David Daniell (1929–2016)

The Bible in English: It's History and Influence by David Daniell is a massive, and comprehensive, book on the history of English Bible translations. At 900 pages, it needs a serious commitment of time to read it from cover-to-cover. The chapters are arranged chronologically, and it has a good index, so it is fairly easy to find specific topics for research.

There were some sections of the book I felt were unnecessary tangents, but most of those tangents were interesting. There were also a show more number of places that had akward grammar and I had to read them a few times to understand what was being communicated. My biggest complaint about the book was the inclusion of endnotes in the book, rather than footnotes at the bottom of each page. If the author has any intent of the reader actually reading the notes, the reader should not have to flip to the end of the book to read them. These are minor complaints for a book that has a wealth of information.

I've read several books on the history of English Bible translations, but this one went into quite a bit of detail I wasn't aware of, which is what I expected from the size. The book is well written and clearly an enormous amount of research went into it. I'd like to give the book 5 stars for the information it contains, but I often felt exhausted after reading it for a while, so I'm giving it 4 stars.

The Bible in English is an academic book meant for serous researchers. People who are casually interested in the history of English Bible translations would be better served by books like A Visual History of the English Bible: The Tumultuous Tale of the World's Best-selling Book by Donald Brake and A Visual History of the King James Bible: Dramatic Story of the World's Best-Known Translation by Donald Brake and Shelly Beach. show less

The author is biased, but he knows his Bibles. Her likes J.B. Philips, doesn't know why anyone bothered with the NIV translation, and he likes the REB. The best book for understanding where the various translation originated, and what sets them apart - good and bad.

The greatest of the earlier translators of the Bible into English, William Tyndale, died in 1536 as a martyr for his work. Immediately after him, however, translations proliferated: the Bible has now been translated into English from its original Greek and Hebrew more than 3000 times. This is the extraordinary story of the Bible in England from approximately the fourth century, and its later translation into English in Britain and America to the 21st century. of the Bible have had on the show more people and communities that read them. He explains the work of major translators, the history of influential translations including Coverdale's, the Geneva Bibles and the King James Bible, and how greatly Americans have contributed in the late-20th century, especially after the American Revised Standard Version. knowledge of the Bible beyond traditional stories mixed with saints' lives, through later years when ordinary people were steeped in Biblical doctrine and language, to the present when popular knowledge of the Bible, we are told, has disappeared - this text reveals how the endeavour of translating the Bible into English has changed religious practice, the arts, society and even the English language itself. show less