5/26/2023 0 Comments Geneva bibleModern English: The waters also waxed strong, and were increased exceedingly upon the earth, and the Ark went upon the waters.And the watris hadden maistrie greetli on erthe, and alle hiye hillis vndur alle heuene weren hilid Forsothe the schip was borun on the watris. Middle English: The watris flowiden greetli, and filliden alle thingis in the face of erthe.Old English: Flod ealle wreah, hreoh under heofonum hea beorgas geond sidne grund and on sund ahof earce from eorðan.The Old English is Caedmon’s poem-translation the Middle English is from John Wycliffe’s translation, and the Modern English is from the Geneva Bible. The English of the Geneva Bible-and the KJV and Shakespeare-may have slightly funny spellings, but it’s definitely the language we know and love it just constantly reminds us that we didn’t learn vocabulary in school very well.įor example, Genesis 7:18-19. When you see Middle English, you see a bunch of words that are spelled wrong but that kind of look like words you might know, some words you totally can’t figure out, and when you put the whole thing together, you have the sneaking suspicion you have no idea what it all actually meant. Here’s the way you can tell-Old English is also known as Anglo-Saxon, and you couldn’t even begin to read it it’s like German or something. (And artful use of the language as a whole.)Īnd while I’m at it, the English of the Geneva Bible is not Old English! And it’s not even Middle English. If our children read the Geneva Bible, they will learn a much richer vocabulary. The working vocabulary of the average English speaker today is about 3,000 words. Similarly, Shakespeare’s plays were attended by audiences not just of the nobility, but from the lower classes as well. And average people did, indeed, buy and read these Bibles. We know this because Tyndale, Knox, and the other Bible translators of that time were translating into the language that average people understood. Let’s start with the most obvious one-the working vocabulary of the average English speaker at the time the Geneva Bible and Shakespeare’s plays were written was about 18,000 words. Having made that decision, though, there are many more benefits our homeschool grammar school students enjoy because of using the Geneva Bible, especially when it comes to language. My husband and I gave great consideration to the question of Bible translation, and-as I explained in the previous article-the main reason why we chose the Geneva Bible is because we think it is the most accurate English translation. Wouldn’t it be better for our children to learn the Bible in the everyday language they’re familiar with? Many people ask why Grammar of Grace uses the Geneva Bible for its English Bible translation, which is a bit, err… different for modern readers.
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