"English Was Good Enough for Jesus"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:55:15 -0500, Douglas Wilson <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

>>> As for the "Jesus" version, here's a Newspaperarchive cite from 1927:
>>>
>>>     Chronicle Telegram (Elyria,  Ohio), April 27, 1927
>>
>> The Chronicle Telegram articles on Newspaperarchive are badly misdated,
>> and I assume this one is misdated.
>
>Apparently this one is dated correctly.

Indeed it is.

I also found some "St. Paul" variants predating Barry's 1905 find, all
referring to the King James Bible:

---------
PREACHING ON THE BIBLE; PULPIT OPINIONS OF THE NEW VERSION.
New York Times, May 23, 1881. p. 8
The Rev. Dr. Pentecost ... illustrated the tenacity with which people
cling to the old Bible by telling a story about an agent of a Bible
society who was trying to collect money in a country church for a new
translation of the Bible.  The agent asked an old farmer in the
congregation to contribute.  "What's the matter with the good old King
James version?" the farmer replied. "That was good enough for St. Paul,
and it's good enough for me."
---------
"The New Covenant" and its Critics.
J W Hanson. The Universalist Quarterly and General Review.
Boston: Oct 1884. Vol. 21; p. 465
Prof. Schaff pertinently observes: There are many lineal descendants of
those priests, who, in the reign of Henry VIII, preferred their
old-fashioned Mumpsimus Domine to the new-fangled Sumpsimus; even in the
enlightened State of Massachusetts, a pious deacon is reported to have
opposed the Revision of 1881 with the conclusive argument, "If St. James's
Version was good enough for St. Paul, it is good enough for me!"
[Apparently quoting Philip Schaff's _Companion to the Greek Testament and
the English Version_ (1883).]
---------
Nebraska State Journal, June 16, 1901, p. 12
"The Sketch," of London, says: "A new book on the history of the English
Bible has a good story of a certain sprightly young deacon who, in
preaching against the advocates of the revised version, startled his
hearers by the contention that, if the authorized version was good enough
for St. Paul, it was good enough for him!"
[Story also appears in: Davenport Daily Republican, February 27, 1902.]
---------


--Ben Zimmer