[Wanderer]

Originally posted by E. Albright:
(KJV comes to mind, published, what, seven years after the first English dictionary)?

There was a long programme on British TV Last night about the development of the English language - I caught literally the Last two minutes, which was all about the King James Bible (I'm presuming [dangerously] that's what you mean by KJV).

Anyway, apparently the language in it was already 80 years out of date (e.g. used 'thou' instead of 'you' even though no-one said 'thou' anymore) - a deliberate attempt to make it sound more impressive. "Thou shalt not steal" sounds much better than "Oi, don't pinch stuff" or "Don't steal". But it just goes to show that the attempt was made to get a message across, not to make a direct translation of "God's words". That's very important if you're trying to take it all literally.