On Englishing the Bible by Ronald Knox

(London: Burnes Oates, 1949), 101

Chapter 1: Thoughts on Bible Translation

Summary: Knox argues for a dynamic translation philosophy.

  • Knox translates from the Vulgate: "For all official purposes a Bible translation must take the Vulgate as its standard." (1)
  • "It is no part of the translator's business to alter, on however good grounds, his original," being the Vulgate or the Septuagint for the Psalms (2)
  • You can choose between literala and literary translation methods: "If you are translating for the benefit of a person who wants to be able to read the Word of God for ten minutes on end without leaving it aside in sheer boredom or bewilderment, a literary translation is what you want." (3)
  • Translation goal: "What would an Englishman have said to express this?" (4, cf. Hilaire Belloc)
  • "Practically every translation of the Bible you've ever read makes errors which are quite ludicrous—only we are accustomed to them...But there are hundreds and hundreds of Hebrisms which we do not notice because we have allowed ourselves to grow accustomed to them. We should have thought it odd if we had read in The Times, 'General Montgomery's right hand has smitten Rommel in the hinder parts'; But if we get that sort of thing in the Bible, we take it, unlike Rommel, sitting down." (6-7)
  • "It is, I submit, a grave error to stick to a form of words, in itself unnatural English, merely because a thousand repetitions have familiarized the public ear with the sound of it." (8)
  • Dynamic translation: "The translator's business is to recondition, as often as not, whole sentences, so as to allow for the characteristic emphasis of his own language." (9)
  • "Words are not coins, dead things whose value can be mathematically computed...Words are living things, full of shades of meaning, full of associations. They are apt to change their significance from one generation to the next...Only a meaningless token-word like righteousness can pretend to cover all these meanings. To use such a token-word is to abrogate your duty as a translator." (11)
  • "The translator must never be frightened of the word 'paraphrase'." (12)
  • Knox keeps 'thou' instead of 'you' because he "felt sure you could not get it past the British public." (16)

Chapter 2: Some New Testament Problems

Summary: Translation requires interpretation, so don't hide behind a 'literal' translation and pretend you aren't interpreting—rather, lean into the interpretation and speak English.

  • "The Authorized Version is good English only because English writers, for centuries, have treated it as the standard of good English...In itself, it is no better English than the Douay. Only the Douay was written in a language of exiles, which became, with time, an exiled language." (20)
  • "You cannot be a translator without being, to some extent, an interpreter; and the ways of the Catholic interpreter are not always plain or easy." (21)
  • "It is easy to say that the Vulgate must always be followed, because it enshrines Catholic tradition. But this is not always true. Almost any Catholic, if asked whether our Lady stayed with Elizabeth until after St. John was born, would reply, 'Of course she did'. But if he will look in the Vulgate, or in the Douay, he will find that she did not. In the Greek, you can read it either way, since the aorists in Luke i. 37 can legitimately be taken as pluperfect. But St. Jerome represents them as perfects; can the translator go behind St. Jerome here, in order to follow a tradition? Or must he, at best, 'do a straddle' — invent some formula which would fit either interpretation? And can he do that, without ceasing to be literal? So much for ambiguities. But even where the sense is indisputable, the translator will be conscious that there is a right way and a wrong way of putting things; and the chances are that the literal way will be the wrong way." (23)
  • Unlike Robert Alter, Knox doesn't like the and's in Genesis: "The ubiquitous waw leaves its trail, not only of monotony but of obscurity." (27, cf. parataxis in 2023-05-24-The Art of Bible Translation)

Chapter 3: Justice and Scandal in the Gospels

Summary: Mostly skipped this chapter: a detailed analysis of the rise of certain words in the Gospels.

Chapter 4: Challoner and the Douay version.

Summary: Knox has a low view of the Douay (because of its lack of results), but also of the KJV (because of its 'totalitarianism').

Chapter 5: Some Reasons Why

Summary: Translation is hard!

Chapter 6: Nine Years' Hard

Summary: Translating the Bible is difficult! You need to translate the whole of it, not just parts, and as an Englishman would speak.

Chapter 7: Morsu Amarissimo

Summary: Example critiques of several verses of his translation.

Chapter 8: Farewell to Machabees

_Summary: _

Topic: Bible Translations

Source

New Words

  • cumbrousness: being cumbersome (4)
  • jocose: given to joking; merry (8)

Created: 2024-01-24-Wed
Updated: 2025-12-31-Wed