Outlines of English and American Literature The King James Bible byLong, William J.
The finest example of the prose of the Elizabethan period is the King James or
Authorized Version of the Bible, which appeared in 1611. This translation
was so much influenced by the earlier work of Wyclif, Tyndale, and many
others, that its style cannot properly be called Elizabethan or Jacobean;
it is rather an epitome of English at its best in the two centuries between
Chaucer and Shakespeare. The forty-seven scholars who prepared this
translation aimed at a faithful rendering of the Book which, aside from its
spiritual teaching, contains some of the noblest examples of style in the
whole range of human literature: the elemental simplicity of the Books of
Moses, the glowing poetry of Job and the Psalms, the sublime imagery of
Isaiah, the exquisite tenderness of the Parables, the forged and tempered
argument of the Epistles, the gorgeous coloring of the Apocalypse. All
these elements entered in some degree into the translation of 1611, and the
result was a work of such beauty, strength and simplicity that it remained
a standard of English prose for more than three centuries. It has not only
been a model for our best writers; it has pervaded all the minor literature
of the nation, and profoundly influenced the thought and the expression of
the whole English-speaking world.
