The Old Testaments of Love

John Donne's passionate and ardent nature found consolation in religion by the end of his life. He sought inspiration in the world of God, and he received that inspiration. If you come to think of it, the Bible does not speak about Love of Our Lord alone; some chapters in it are perhaps the greatest love stories ever written; but there is a growing tendency today to appreciate the Bible for its artistic qualities, to view it as the work of great writers (and poets, too). Whatever our religious beliefs, if we cannot afford to neglect the Bible: its purely literary impact on English authors is almost too great to be measured.

But Bible translation had been a risky adventure for centuries. Early in the 15^th century it was laid down by the authorities that anyone attempting to translate the Bible was to be punished with excommunication. Thus William Tyndale (1484—1536) had no alternative but to go overseas to translate the Bible. He translated the New Testament but later he fell into the hands of the papal authorities; he was condemned to death for heresy, strangled, and burnt.

In 1604, King James I of England appointed 47 learned men to produce an English version of the Bible. The translators appointed to produce the Authorized Version were godly men. They were divided into three groups: seventeen were to work at Westminster Abbey, fifteen at Cambridge University, and fifteen at the University of Oxford. At each place, the groups were further divided by two so that there were six companies of translators. There probably has never been assembled at one time a greater group of English-speaking scholars of biblical languages. These men were head and shoulders higher in their expertise of Greek and Hebrew than any other body of English translators before or since. All of the translators held divinity degrees and thirty-nine of the forty-seven held doctor of divinity degrees. They all were either pastors and preachers, or professors in theological colleges. Seven years later the translation known as the Authorized Version was printed. Since that time the King James Bible has been deeply revered among the English-speaking peoples of the world.

The translators were committed to producing a precise translation, but by no means a paraphrase or a broadly approximate rendering. So the Authorized Version, throughout several revisions of its English translation, is a combination of original form and utmost precision. The translators disciplined their talents to provide well-chosen English words of their time, as well as graceful, often musical arrangement of language, which has stirred the hearts of Bible readers through the years. In fact, some lines are even structured as contemporary poetry.

But we are talking about love, aren't we? Most of it, in the Bible, is contained in the Old Testament. Old Hebrew poetry had a richness and sensuous quality appropriate to a warm and passionate land. This, through the Old Testament, found its way into the literature of a cold northern country. Since then, so many people, Christian and non-Christian, have fallen heavily under its spell. Just read the following lines!