Naomi Tadmor. The Social Universe of the English Bible

Naomi Tadmor's excellent study demonstrates the impact of English cultural idioms on biblical translation, as well as the reciprocal reverberation of that Anglicized text upon early modern society. The central element of the book is the endeavor, from the Reformation to the early seventeenth century, to provide a vernacular Bible for English Protestants. Beginning with William Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch, Tadmor summarizes the projects that followed, up to publication of the Authorized (King James) Version in 1611. She notes the proliferation of vernacular Bibles, which made relatively inexpensive editions available to a large proportion of English households by the early seventeenth century. This accessibility, along with the profusion of religious knowledge and training, ensured the central importance of biblical language in early modern English culture. The synopsis of these translative enterprises and their success is the main focus of the book. Its essential argument is that the vernacularization of the Bible's texts from their original languages also saw the “Anglicization” of the Bible, which involved not only the transposition of words and linguistic meaning but also a projection of early modern English cultural meanings and idioms. This resulted in the “construction of a social universe” that included “state formation, changing community relations, the consolidation of marriage and gender roles, and changing labour relations” (p. 20). Each of the subsequent chapters of the book provides a case study of this process.

Art · Early Modern English · Linguistics · Literature · Sociology · Vernacular · Classics · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy