William Gibson on the Bible in English: Its History And

David Daniell. The Bible in English: Its History and Influence. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003. xx + 899 pp. $40.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-300-09930-0. Reviewed by William Gibson Published on H-Albion (August, 2004) Since the year 2000 there has been a boom in cessible to all individuals and groups. Perhaps books about the English Bible and its history. Ben‐ mirroring the division of the Bible, Daniell's book son Bobrick, Alister McGrath, Brian Moynahan, is divided into two sections: "before printing" and Christopher de Hamel, Edwin Robertson, David "after printing." Price, and David Norton have written studies on The Anglo-Saxon Bibles, often used as a teach‐ the English Bible.[1] But David Daniell, formerly ing technique to enable students to gloss the Latin professor of English at University College London Bible into Anglo-Saxon, had a number of varia‐ and best known for his editions of Tyndale's Old tions, fragments of which have survived. Daniell and New Testaments as well as a biography of implies that an Anglo-Saxon regime would have Tyndale, has written a book on an altogether larg‐ been sympathetic to widespread translation of the er scale. The Bible in English is not a slice of the Bible, but Normans intervened. At best, after 1066 history of the Bible in the English Language, or of the idea of translation was set back, at worst there a particular translation or translator. Rather it was no longer an English into which to translate creates an astonishing chronicle from Aldred's the Bible. For three hundred years after 1066 the Old English translation to the plethora of transla‐ English Language was in fux. There were occa‐ tions in the twentieth century. This is a story on sional attempts at translation, as, for example, the an epic scale, and David Daniell does it justice. In Ormulum of the late-twelfth century. But it was his introduction Daniell establishes that the pur‐ only in the mid-fourteenth century that a number pose of his book is fourfold. First, to celebrate the of spluttering attempts gained momentum, with power and versatility of the English Language (or thirty surviving copies of Richard Rolle of Ham‐ more accurately "three Englishes," p. 12); secondly pole's translation. Quite why Daniell regards this to tell the story of the translation of the Bible in post-Conquest era as one of "Romance and Piety," the face of terrible barriers; thirdly to recognize as his chapter is named, remains opaque. the unique multiplicity of the English Bible and f‐ nally show the way in which the Bible became ac‐ H-Net Reviews If printing was the main watershed in the sto‐ the Saxon roots of English to breath life into his ry of the English Bible, a minor watershed was translation. This is why so much of his Bible and the late-fourteenth-century production of Lollard most of those that came later have short, almost Bibles. These emerged in surprising numbers, staccato sentences linked simply with "and." The over 250 survive, 20 from the 1380s alone. Though consequence of this is that 83 percent of the King ascribed to John Wyclif, it is unlikely that he James Version of the Bible is from Tyndale's 1534 translated any himself. But Wyclif was "the Morn‐ translation. The centrality of Tyndale's Bible is un‐ ing Star" of the Reformation, known across Eu‐ deniable: it was the inspiration for the Geneva rope for his radical views, and his followers were Bible as well as the King James Version, but it also committed to the translation of the Bible. Daniell attracted the licence of Henry VIII, so that seventy does not distinguish between the violent opposi‐ years before King James Version, and only months tion to Wyclif's ecclesiology and liturgical views after Tyndale's martyrdom, there was a Bible in and the suppression of the Biblical translations he English authorized by the King and circulated to inspired. One of the most interesting counter-fac‐ the parishes. tuals is whether an English Bible untainted by Daniell argues that Tyndale altered the topog‐ Wyclif's radical theology might have found more raphy of religion. But it was difficult terrain to favor. But this may be an anachronistic fancy, clamber through in the next ffty years. There since, as Daniell asserts, the translation of the were a host of competitors and emulators, who Bible lay at the heart of Lollardy. Either way, the found themselves on one side or the other of royal repression of the Lollards was sufficient to pre‐ policy during the switchbacks of Henry VIII's, Ed‐ vent William Caxton, a thoroughly entrepreneur‐ ward VI's, Mary I's, and Elizabeth's reigns. ial printer, from attempting an English Bible. Of Coverdale's Bible of 1535, the Great Bible of 