I picked up a little book on writing in a thrift store last spring. I think I payed all of one dollar for a hardback… The book is On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser, a former professor at Yale, well known editor, etc. If you can find this book, I highly recommend it. It is actually a very enjoyable read with some laugh out loud sections on various points of writing. I don’t know if it has improved my writing, although I do find myself paying more attention to how I phrase things.
In a section where Zinsser pushes writing with active verbs, he has this interesting little quote:
If you want to see how active verbs give vitality to the written word, don’t just go back to Hemingway or Thurber or Thoreau, I commend the King James Bible and William Shakespeare. [p. 112]
Zinsser is not a believer, I am sure. But this observation is interesting. I would like to know how well the modern versions have followed this pattern by the KJV translators. Perhaps this element of the KJV explains some of its enduring quality. While I am not against the need to modernize, I do love the KJV phraseology on so many points. Sometimes the newer versions seem just kind of wimpy and anemic. Perhaps we could start a new slogan, “Real men read the KJV.”
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
What are you doing, Don? Trying to make me like you more? Real Men, Positive KJV. I’m going to cry like a woman over this.
Hi Kent
hey man, I thought that one would light you up.
But like I said, I am not against modernizing the version, and I think there are a couple of good attempts out there.
Nevertheless, the KJV is a monumental accomplishment. I am overwhelmed by it quite often and there are phrases in there that really can’t be improved on.
BTW, I just finished Olga Opfel’s The King James Bible Translators. Have you ever read that one? Quite an interesting insight into the men and the times. A little too brief, but I guess there is not much info on the translators more than what she gathered together.
I have a couple of quotes from Opfel that I plan to blog on in the near future. Good stuff.
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3