Bible's Influence on English

[Grant Barrett]

An interesting review of two new books in today's New York Times concerned with the
impact of mass-produced, vernacular Bibles and their impact on language and politics.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/08/reviews/010408.08winchet.html

"The biblical impact on the language is the easier of the two cases to make and to
observe, as McGrath demonstrates with an admirable clarity. So many modern idioms have
biblical and most cases Hebrew origins -- ''sour grapes,'' ''for ever and ever,''
''a broken reed,'' ''the land of the living,'' ''like a lamb to the slaughter'' -- that
one might even accuse the Good Book of helping swell the merry band of modern
English clichés. It seems fairly well established too that not a few words now in common
use were created specifically for the Bible: ''nowadays'' was Wycliffe's, ''beautiful''
comes essentially first from Tyndale (replacing the hitherto popular ''belle'' and
''faire''), while ''scapegoat,'' ''long-suffering'' and ''peacemaker'' each first
appeared in biblical translations too."


--
Grant Barrett
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