It is a tribute to Gloucestershire born William Tyndale that nearly eighty per cent of the King James’ Bible originates from his 1525 Bible. Many of the expressions found in the King James’ Bible, for instance, fight the good fight, were coined by him. It also retained many of the older linguistic forms from Tyndale’s Bible, for example, the –eth verb ending and the pronoun ye, despite other texts of the early 1600s using the contemporary –s verb ending and you pronoun. The use of Tyndale’s language produced the King James’ Bible’s traditional and dignified style, which has endeared it to its readers for the last four hundred years.
For futher details, please see
Brake, Donald L. (2008) A Visual History of the English Bible The Tumultuous Tale of the World’s Best Selling Book. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Crystal, David (2010) Begat The King James’ Bible and the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, David (2010) Evolving English One Language Many Voices. London: British Library.
Crystal, David (2003) The Cambridge Encylopedia of the English Language. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Metzger, Bruce M. (2001) The Bible in Translation Ancient and English Versions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
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