A History of the Bible as Literature

by David Norton

• ISBN13: 9780521617000
• ISBN10: 0521617006
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

It is regarded as a truism that the King James Bible is one of the finest pieces of English prose. Yet few people are aware that the King James Bible was generally scorned or ignored as English writing for a century and a half after its publication. The reputation of this Bible is the central, most fascinating, element in a larger history, that of literary ideas of the Bible as they have come into and developed in English culture; and the first volume of David Norton's magisterial two-volume work surveys and analyses a comprehensive range of these ideas from biblical times to the end of the seventeenth century, providing a unique view of the Bible and translation.

Table of Contents

List of plates	xii
Preface	xiii
List of abbreviations	xvii
`This treasure in earthen vessels'	1	(15)
Bible and text	1	(3)
Augustine's first reading of the Bible	4	(1)
The legend of the Septuagint	5	(4)
The Bible	9	(7)
The early Christians and biblical eloquence	16	(14)
Athens and Jerusalem: opposition	16	(7)
Athens and Jerusalem: reconciliation	23	(7)
Jerome	30	(11)
The Old Latin Bible	30	(1)
Christian or Ciceronian?	31	(2)
Jerome and ideas of translation	33	(4)
Jerome and Hebrew poetics	37	(4)
Augustine and his successors	41	(12)
Augustine: divine inspiration and eloquence	41	(7)
Cassiodorus, Aldhelm and Bede	48	(5)
The occult text	53	(9)
Lore and text	53	(1)
Allegory: Plato, Heraclitus and Homer	54	(3)
Non-literal reading of the Bible	57	(5)
The challenge to the translators	62	(15)
The inferior language	62	(3)
Religion versus literature	65	(8)
The challenge to the translators	73	(4)
Slaves of the Vulgate	77	(8)
Richard Rolle	77	(1)
The Wyclif Bible	78	(7)
Creators of English	85	(29)
William Tyndale	85	(19)
John Cheke and the inkhorn	104	(3)
Myles Coverdale	107	(7)
From the Great Bible to the Rheims-Douai Bible	114	(25)
Official Bibles	114	(5)
Opposing camps	119	(16)
Does the verbal form matter?	135	(4)
The King James Bible	139	(23)
The excluded scholar: Hugh Broughton	139	(5)
Rules to meet the challenge	144	(3)
The preface	147	(7)
Bois's notes	154	(4)
Conclusion	158	(1)
Epilogue: Broughton's last word	159	(3)
Presentations of the text, 1525--1625	162	(15)
Sixteenth-century movements towards literary praise and appreciation of the Bible	177	(33)
Verse translations	177	(11)
Ideas of biblical poetry	188	(5)
The eloquent Bible	193	(12)
The Bible `disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled'	205	(5)
The struggle for acceptance	210	(27)
The defeat of the Geneva Bible	210	(5)
The failure of revision	215	(10)
Quoting the good book	225	(4)
The literary reception	229	(8)
`The eloquentest books in the world'	237	(37)
Divine inspiration	237	(5)
John Donne	242	(3)
Conquering the classics	245	(4)
Conflict over the Bible as a model for style	249	(13)
Denying eloquence and inspiration	262	(12)
Versifying the Psalms	274	(17)
George Wither and the Psalter	274	(10)
George Sandys and friends	284	(2)
`Fidelity rather than poetry'	286	(3)
Verse epitomes of the Bible	289	(2)
`The best materials in the world for poesy'	291	(22)
George Herbert	291	(3)
Abraham Cowley	294	(3)
John Milton	297	(10)
John Bunyan	307	(6)
Appendix	313	(36)
Matthew 4: 18--25. The Vulgate, the Wyclif Bible and Sir John Cheke	314	(3)
Genesis 29: 1--30. Tyndale and the KJB	317	(3)
Matthew 7. Tyndale and the KJB	320	(3)
John 6: 41--66. Tyndale, More, Rheims and the KJB	323	(5)
Isaiah 60. (Tyndale), Coverdale, Geneva, Bishops' and the KJB	328	(6)
Song of Solomon 2:1--4, 10--14. Tyndale, Coverdale and the KJB	334	(3)
Daniel 5: 1--17; 24--31. Coverdale, Geneva, Bishops', Broughton and the KJB	337	(5)
Psalm 127 in prose, verse and poetry	342	(7)
Bibliography	349	(6)
General index	355	(9)
Biblical index	364