Ploughboy’s Book
The Bible in English: Its History and Influence
by David Daniell
Yale University Press, 2003
(962 pages, $50.00, hardcover)
reviewed by Janice Horton
David Daniell’s massive The Bible in English is a chronicle that would be hard to invent, filled with kings and sailors, sacrifice and providence. It’s a complicated story, rich in detail, sometimes overwhelmingly so. Even so, Daniell, Professor Emeritus of English at University College, London, and honorary fellow of two colleges at Oxford, tells it from the perspective of a language scholar—less focus on the persecutions, more attention to the prose. Even without the photographs—there are 40 pages showing early Bible manuscripts and illustrations—you can tell that Daniell has seen and admired ancient texts.