1539, course the Bible had been translated into German the Geneva Bible of 1560, the Bishops Bible of and Dutch, and printed in Greek before the Refor‐ 1568, and the Rheims New Testament of 1582 all mation. owed a debt to Tyndale. These Bibles coincided For Daniell the English Bible was central to with the emergence of English as a developed and the Reformation, and whilst some Reformation sophisticated language, which was replacing Latin scholars marginalize the translation of the Bible, in formal documents. While Tyndale's plain style Daniell suggests it was a cause as much as an ef‐ remained the weft and waft of these translations, fect of the Reformation. Understandably for a bi‐ the texture was gradually refined. The language, ographer of Tyndale, Daniell regards his transla‐ further refined by the Elizabethan literary renais‐ tions as the definitive Bible in English. Sir Thomas sance of Spence and Shakespeare, reached it More might have regarded Tyndale as "a hell- zenith in the translation of King James's Bible, or-- hound in the kennel of the devil," but, for Daniell, as it is known in England--the Authorized Version. Tyndale's decision to pitch his translation just It was perhaps the only successful book written above the register of common speech enabled by a committee, or six of them in fact. Unlike him to speak directly to the hearts of the common some writers, Daniell is not sentimental about the folk. Among a plethora of phrases and sayings King James Version (KJV). Equally he acknowl‐ that remain in everyday English are "give us this edges its command of England language and cul‐ day our daily bread." Tyndale's knowledge of ture for the next four hundred years. Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and other languages gave From 1611 Daniell's focus shifts from transla‐ him a precise insight into the translator's art, but tion and language to the Bible's impact on litera‐ his piety made him seek meaning over consisten‐ ture and culture. Daniell shows the intimate con‐ cy. Daniell argues that Tyndale reached back into 2 H-Net Reviews nection between the KJV and, among others, Mil‐ Characterizing Daniell's book is difficult; it is ton, Bunyan, and Dryden. He also explores the va‐ in equal parts a work of theology, history, litera‐ riety of the forms of the Bibles, from the Round‐ ture, economics, sociology, typology, and cultural head's pocket bible to the great bibles that can studies. In this sense it transcends a single disci‐ best be described as furniture in the eighteenth pline and elevates the Bible in English into a cul‐ century. In eighteenth-century England the Bible tural artefact that can be viewed from a wide was both a redoubt around which Anglicans re- range of viewpoints. Inevitably in such an epic grouped to oppose Deism and Catholicism and a work, conceived on such a large canvass, there taproot of profoundly English culture in the form are aspects of the interpretation with which spe‐ of, among others, Handel and Pope. In America cialists in the separate disciplines and eras will the KJV, though an example of Erastianism explic‐ take issue. This reviewer found Daniell's view of itly rejected in the separation of Church and State, the Church of England in the "long eighteenth stimulated the "Great Awakening." In both Eng‐ century" as over-reliant on a relatively traditional land and America "AV-ology" (the veneration of historical view. But this does not blemish Daniell's the Authorised Version or KJV) did not prevent a work. Moreover throughout this volume, all 899 torrent of translations. This "Bible Flood" pages, Daniell's authorial voice is heard. But this achieved little in Daniell's view, other than tinker‐ is not a criticism. Daniell uses his vast knowledge ing with the KJV. of Biblical scholarship, literature, and history to Daniell also identifies the English Bible as the correct errors and to respond to other scholars. touchstone of Victorian culture in both England The effect is of a descant of scholarly dialogue in and America. Its presence in almost every home the margins of the book. But in all cases Daniell and school, its influence on literature and its in‐ connects this to the central narrative of the Bible spiration for phenomena as varied as abstinence, in English. pre-Raphaelite art and poetry. In America it was The size of this book will make it less "popu‐ also quoted by both sides in the slavery debate lar" than Bobrick's or McGrath's books. Neverthe‐ and remained so throughout the Civil War. Never‐ less it is an altogether more broadly-conceived theless in 1881 a Revised Version of the Bible was work, and one that will be of interest to a wide produced in London which enjoyed huge sales range of scholars and readers.

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