Passing from these general considerations, let us look directly at the English Bible itself and its literary qualities.The first thing that attracts attention is its use of words, and since words lie at the root of all literature it is worth while to stop for them for a moment.Two things are to be said about the words: first, that they are few; and, secondly, that they are short.The vocabulary of the English Bible is not an extensive one.Shakespeare uses from fifteen to twenty thousand words.In Milton's verse he uses about thirteen thousand.In the Old Testament, in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongue, there are fifty-six hundred and forty- two words.In the New Testament, in the Greek, there are forty-eight hundred.But in the whole of the King James version there are only about six thousand different words.The vocabulary is plainly a narrow one for a book of its size.While, as was said before, the translators avoided using the same word always for translation of the same original, they yet managed to recur to the same words often enough so that this comparatively small list of six thousand words, about one-third Shakespeare's vocabulary, sufficed for the stating of the truth.
Then, Secondly, the words are short, and in general short words are the strong ones.The average word in the whole Bible, including the long proper names, is barely over four letters, and if all the proper names are excluded the average word is just a little under four letters.Of course, another way of saying that is that the words are generally Anglo-Saxon, and, while in the original spelling they were much longer, yet in their sound they were as brief as they are in our present spelling.There is no merit in Anglo- Saxon words except in the fact that they are concrete, definite, non-abstract words.They are words that mean the same to everybody; they are part of common experience.We shall see the power of such words by comparing a simple statement in Saxon words from the English Bible with a comment of a learned theologian of our own time on them.The phrase is a simple one in the Communion service: "This is my body which is given for you." That is all Saxon.When our theologian comes to comment on it he says we are to understand that "the validity of the service does not lie in the quality of external signs and sacramental representation, but in its essential property and substantial reality." Now there are nine words abstract in their meaning, Latin in their form.It is in that kind of words that the Bible could have been translated, and in our own day might even be translated.Addison speaks of that: "If any one would judge of the beauties of poetry that are to be met with in the divine writings, and examine how kindly the Hebrew manners of speech mix and incorporate with the English language, after having perused the Book of Psalms, let him read a literal translation of Horace or Pindar.He will find in these two last such an absurdity and confusion of style with such a comparative poverty of imagination, as will make him very sensible of what I have been here advancing."[1]
[1] The Spectator, No.405.
The fact that the words are short can be quickly illustrated by taking some familiar sections.In the Ten Commandments there are three hundred and nineteen words in all; two hundred and fifty-nine of them are words of one syllable, and only sixty are of two syllables and over.There are fifty words of two syllables, six of three syllables, of which four are such composite words that they really amount to two words of one and twosyllables each, with four words of four syllables, and none over that.Make a comparison just here.There is a paragraph in Professor March's lectures on the English language where he is urging that its strongest words are purely English, not derived from Greek or Latin.He uses the King James version as illustration.If, now, we take three hundred and nineteen words at the beginning of that paragraph to compare with the three hundred and nineteen in the Ten Commandments, the result will be interesting.Where the Ten Commandments have two hundred and fifty-nine words of one syllable, Professor March has only one hundred and ninety-four; over against the fifty two-syllable words in the Ten Commandments, Professor March has sixty-five; over against their six words of three syllables, he has thirty-five; over against their four words of four syllables, he uses eighteen; and while the Ten Commandments have no word longer than four syllables, Professor March needs five words of five syllables and two words of six syllables to express his ideas.[1]
[1] This table will show the comparison at a glance:
56 The
319 Professor
The same thing appears in the familiar 23d Psalm, where there are one hundred and nineteen words in all, of which ninety-five are words of one syllable, and only three of three syllables, with none longer.In the Sermon on the Mount eighty two per cent.of the words in our English version are words of one syllable.
The only point urged now is that this kind of thing makes for strength in literature.Short words are strong words.They have a snap and a grip to them that long words have not.Very few men would grow angry over having a statement called a "prevarication" or "a disingenuous entanglement of ideas," but there is something about the word "lie" that snaps in a man's face."Unjustifiable hypothecation" may be the same as stealing, but it would never excite one to be called "an unjustifiable hypothecator" as it does to be called a thief.At the very foundation of the strength of the literature of the English Bible there lies this tendency to short, clear-cut words.
