The impact of the King James Bible,
which was published 400 years ago, is still being felt in the way we speak and
write, says Stephen Tomkins.
No other book, or indeed any piece of culture, seems to have influenced the English language as much as the King James Bible. Its turns of phrase have permeated the everyday language of English speakers, whether or not they've ever opened a copy.
"Refused to give up the ghost", "the salt of the earth". "You can't put words in my mouth, "a law unto herself".
There are thousands of phrases from the King James Bible in our language,
Dickens called the New Testament "the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world."
Alister McGrath, professor of theology, ministry and education at King's College, London, is the author of In the Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and how it changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture.
The whole point of being a dramatist is to be original in your language. The Bible translators, in contrast, were under strict instructions not to be innovative but to look backwards to what earlier translators had done." Earlier translators whose only concern was to translate the Bible literally.
So paradoxically it seems that the profound influence of the King James Bible in changing and shaping our language came through the desire to be as linguistically conservative as possible.
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