Endnote 20 – Bah, Humbug!

In the King James Version, italics are placed not for emphasis but to mark English words without basis in the original Hebrew and Greek inserted for ease of comprehension. For me, one of the most affecting documents in all English literature is the King James preface, “The Translators to the Reader,” in which the committee airs its doubts as to whether it was even possible to render the Bible in English, and whether numerous uncertainties should have been concealed from readers.