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The Life Foundations
Nexus
WE ARE FOR A NEW
“TRANSDIALECTION” OF THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE
Copyright
June 18, 2005 5:25 PM CST
By Dr.
Michael J. Bisconti
Updated
August 23, 2005 7:43 PM CST
Copyright
August 23, 2005 7:43 PM CST
By Dr. Michael J. Bisconti
Note that the word “translation” can be correctly used in place of
the term “transdialection.” However,
this can and, for us, has caused confusion for some of our
readers. Therefore, as of Saturday,
June 18, 2005, 5:25 PM CST, we are restricting ourselves to the use of the term
“transdialection” in place of the word “translation.” The term “transdialect” and its derivatives were coined by Dr.
Bisconti on January 1, 1995.
Any new version of
the Bible that we advocate on our website IS NOT A NEW TRANSLATION
OF THE BIBLE. Rather, it is a NEW “TRANSDIALECTION”
OF THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE.
Transdialection is “the
process of converting verbal communication in one dialect of a language into
another dialect of that language.” A
“dialect of a language” is “one of two or more forms of a single
language.” Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition defines the word “dialect” as:
a regional variety of
language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single
language
Here is an example of
transdialection:
Southern American English
“Hello, y'all.”
Transdialection to Standard (Midwestern)
American English
“Hello, all of you” or,
more commonly, “Hello, everyone.”
THE PAST TRANSDIALECTION OF THE KING
JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE
The King James Version of
the Bible has ALREADY undergone transdialection. Here is Genesis 1:1-17 in 1611 English:
(1) In the beginning God created the Heauen, and
the Earth.
(2) And the earth was without forme, and voyd,
and darkenesse was vpon the face of the deepe: and the Spirit of God mooued
vpon the face of the waters.
(3) And God said, Let there be light: and there
was light.
(4) And God saw the light, that it was good: and
God diuided the light from the darkenesse.
(5) And God called the light, Day, and the
darknesse he called Night: and the euening and the morning were the first day.
(6) And God said, Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters: and let it diuide the waters from the waters.
(7) And God made the firmament; and diuided the
waters, which were vnder the firmament, from the waters, which were aboue the
firmament: and it was so.
(8) And God called the firmament, Heauen: and
the euening and the morning were the second day.
(9) And God said, Let the waters vnder the
heauen be gathered together vnto one place, and let the dry land appeare: and
it was so.
(10) And God called the drie land, Earth, and the
gathering together of the waters called hee, Seas: and God saw that it was
good.
(11) And God said, Let the Earth bring foorth
grasse, the herbe yeelding seed, and the fruit tree, yeelding fruit after his
kinde, whose seed is in it selfe, vpon the earth: and it was so.
(12) And the earth brought foorth grasse, and
herbe yeelding seed after his kinde, and the tree yeelding fruit, whose seed
was in it selfe, after his kinde: and God saw that it was good.
(13) And the euening and the morning were the
third day.
(14) And God said, Let there bee lights in the
firmament of the heauen, to diuide the day from the night: and let them be for
signes and for seasons, and for dayes and yeeres.
(15) And let them be for lights in the firmament
of the heauen, to giue light vpon the earth: and it was so.
(16) And God made two great lights: the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the
starres also.
(17) And God set them in the firmament of the heauen,
to giue light vpon the earth:
Notice the following
words. KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE ARE NOT
OLD TRANSLATIONS. THESE ARE OLD SPELLINGS
THAT ARE, OF COURSE, IDENTICAL IN MEANING TO THE WORDS IN THE KING JAMES
VERSION OF THE BIBLE THAT WE USE TODAY.
(1) Heauen
(2) forme, voyd, darkenesse vpon, deepe, mooued,
vpon
(4) diuided, darkenesse
(5) darknesse, euening
(6) diuide
(7) diuided, vnder, aboue
(8) Heauen, euening
(9) vnder, heauen, vnto, appeare
(10) drie, hee
(11) foorth, grasse, herbe, yeelding, yeelding,
kinde, selfe, vpon
(12) foorth, grasse, herbe, yeelding, kinde,
yeelding, selfe, kinde
(13) euening
(14) bee, heauen, diuide signes, dayes, yeeres
(15) heauen, giue, vpon
(16) starres
(17)
heauen, giue, vpon
In case you are
skeptical, here is a color negative of a page from an actual, 1611 King James
Bible, containing Genesis 1:1-17. The
negative makes the words clear enough for you to see the spelling differences
(a magnifying glass will make the words even easier to read). You can check an entire, actual, 1611 King
James Bible (color IMAGES, not color negatives) at the Schoenberg
Center for Electronic Text & Image.
(The color negative graphic below may take awhile to load but your
patience will be well rewarded.)
THE
KJV II TRANSDIALECTION OF THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE
Here is Genesis 1:1-17 in
the modern, transdialected English of the KJV II Version of the Bible,
Copyright 2000-2004, which we are in the process of replacing with the KJV III Version of the Bible,
Copyright 2000-2005. You will notice
that there are only two transdialections.
They occur in verse
12 (underlined for ease of reference).
These transdialections are the same as those in the Webster Bible of 1833.
The word “his” is
replaced with the word “its.” The first
documented use of the word “its” is in 1598.
That is only 9 years before the KJV translators started their work. The first documented use of the word “his,”
on the other hand, was sometime before 1100.
The word “his” had been around more than 500 years before the KJV
translators started their work.
Obviously, the word “its” was hardly established in the English language
compared to the word “his” when the KJV translators began the task of producing
the King James Version of the Bible.
They obviously had far more reason to choose the word “his,” in use for
500+ years, than they had to choose the word “its,” in use for only 9 years or
so.
Finally, we have NOT
finished are lexical/etymological/semantic research on the words “his” and
“its”; therefore, we cannot YET say with documented certainty, though we can
say so with reasonable certainty, that the replacement of “his” with “its” is
correct. Noah Webster (Webster Bible of 1833) certainly believed it was
correct.
Here is Genesis 1:1-17 in
modern, transdialected English:
(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
(2) And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters.
(3) And God said, Let there be light: and there
was light.
(4) And God saw the light, that it was good: and
God divided the light from the darkness.
(5) And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
(6) And God said, Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
(7) And God made the firmament, and divided the
waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament: and it was so.
(8) And God called the firmament Heaven. And the
evening and the morning were the second day.
(9) And God said, Let the waters under the
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it
was so.
(10) And God called the dry land Earth; and the
gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
(11) And God said, Let the earth bring forth
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his
kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
(12) And the earth
brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind: and God saw
that it was good.
(13) And the evening and the morning were the third
day.
(14) And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
(15) And let them be for lights in the firmament
of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
(16) And God made two great lights; the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the
stars also.
(17)
And God set them in
the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,