Re: OT: Opinions wanted: person of vocatives

On Wed, 2 Jul 2003, Mark J. Reed wrote":
>
> There are, of course, many other English translations.  Curiously,
> though, I can't seem to locate the one that has "tresspasses"
> and "those who trespass against us" in lieu of "debts" and
> "debtors"
The source of the "trespasses" version, or at least the reason it is so
widespread, is its use in the the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of
England, which meant it was the standard form for most English Protestants
from the 16th century onward. In the US it is used by the Episcopal Church
and other churches deriving from the C of E tradition, such as the
Methodists, and it has been picked up by other traditions (I have heard it
used in Greek Orthodox churches in English language services.)
I do not know offhand whether the "trespasses" translation was done
directly from the Greek by Cranmer or whether it derives from some early
16th century pre-KJV English translation of the Bible.
Incidentally, the US Episcopal Church adopted a new version of the Book of
Common Prayer in 1979 which caused the same sort of emotional response,
schism etc. as the end of the Tridentine Mass. However, the Lord's Prayer
continued to be in the prayer book in both the traditional and modernized
versions, and in my experience the traditional form is still widely used.
I personally am neutral on the changes; I joined the Episcopal Church
about the time the new prayer book was adopted, so I do not have the
fond childhood memories of the old book that most Episcopalians my age do.
I can understand both sides of the argument (tradition vs. comprehension);
my own feeling is that ultimately a new translation would become
inevitable; the only question is whether the old version had already
reached the stage of posing real difficulties in understanding. Since many
of my students have trouble understanding 19th century English, let alone
16th, I suspect it had, though I could understand the old form well
enough myself.
John Leland.

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