Non-Fiction Matters

Daniell traces in considerable detail the various incarnations that the Biblical text has seen in English. He does not restrict himself only to the various translations and editions that appeared over the centuries. Instead, he ranges much more widely. He starts with the earliest glosses of Old English upon Latin texts, notably the Lindisfarne Gosepls, and continues up to the popular translations of the 1990s, for which he has virtually no sympathy. His criticisms of such versions as The Message seem to hinge on three axes. First, he consistently argues for an elegance and readability of English that he saw best personified in the translation performed by Tyndale. Second, he argues for the use of the best possible texts--that is the Hebrew and Greek mss. of the best authority--as the starting point. Third, he seeks a version that emphasizes the theological import of the text rather than--again like The Message--focusing on pop psych and therapeutic approaches.
Daniell also ranges widely by talking about not only the versions themselves but the way in which the Bible effected and affected society, art, and especially literature. In so doing, he seems to make a tacit argument for the English Bible as the great unifying feature of literature in English, especially British literature. His commentary includes such authors as Sydney, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, Pope, Blake, Ruskin, and, in less depth, Dickens and George Eliot.

If the 800-plus pages of Daniell's book seem a bit much, you might check out another fine work, about half the size, by Bobrick.  In this book, the time span is limited to the emergence of the first true English Bible translation, that of Wycliffe up through the 1611 King James.  Perhaps more important, Bobrick is more judicious than Daniell in choosing what topics to cover in great depth.