Comments
That is indeed stunning. John is the most poetic of the Gospels. The King James translation isn't especially accurate, but it's powerful. It deserves a good illuminated edition.
I'd love a set of annotations of the inspirations for each illumination. Medieval illuminations are heavily coded and full of allusions that would go over my head.
By romaaeterna 2025-04-2311:101 reply The KJV is an exceptionally good translation, and its flaws are particular and well-known. It was made at a time when all the most intelligent people of the world were doing Latin Greek and Hebrew, instead of say physics or javascript.
What I love about the KJV is that Queen Elizabeth had encouraged an entire nation of poets, and they were still around for James. It was cool to write poetry, and everybody did it. (She banged out a few decent verses herself, for that matter.)
Even today, KJV is the "voice of God". When you want to write a divine voice, you mimic KJV. "Thou shalt not..." just sounds more authoritative than "Don't", even though they mean the same thing. (I'd argue that "don't" better preserves the meaning, which was not meant to sound archaic. "Thou" sounded informal in the 17th century, but that's not how it sounds now.)
The flaws in KJV run deep; it's a very opinionated translation. Which is fine; every translation is opinionated. But there's a risk that people assume it's definitive because it's so powerful. There are some who literally claim that it is truly definitive -- even more so than the Hebrew and Greek originals. (This is of course insane, and that's the fault of horrific theology rather than the translation.)
By romaaeterna 2025-04-241:56 Most of my reading is in Greek and Latin (no Hebrew), and I disagree with your evaluation. My evaluation remains as above.
I had heard KJV had some translation issues, but I'm surprised to hear that about John. I tried to learn Koine Greek, and a lot of the lessons started with John 1, so I always assumed it was one of the easier things to translate.
By jfengel 2025-04-233:51 You could spend a whole semester just on John 1:1. The word "logos" is all over the place.
By windkid 2025-04-232:45 Indeed. But, the text is so illuminated it borders on unreadable, like something straight out of Part 4 of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, where the ritual overtakes the flight itself.
By credit_guy 2025-04-233:351 reply For those who live in or visit New York City, a little known gem worth checking out is a mini-museum inside the New York Public Library in midtown, next to Bryant Park. It is a single room, called "Treasures". Here's an illuminated manuscript from the 1300's [1].
By etrautmann 2025-04-235:471 reply Passed by many times and never knew - will definitely check this out!
By credit_guy 2025-04-240:45 Here's a little treat, if you go there. You may have heard of the Rhind mathematical papyrus [1]. It's a papyrus that's more than 3500 years old which has some math exercises on it. It's the oldest that we have discovered.
At this "Treasures" mini-museum you will find a small cuneiform tablet with math exercises that's at least 100 years older than the Rhind mathematical papyrus.
There is a Gutenberg bible there. I would say there are at least 10 items more impressive than the Gutenberg bible; I count this tablet as one of those.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhind_Mathematical_Papyrus
By iterateoften 2025-04-234:372 reply I thought this was the St John’s Illuminated Bible a much more comprehensive and awe inspiring work out of the St John’s abbey in Minnesota.
Its a beautiful and modern interpretation of how an illuminated work would be done today. Even has Jesus wearing jeans.
Each bible is commissioned and done by hand, so a bit more than a $35 book the link is referring to.
By mcphage 2025-04-2312:44 They also sell a 7 volume version of the St. John's Bible—even at 2/3 scale, the books are around 15"x10". It's beautiful, and I'm glad to own the entire set. (I'm not a Christian, I just love illuminated manuscripts).
By ForOldHack 2025-04-235:53 [flagged]
