Stories That Words Tell Us

of course, the Bible. When England became Protestant the people found a new interest in the Bible. In Catholic times educated people, like prie

he priests, and from the great number of statues of Biblical kings

w Testament were made, and at last, in 1611, the wonderful translation of the whole Bible known as the "Authorised Version," because it was the translation ordered and approved by the Government, was published. A

ch English people have read most, and it has h

s of Eastern animals, trees, and plants, etc., like lion, camel, cedar, palm, my

ators, and so kept their place in the English language. Examples of such words are apparel and raiment for "clothes." These words are not used so often as the m

poetry and "fine" writing. We do not speak of the "firmament" in an ordinary way; but this wo

or put two old words together to express exactly what he thought the Greek word meant. The word beautiful may not have been actually invented by the translator, William Tyndale, but it is not found in any book earlier than his translation of the New Testament. It

s chief effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have passed into everyday use, so that people often use Bibli

ion, taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew, has now become an ordinary English expression. The same is the case with the expression, the eleventh hour, meaning "ju

of the family, we know that this means the youngest and best loved, because the story of Jacob's love for Benjamin is familiar to every one. Again, whe

everyday speech of Englishmen has been most important in the development of the English language. Without the Bible, which is full

ject of religion. Tyndale himself, who invented such beautiful words in his translations, was the first to use the word dunce. He called the Catholics by this name, which he made out of the name of a philosopher of the Middle Ages called Dun

used to-day, and still have an anti-Catholic meaning. It was then that Rome was first described as Babylon, the meaning of the Protestants being that the city was as wicked as ancient Babylon, the name of which is used as a typ

t Charles I. was going to marry a Spanish princess, and, of course, a Catholic. It was invented as being more p

atholicism. The Calvinists (or followers of the French reformer, John Calvin) believed that souls were "predestined" to go to heaven or to be lost. The people who were predestined to be lost they

be the Lutherans, who "protested" against, and would not agree with, t

vented to describe the different forms of belief. The first great division was between the Lutherans and the Ca

y also administered the sacrament in a different way from most other Churches, the person baptized being dipped in the water. At one time these people were called Ana

called because they believed that each congr

but the "Society of Friends," to whom it was applied, came sometimes to use it themselves. They were a people who believed in great simplicity of life and manners and dre

d those applied to the sects by their ene