Oxford University Press, USA
Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language
Key Metrics
- David Crystal
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Hardcover
- 9780199585854
- 8.55 X 5.66 X 0.88 inches
- 1.14 pounds
- Language Arts & Disciplines > Linguistics - General
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
In Begat, best-selling language expert David Crystal offers a stimulating tour of the verbal richness and incredible reach of the King James Bible. How can a work published in 1611 have had such a lasting influence on the language? To answer this question, Crystal offers fascinating discussions of phrases such as The skin of one's teeth or Out of the mouth of babes, tracing how these memorable lines have found independent life in the work of poets, playwrights, novelists, politicians, and journalists, and how more recently they have been taken up with enthusiasm by advertisers, Hollywood, and hip-hop. He shows, for instance, how Let there be light has resurfaced as Let there be lite, the title of a diet cookbook, and Let there be flight, the title of an article about airport delays. Along the way, Crystal reminds us that the King James Bible owes much to earlier translations, notably those by Wycliffe in the fourteenth century and Tyndale in the sixteenth. But he also underscores crucial revisions made by King James's team of translators, contrasting the memorable Am I my brother's keeper with Wycliffe's Am I the keeper of my brother.
Language lovers and students of the Bible will be equally enthralled by Begat and its engaging look at the intersection of religion and literature.
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