the Oxford Died Mary Biay facilitate the inception of such astudy by digesting tho necessary materials. As it is, wo know more of the wsechanisM of Latin than of English prose. As for the proso of the Bible, even its more dominant elements are difficult to isolate. They are as much psychological as linguistic elements not only of tuo English tongue, but of the English spirit. Of the proso of the liible it may indeed bo said, "Le> style c'est.lo peuple." For instance, thero is the adaptation, not only in expression, but in substance. iNo doubt there are few ideas which are absolutely identical in twe languages. Asuing those few would bo classed tho concepts of mathematics.

Yet wo cannot be quite sure, even about •those, for, while to* an Englishman a tfivea arithmetical idea presents itself in a numerical form and with a numerical content, to an ancient Creek it was geometrical, his unit of number being a lino and his concept oi multiplication a rectangle. It might scorn inevitable that in a translation from the Hebrew the essence of the ideas at least would remain Hebraic. But there arc good grounds (among them being the influence of the Bible upon the English people) for believing that this is not tho case.

After citing a number of passages, tha article says: Clearly the passages cited haphazard out of hundreds of thousands like them bear a special stamp. When we consider them, we find that they have a particular appeal to tho oar. And, in fact, wc may take it thai tho first and most prominent eharactwKic is a special rhythm. It is of a simple type, but, ax the least itudy will show, it is handled with extraordinary art. It is neither too fluent nor too flow, but it is both smooth and weighiy. It is carefully balanced iu tils complementary members of a sentence, yet it never degenerates into metro. Tho '•'l'ltythif of many English writers (ends to be either dissipated among polysyllables or emphasised to monolouy, iambic as iu Blackmore, hoxnmetrio as in Ruskin. But the rhythm of the Bible, though built of the same elements as tho verso of Shakespeare end Milton, is specifically a proso, not a verse, rhythm. Tho perfection of its technique is infallible; the type is enly deserted when, if we may so put it, tho inspired words are forced to accommodate themselves, as occasionally is inevitable, to tho more commonplace details pi a narrative. This rhythm, wo submit, is unique in English literature, and to it our Bible owes the greater part of its literary appeal.

A second characteristic is the dividing or doubling of a thought. The Psalms supply tho most familiar cxamole. Here, it must be admitted, we liavo to do with a specific quality of Hebrew poetry, though "parallelism" is inherent in all verbal expression. It is too familiar to quoto specimens, but how well it is adapted to the sentence-rhythm! A comparison of the A.V. version of the Psalms and the Prayer Book versiou is interesting in this connection. For it is a curious fact that tho A.V. Psalter shows the characteristics of rhythm and of parallelism in their least perfect form, while tho Prayer Book version shows them at their best. There is no doubt that the latter version is entirely the work of Coverdalo. In it ho surpassed himself. Among minor qualities are the tendency to the use of weighty monosyllables and the almost entire absence of abstract ideas. It may be said that everv idea, every concept, every imago, is both concrete and vitahstic, a living organism. Even a phrase liko "out of it arc the issues of life _ is no exception, for tho older sen<-<i of "issue" is frankly Again, as in all great stylo, there is "the inevitable word. The transmutations undergone bv tho Scriptures in I heir passage from Hebrew and Green: to English were various. Coverdale speaks of translating "out of Douch [Gorman] and La.'yn into Englishes," and also "out of fyve sundry interpreters." Of a perfect translation it'may be said without paradox that its final'merit is faithfulness, not (o the original, but to the copy. Tho result in this instance is the greatest organic monument both of English genius and of English speech. "