WORDS THE BIBLE HAS GIVEN US.
A great English historian, writing of the sixteenth century, once
said, "The English people became the people of a book." The book he
meant was, of course, the Bible. When England became Protestant the
people found a new interest in the Bible. In Catholic times educated
people, like priests, had read the Bible chiefly in Latin, though the
New Testament had been translated into English. But most of the people
could not even read. They knew the Bible stories only from the sermons
and teaching of the priests, and from the great number of statues of
Biblical kings and prophets which covered the beautiful churches of
the Middle Ages.
But the new Protestant teachers were much more enthusiastic about the
Bible. Many of them found the whole of their religion in its pages,
and were constantly quoting texts of Scripture. New translations of
the New Testament were made, and at last, in 1611, the wonderful
translation of the whole Bible known as the "Authorised Version,"
because it was the translation ordered and approved by the
Government, was published. About the same time a translation into
English was made for Catholics, and this was hardly less beautiful. It
is known as the "Douai Bible" because it was published at Douai by
Catholics who had fled from England.
From that time the Bible has been the book which English people have
read most, and it has had an immense influence on the English
language.
Even in the Middle Ages the Bible had given many new words to the
language. Names of Eastern animals, trees, and plants, etc., like
_lion_, _camel_, _cedar_, _palm_, _myrrh_, _hyssop_, _gem_, are
examples of new words learned from the Bible at this time.
But the translations of the Bible in the Reformation period had a much
greater effect than this. Many words which were already dying out were
used by the translators, and so kept their place in the English
language. Examples of such words are _apparel_ and _raiment_ for
"clothes." These words are not used so often as the more ordinary word
_clothes_ even now, but it is quite probable that they would have
passed out of use altogether if the translators of the Bible had not
saved them.
There are many words of this sort which were saved in this way, but
they are chiefly used in poetry and "fine" writing. We do not speak of
the "firmament" in an ordinary way; but this word, taken from the
first chapter of the Bible, is still used as a more poetical name for
_sky_.
But the translators of the Bible must also be put among the makers of
new English words. Sometimes the translator could not find what he
considered a satisfactory word to express the meaning of the Greek
word he wished to translate. He, therefore, made a new word, or put
two old words together to express exactly what he thought the Greek
word meant. The word _beautiful_ may not have been actually invented
by the translator, William Tyndale, but it is not found in any book
earlier than his translation of the New Testament. It seems a very
natural and necessary word to us now. It was Tyndale who first used
the words _peacemaker_ and _scapegoat_ and the compound word
_long-suffering_; and another famous translator, Miles Coverdale, who
invented the expressions _loving-kindness_ and _tender mercy_.
But the great effect which the Bible has had on the English language
is not in the preserving of old words and the making of new. Its chief
effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have
passed into everyday use, so that people often use Biblical phrases
without even knowing that they are doing so, just as we saw was the
case with many phrases taken from Shakespeare's works.
Every one knows the expression to _cast pearls before swine_, and its
meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to
appreciate them." This expression, taken from the Gospel of St.
Matthew, has now become an ordinary English expression. The same is
the case with the expression, _the eleventh hour_, meaning "just in
time." But perhaps not every one who uses it remembers that it comes
from the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, though, of course,
most people would.
Other common Biblical expressions are, _a labour of love_, _to hope
against hope_, _the shadow of death_, and so on. When a child is
described as the _Benjamin_ of the family, we know that this means the
youngest and best loved, because the story of Jacob's love for
Benjamin is familiar to every one. Again, when a person is described
as a _Pharisee_ no one needs to have a description of his qualities,
for every one knows the story of the Pharisee and the Publican.
The Bible is, of course, full of the most poetical ideas and the most
vivid language, and the fact that this language has become the
everyday speech of Englishmen has been most important in the
development of the English language. Without the Bible, which is full
of the richness and colour of Eastern things and early peoples, the
English language might have been much duller and less expressive.
But the religious writers of the Reformation period gave us another
kind of word besides those found in the translations of the Bible.
Many of these writers thought it was their duty to abuse the people
who did not agree with them on the subject of religion. Tyndale
himself, who invented such beautiful words in his translations, was
the first to use the word _dunce_. He called the Catholics by this
name, which he made out of the name of a philosopher of the Middle
Ages called Duns Scotus. The Protestants despised the Catholic or
scholastic philosophy. But Duns Scotus was quite a clever man in his
day, and it is curious that his name should have given us the word
_dunce_, which became quite a common word as time went on.
Other new words which the Protestants used against the Catholics were
_Romish_, _Romanist_ (which Luther had used, but which Coverdale was
the first to use in English), _popery_, _popishness_, _papistical_,
_monkish_, all of which are still used to-day, and still have an
anti-Catholic meaning. It was then that Rome was first described as
_Babylon_, the meaning of the Protestants being that the city was as
wicked as ancient Babylon, the name of which is used as a type of all
wickedness in the Apocalypse, and these writers often used the words
_Babylonian_ and _Babylonish_ instead of _Roman_. The name _Scarlet
Woman_, also taken from the Apocalypse, was also often used to
describe the Catholic Church.
The expression _Roman Catholic_, to which no one objects, was invented
later, at the time that it was thought that Charles I. was going to
marry a Spanish princess, and, of course, a Catholic. It was invented
as being more polite than the terms by which the Protestants had so
often abused the Catholics, and it has been used ever since.
Other new words came from the breaking up of Protestantism into
different sects. _Puritan_ was the name given to those who wished to
"purify" the Protestant religion from all the old ceremonies of
Catholicism. The Calvinists (or followers of the French reformer, John
Calvin) believed that souls were "predestined" to go to heaven or to
be lost. The people who were predestined to be lost they described as
_reprobate_, and this word we still use, but with a different meaning.
A reprobate nowadays is a person who is looked upon as hopelessly bad,
and the word is also sometimes used jokingly.
The name _Protestant_ itself is interesting. It was first used to
describe the Lutherans, who "protested" against, and would not agree
with, the decisions made by the Emperor Charles V. on the subject of
religion.
The names of the different forms of Protestantism are often very
interesting, and were, of course, new words invented to describe the
different forms of belief. The first great division was between the
_Lutherans_ and the _Calvinists_. The meaning of these names is plain.
They were merely the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin.
But later on there were many divisions, such as the _Baptists_, who
were so called because they thought that people should not be baptized
until they were grown up. They also administered the sacrament in a
different way from most other Churches, the person baptized being
dipped in the water. At one time these people were called
_Anabaptists_, _ana_ being the Greek word for "again." But this was
supposed to be a term of abuse similar to those showered on the Roman
Catholics, and in time it died out.
Then there were the _Independents_, who were so called because they
believed that each congregation should be independent of every other.
Perhaps the most peculiar name applied to one of the many sects in the
England of the seventeenth century was that of the _Quakers_. This,
too, was a name of abuse at first; but the "Society of Friends," to
whom it was applied, came sometimes to use it themselves. They were a
people who believed in great simplicity of life and manners and dress,
and had no priests. At their religious meetings silence was kept until
some one was moved to speak. The name was taken from the text,
"quaking at the word of the Lord."
The names chosen by religious leaders, and those applied to the sects
by their enemies, can teach us a great deal of history.